Today’s spring training notes from Chad Jennings.

Phil Hughes is hurtin’.

Joba Chamberlain is, well, this picture makes me think of the following words:

load, loaf, scrub, pizza, beer, ass.

[Links from the essential Lo-Hud Yankees blog; picture lifted from there too. Original image credit goes to the Associated Press.]

Couple of stories on Joba Chamberlain:

Harvey Araton in the Times.

Daniel Barbaris in the Wall Street Journal.

[Photo Credit: N.Y. Post]

Over at Pitchers and Poets, Ted Walker has a long piece on Joba Chamberlain called “Private Anxiety Made Public in Baseball’s Age of Potential”:

Joba Chamberlain elicits a negative response from the average baseball fan that far outweighs his time spent as a big league pitcher. For a few years, Chamberlain was the lightning rod for Yankee-hating, embodying what outsiders disliked about the team.

The Yankees fan base, meanwhile, accustomed to a team that develops its own foundational members, asked too much of the kid. The Yankees called him up to the big leagues after just a year in the minors. In the hustle to nudge him, with Robinson Cano and Phil Hughes, up onto the Yankees pedestal once occupied by the four horsemen, Yankee fans made him Joba before he was Chamberlain. In the rest of the country, his unique first name became a slight, and a shorthand term for a long-held distaste for the Yankees. Soon, the name Joba came to symbolize a fatigue not only for the team’s ruthless big money practices, but also for the media’s clear favoritism towards East Coast franchises.

That Joba Chamberlain was the symbol of this sentiment is misguided and unfortunate, and more a result of bad timing than anything that Joba did. Because, generally speaking, Joba Chamberlain is the opposite of what people don’t like about the Yankees.

[Photo Credit: NJ.com]

Speaking of Tommy John, Joba Chamberlain has a torn ligament in his right elbow and is likely done for the year.

Phil Hughes is lost right now. He’s lost velocity on his pitches and is now lost in space. He threw more BP fastballs tonight and the O’s feasted on that weak sauce to the tune of five runs in four-and-a-third innings. It’s clear that something ain’t right, but what that something is, well, that’ll keep the angst-meter on blast for the foreseeable future, won’t it?

The Bombers inched their way back into the game behind a strong relief outing from Bad Bart Colon and trailed 5-4 going into the eighth. Colon put runners on the corners with one out and was replaced by Joba Chamberlain who uncorked a slider past Russell Martin. Felix Pie charged home from third but Joba beat him to the plate and blocked Pie’s leg, took the throw from Martin and made the tag for the second out.

Went something like this:

Joba struck Mark Reynolds out looking with some easy cheese on the outside corner, end of inning.

That  looked to be the last thing to get excited about as Alex Rodriguez, still hot, and Robinson Cano had two out hits in the bottom of the inning but Nick Swisher, ice cold, rolled over a grounder to end the inning. Joba pitched a scoreless ninth and then Jorge Posada hit Kevin Gregg’s first pitch into the right center field bullpen to tie the game.

And Yankee Stadium was happy.

Even more so when Curtis Granderson lined a ball off Nick Markakis’ glove in right field for a double. But Martin could not get a bunt down and whiffed. Brett Gardner, who has looked overmatched, did the same and Derek Jeter tapped out to short and the inning was over.

Yet all praise the Great Mariano, who worked around a lead-off single, and got the Yanks back up in short order. The lefty Mike Gonzalez walked Mark Teixeira on a full-count pitch to start the inning and then Rodriguez, who has been hitting just about everything on the screws, ripped a double to left. Second and third, no out. Robbie. Worked the count even at two, smacked a line drive right at the shortstop, one out.

The O’s chose not to walk Swisher, batting from the right side. Swish hit a hump back liner to Markakis in right, deep enough to score the winning run.

A.J., pie, game.

Yanks 6, O’s 5. Applause.

[First picture by Michel Gravel]

I’ve spent much of the past couple of seasons actively disliking Joba Chamberlain. Not personally, just his game. But just when I thought all was lost, he reported to camp heavy this spring, and now, he’s sporting longer hair, and you know what? I think I’m lovin’ me some Joba. Call me a contrarian–guilty–but hey, I’m the guy who loved Hurricane Hideki Irabu.

