This guy is gonna come crashing back to earth. 91 mph fastballs don’t “explode” through the zone. His pace and delivery is flummoxing batters, not unlike okajima’s briefly did. But it’s style – albeit subtle – over substance.

Hideki Okajima so far in 2008: ERA 0.60 / WHIP 1.07

Joba Chamberlain: ERA 3.38 / WHIP 1.13

Okajima’s style is kicking Chamberlain’s substance in the ass.

Bonus round of ignorance:

From Yankees Etc:

Chien Ming-Wang produced another gem, stopping the Yanks three-game skid. It’s kind of sad that he’s the only reliable starter right now. He might be the frontrunner for the Cy Young.

Wang so far in 2008: ERA 3.12 / WHIP 1.13 (hmm, same WHIP as Okajima)

Cliff Lee: ERA 0.81 WHIP 0.60

Perhaps by saying “maybe” the writer meant “not even close”.

Pesky statistics.

Papelbon came on in the 9th to try and protect a 1 run lead. A check swing dribbler, a slow rolling ball barely past the pitchers mound that Lugo fumbled, a bunt, a weak grounder to 2nd, and a shattered bat bloop just beyond Lugo’s reach and just like that Papelbon had his first blown save.

Detroit’s Placido Polanco:

It tells you a lot about our team. We had some really tough at-bats against Papelbon to make something happen.

I have no idea what Placido Polanco is smoking, but I’d like some. Not a single ball was hit solidly, much less hard. The gods of baseball were smiling down on Detroit. It happens, Enjoy it, but take it for what it was; a gift.

Other thoughts:

• Lugo’s error didn’t lose the game. Bad starting pitching and middle relief had far more to do with the loss. That said, Lugo makes it difficult to want him at short. A physical mistake, fine. But Lugo needed to realize he has to get 1 out in that situation. Nonchalantly flipping the ball from his glove to throwing hand is simply inexcusable.
• It’s hard to believe Mike Lowell just recently hit his first home run of the year and yet the Red Sox are in first place. Now that he’s appears to be heating up it bodes well for the offense.
• There is no crying in baseball, but after giving up a home run recently Joba Chamberlain certainly appeared ready to shed a few tears. I almost felt sorry for him. Then I remembered: Two consecutive fastballs at Youk’s head. So screw him.

Beckett goes for the series win tonight.

Joba Chamberlain’s career had been as close to perfect as possible over his first 26 games, but the hard-throwing phenom suffered his first big-league loss Thursday night, giving up the winning run in the ninth inning in the White Sox’s 7-6 victory.”

In the 8th inning Chamberlain looked unhittable. In the ninth he looked surprisingly mortal. There’s no doubt Chamberlain has electric stuff, and starters are generally considered more valuable than setup men or even closers.

But it will be interesting to see how Chamberlain does when/if he’s moved to the starting rotation. The consensus in Yankee Universe is that he’ll be dominant, and I wouldn’t bet against it. But there’s no guarantee he’ll be as successful in seven innings as he’s been in his (so far) typical one inning stints.

Another question is how Chamberlain will react to adversity. He’s dealt with almost no failure up to this point. What’s made Rivera and Papelbon successful is their ability to put failure behind them and not doubt their ability. That’s not as easy as it sounds.