According to Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, the Yankees are completely ignoring the crowd of Yankee fans that want to see Joba Chamberlain come out of the bullpen and are going full steam ahead with the plan to use him in the rotation.
“I understand that (other) side of the argument,” Yankees pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “There’s no denying what he did out of the pen. Could we put him back there right now and have him do the same thing? Sure. But power guys don’t come around that often with the four pitches that he has. When they do, they’re in a rotation somewhere - usually in the top three spots.”
The Yankees plan with Joba this season seems to be to prepare him to make about 30 starts, but to limit his innings near 150. To do that it is possible that they would have to shift him to the bullpen, but the Yankees aren’t worried about that just yet. Right now it appears that they don’t want to make the same mistake they made last season, not getting him enough innings.
“We’ve got to have him get his innings in or we’ll be right back in the same boat we’re in this year,” Eiland said. “His health is going to dictate a lot of that.”
Last season though they had a problem, aside from Kyle Farnsworth the Yankees had a lot of untested guys in the pen. So the allure of keeping Joba in the bullpen was strong. This season that is not the case.
The Yankees got a long look at Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras and they liked what they saw, but those pitchers are just a piece of a deep pen full of young arms. Brian Bruney also stepped up his game showing that he can be a relied upon 8th inning force.
They also added some big presence from the left side of the bullpen with Damaso Marte and Phil Coke. Marte came over in a deal with the Pirates and with a full season with the Bombers in front of him he is expected to be a key piece in the 8th inning. Coke, a prospect called up from the minors, was very impressive in September last year and has followed that up with a strong spring.
Aside from those five pitchers, the Yankees also have quite a few guys in triple-A waiting to break into the bullpen.
Alfredo Aceves seems at least ready to grab the long reliever role and will probably fill that position at some point this season even if he loses the job to veteran Brett Tomko.
There is also David Robertson, with his strong fastball-curveball combo, Jonathan Albaladejo, and Michael Dunn who are on the 40-man roster. All three have decent potential and all three should see some time in the Bronx in 2009.
Behind all of them is possibly the best of them all, Mark Melancon. Melancon had his first full season in the minors in 2008 and rocketed from single-A Tampa to triple-A in just one season. He did it so well that many thought he had a chance to make the team out of spring training.
The fact that he was assigned to the minor league camp this week makes that nearly impossible, but look for the Yankees to be calling him up at some point this season. If he’s not in the bigs by the All-star break expect him to be a September call-up.
Nearly all of these guys were kept out of the conversation entirely last season which is why the Yankees probably felt more comfortable starting the season with Joba in the pen. But, in 2009, the Yankees have no fear and are going ahead with the plan as scheduled.
“There’s always going to be two sides of the argument,” the Yankees pitching coach said. “People can yell and scream all they want, but we have a plan that we believe if we stick to it, it will work.”
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