So, yo: Let’s Go Chubb Chubb!

[Photo Credit: AP Photo/Frank Franklin II]

Dictionary.com lists 13 definitions for the adjective form of the word oblique. As it pertains to anatomy, oblique muscles are those that run at an angle, as opposed to transversely (horizontally) or longitudinally (vertically). In the abdominal wall, the obliques are the muscles that form the side cut of a six-pack. They’re the love handles.

Synonyms, as listed within the aforementioned link, include “indirect,” “covert,” or “veiled.” But oblique strains have directly, overtly and obviously affected the Yankees this Spring, with Greg Golson, Sergio Mitre, Joba Chamberlain and now Curtis Granderson all falling victim to the injury. Granderson’s injury may put his Opening Day availability in question. This is no surprise, given that recovery time ranges from 10 days up to 3 weeks, depending on the severity of the strain.

Chamberlain missed 10 days. He returned to action Tuesday and was throwing 95 miles per hour. Golson also returned Tuesday, after missing 15 days of action. Mitre, meanwhile, was making his first appearance since March 14. MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch, in a mid-afternoon post Tuesday, reported that Mitre thought he had a roster spot secured when he arrived in Tampa 6 weeks ago. Tuesday’s start, Mitre’s first since he suffered his oblique strain, may be giving the Yankees pause about adding him to the 25-man roster. The following quotes are priceless.

First, Mitre is confidently unsure:

“I don’t look at it as a setback. I’m hoping they don’t base everything off of one spring start. If that’s the case, then we’ll see what happens, but I don’t think that’s the case — at least toward me. They know I can get people out and they know they can rely on me, I hope.”

Let’s examine this: two home runs yielded, a sinker that didn’t sink, Nova and Colon basically acting in full carpe diem mode. But this wasn’t a setback. Fans have little to no confidence that he can get anyone out. The numbers over the past two seasons prove as much. Plus, he wears the accursed No. 45. From Steve Balboni to Cecil Fielder to Chili Davis to (gulp) Carl Pavano, that number never helped anyone in a Yankee uniform over the last 25 years. And yet I digress …

More from Mitre:

“I don’t think there should be any reason why not. If I still have to worry about that, then I’m probably not doing something right.”

(Insert laugh track here)

Joe Girardi’s reaction was telling. Not usually one to tip his hand, Girardi was non-committal, telling reporters “there are still decisions to be made there,” when asked of Mitre’s current status as a starter, reliever, or roster member.

Given that Boone Logan, Pedro Feliciano, Damaso Marte are injured, Mitre might be in the bullpen. Sunday morning, WFAN’s Sweeny Murti said his belief was that Ivan Nova was definitely in, and in all likelihood, so was Bartolo Colon. Given the choice between Colon, Mitre and Freddy Garcia, Colon has pitched the best and has earned the spot. If given a choice, Garcia could serve as a Ramiro Mendoza type out of the bullpen as a better option than Mitre. Despite Garcia’s recent hiccups, he struck out nearly a batter per inning this Spring, and has a much more positive track record than Mitre.

As for the oblique strains, strength and conditioning coordinator Dana Cavalea may want to examine the program and how the players are responding to the regimen being set forth. Four years ago, after Cavalea and Marty Miller replaced Jeff Mangold, a number of Yankees suffered muscle injuries in March and April, and the Yankees got off to a 9-14 start in April. The following appeared in a Tyler Kepner post at Bats on April 13, 2007:

…General manager Brian Cashman replaced him (Mangold) again before this season. Cashman obviously wants the controversy over Mangold’s replacements — Marty Miller and Dana Cavalea — to go away. But that will only happen if the injured players return and stay healthy when they get back.

Some players don’t participate in the program, including Bobby Abreu, who has a personal trainer and Johnny Damon, who opted out after straining his right calf. Others, such as Mariano Rivera, think it’s fine.

