Steinbrenner on Joba: "I want him as a starter"

Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner told The New York Times that Joba Chamberlain is being wasted in a reliever role.

Steinbrenner told the paper, "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." He says the notion of having Chamberlain spend part of the season in the bullpen won't last forever.

"The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever. I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

I feel that they should wait and see what is happening with the other starters before they make a decision on Joba. If the starters get their acts together, then I would go with the if it aint broken don't fix it approach. Then next year Joba will be in the starting rotation and see how it works out then. If the starters continue to be mediocre, then they should send Joba to the minors this year for a few weeks and bring him back up as a starter.

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