Hank Steinbrenner: "You Have to Be an Idiot...!"

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I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now. There is no question about it, you don’t have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don’t do that. You have to be an idiot to do that.

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-- Hank Steinbrenner on Joba Chamberlain in Monday's NY Times

More deep thoughts from the great Hank Steinbrenner. It's funny because I always thought that a guy who can throw gas like Joba does indeed belong in the bullpen as a setup man or even a closer-- once Mariano Rivera is done. The Red Sox faced a similar dilemma with Jonathan Papelbon,  although they wanted to make a starter due to health concerns, they eventually decided to keep him in the closer role after he approached them.  I think the Yankees of post-2004 can learn a few things from that team up north.

Hank Steinbrenner is an owner, not a GM or a Manager. We see teams that are run by their owners like the Oakland Raiders, and they are a complete mess. Owners do not need to be heavily operated in the day to day operations.  Sure, it is their team, but they often feel as they have more knowledge about these matters than they really do.  Hank has people in place to do the evaluating, and if he doesn't trust them, he should re-evaluate his staff (although this would be shortsighted given how Brian Cashman has revamped the organization at the minor league level). 

Hank is also acting like an everyday fan. He sees the same thing we see from the rotation and begins to panic. These Yankees have to win today, tomorrow is too far away! No fan in NY has patience anymore and it seems that the late 90s have spoiled them. Hank should be above that as the owner.

Wait, and is he officially the owner? I'm not even sure that was made clear yet. Where is George? Whats wrong with the other son, Hal? Oh the drama!

With Kennedy and Hughes both being so young, the Yankees need to be patient. These are two guys that any team would love to have. However, they need some time to develop. It is not the end of the world if the Yankees miss the 2008 playoffs. What needs to be done is establishing these 2 as a solid 1-2 punch for the future.

Heck, the Red Sox missed the playoffs in 2005 after breaking the curse in 2004, and came back to win in 2007. You can take 1 step back in order to take 2 steps forward.