Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain, who is currently recovering from Tommy John Surgery, may need to reinvent his pitching style if he ever wants to perform up to the level everyone expects of him.
I believe the best way to go about this is to have him work on his curveball and changeup instead of relying so heavily on his fastball and slider. He threw those two pitches a combined 85.6% of the time. If Joba can regain some of his velocity and can become a little more economical with his pitches, it might be worth giving him another shot in the rotation.
I know this may spark some strong feelings, but if Joba can successfully reinvent himself, it would be like a fresh start for a guy who might be better off in the rotation, pending his velocity.
If a pitcher throws his fastball at about 96-100 miles per hour, he can get away with more mistakes because of the extra velocity. On the other hand, if a pitcher's fastball velocity goes from 92-94 miles per hour, occasionally hitting 95-96, it is a lot easier to cath up to, and those mistakes fly over the center field fence.
I also believe that Larry Rothchild is the perfect pitching coach to help the twenty six year old righty change himself, seeing as he has worked with quite a few phenom pitchers who can't stay healthy (Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, Carlos Zambrano, etc.)
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