Joba Chamberlain: I Want to Start, Not Return to the Bullpen!

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

Joba was told back in November that he would be in the rotation. Joba was definitely pumped to hear the news. You can argue all you want about how he should be in the bullpen, but that won’t happen..well not now.

The question now is how much of a workload Joba will have. He only pitched 10.1IP last year, so a limit on his innings is possible. Some people have even asked if he would go back to the bullpen to keep his innings under the limit. Maybe he will skip some starts and give Phil Hughes a shot. Who knows…

Joba took part in a bullpen session today. He threw 30 pitches (only fastballs and changeups) and everything went well. He will start throwing his breaking pitches in his bullpen session on Monday.

This is what Joba had to say about his new role…

"

“That was a little calming to me because I know I’m going into that,” Chamberlain said Friday after throwing a bullpen session at the Yankees’ minor-league complex. “Physically, you’re not going to do anything differently, but the game is so hard mentally that it was nice to know that.

“You just prepare like you’re going to get 30 starts and pitch 200 innings. That’s my mindset and I got into it early.”

“I still hear it from people,” Chamberlain said. “Always. Oh, you should be in the bullpen, you should start. It’s going to be a debate for a long time.”

“Everything’s going good, just the few kinks you get in your first bullpens,” said Chamberlain, who has thrown four sessions since he arrived in Tampa last week. “You work on repeated your mechanics. But my arms, my legs, feel really good.”

Chamberlain’s off-season fitness program paid special attention to strengthening his shoulder, he said.

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