CHICAGO – Hank Steinbrenner looks at Joba Chamberlain and sees Josh Beckett and the tonic to a very wobbly Yankees rotation. Everybody else, including GM Brian Cashman, views Chamberlain as Mariano Rivera circa 1996.
Steinbrenner was quoted saying he wanted Chamberlain in the rotation. Yesterday he didn’t back down, even though he didn’t have a specific date.
“We will play it by ear, we don’t want to rush it,” Steinbrenner said.
Cashman said Chamberlain is remaining in the pen and pointed out there is no feud between him and Steinbrenner.
“He is not going (to the rotation),” Cashman said of Chamberlain, the premier set-up man in baseball. “We are all on the same page. We talked about this during the winter and spring training and we are working toward that because that is the (eventual plan). Right now the time and place is to help in the pen. We are all on the same page.
“It makes for a nice New York story, but there is not a disagreement with my boss and myself.”
Yes, the long-range plan is for Chamberlain to be the starter Steinbrenner wants him to be. However, after working as a starter in spring training, Chamberlain opened the season in the pen as Rivera’s set-up man.
Now, the only way to build him into a starter again would be to send Chamberlain to the minor leagues for a month, and that would be foolish because Chamberlain and Rivera are the strongest part of a 10-10 Yankees club that opens a three-game series against the White Sox tonight.
“He can’t go [to the minor leagues],” Cashman said.
“I am not stupid, I pay attention to the bullpen,” Steinbrenner said. “I am not an idiot. But 70 percent of baseball is pitching and 70 percent of pitching is starting pitching.
“The bullpen doesn’t do any good if the starters give up five runs.”
Had Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, youngsters Steinbrenner was willing to trade to the Twins for Johan Santana, pitched better in the opening three weeks, Steinbrenner wouldn’t be panting to see Chamberlain in the rotation, although he first started saying that last October.
But Hughes (0-3) and Kennedy (0-2) have a combined 9.20 ERA, have given up 44 hits, walked 23 and hit a batter in 301/3 innings.
Add Mike Mussina’s dismal start (1-3; 5.75 ERA) to the mix and no wonder Steinbrenner wants to see Chamberlain’s electric arm working every fifth day.
“The rotation will be a work in progress, that’s what they are,” Cashman said of Hughes and Kennedy. “The more experience they get, the better they will be.
“That doesn’t guarantee (change) won’t take place because you have to earn it. But 20 games into it, we need our strength to be our strength and that’s the offense.
“The bullpen and offense are supposed to be our strengths. We need to get the offense going.”
As for Steinbrenner saying if he had been in charge last year, Chamberlain wouldn’t have been converted from starter to reliever in the minor leagues, Cashman pointed to the innings limit on Chamberlain dictating the move.
According to Cashman, had Chamberlain continued as a starter he would have finished his season in August and prepared for spring training. Instead, Chamberlain, in front of Rivera for 19 games (24 innings), was the main reason the Yankees made the playoffs.