As Kepner alluded to in his post, Mangold was fired in 1989 after a five-year stint as the Yankees’ strength and conditioning coach because upper management believed too many players were injuring themselves. It’s one thing for players to have various muscle injuries in their legs, but should Cavalea be on notice here, with four players in a span of two weeks suffering the same injury?

If it was 1989, he would be.

Batting Leadoff for the Yankees …

… will be Derek Jeter against lefties and Brett Gardner against righties, reports ESPN New York’s Wally Matthews. The lineup, specifically Jeter’s place in it, has been a recurring story this Spring. Jeter batting leadoff — or, more accurately, the push for Gardner to bat leadoff — was a hot topic in the blogosphere for much of the last two months of the 2010 season.

Gardner’s OBP was .380 last year, to Jeter’s .340. His speed and ability to take walks makes him a better fit, just as Johnny Damon’s ability to see anywhere from 4 to 9 pitches per at-bat made him an ideal leadoff man when the Yankees acquired him. (NOTE: At the BBWAA dinner not long after the Yankees signed Damon, Tom Verducci and I discussed this exact subject and agreed Jeter should have batted leadoff, using OBP as the argument.) If the concern for Jeter batting second is to avoid a double play, then hit and run with Gardner to avoid the GIDP, so that a groundout is the equivalent of a sacrifice.

I will call you … Number Two

Yes, we’re referring to AJ Burnett. Anthony McCarron wrote Sunday that the decision was made, in part, because “the mental part of pitching has strained Burnett in the past and the Yanks would take any jolt of confidence this move might bring him.”

Let’s just hope he doesn’t pitch like Number Two.

And in a win for the blogosphere, two of the first four links that appear in a Google search “AJ Burnett Number Two” are from blog posts. One of them, from Bleeding Yankee Blue … Well, I can see I’m late to the Austin Powers joke party. However, some good points in here about the rotation, particularly comparing it to the Opening Day rotation in 2009, which only helped win a World Series title.

What are the odds Burnett strains an oblique between now and next Saturday?

According to George King, Joba Chamberlain looks top notch to scouts. Good news, indeed.

Three weeks into Yankees Spring Training, and we’ve learned this: New York is a Basketball town. Alex has written about this, and I remember Sweeny Murti talking about covering the Yankees while the Knicks made their run to the 1994 Finals. It’s true. The Knicks are the sleeping giant, and now with Carmelo Anthony, they will own the back pages unless something either major or catastrophic happens in Yankeeland.

This is actually a good thing, because Spring Training for the Yankees is basically a time suck. While it’s great to see baseball — hell, grass — after being battered with snow and sub-freezing temperatures for the better part of the last two months, doesn’t seem as cool when the biggest questions year after year are who the 5th man in the rotation will be, and who the 24th and 25th man on the roster will be.

Obvious storylines have been played up like they’re original concepts. For example:

* Derek Jeter reported to spring training and in his press conference intent to prove that last year was an anomaly and that the man who is above statistics is actually going to try to enjoy the moment when he reaches 3,000 hits this summer. In a year or two, he might need a position change.

Snore.

Two thoughts on this: 1) This is EXACTLY why when he broke Lou Gehrig’s team record for hits and the local and national media were swooning and putting his stats against Pete Rose and projecting he could break the all-time hits record by 2018 or 2019, I called B.S. Derek Jeter is human, and while I didn’t get to know him that well in my years covering the team, I observed him quite a bit. He’s intense and he’s competitive, but he’s not selfish. He doesn’t give the impression that he wants to hang on just to break a record. 2) As I write about Jeter’s unselfishness, I write about this, which seems counterintuitive: Steven Goldman, as far back as 2004, when the Yankees signed Alex Rodriguez and it was determined that he would play third base and Jeter would remain the shortstop, wrote that Jeter should have pulled a Robin Yount and moved to center field. This would have made Bernie Williams, whose outfield skills were declining for two consecutive years by then, a full-time DH. But, there wasn’t as much roster flexibility then. There were a lot of DH candidates, namely Jason Giambi, so having Bernie there full-time wasn’t an option. I recall at least 6-12 Pinstriped Bibles where this was a hot topic.

* CC Sabathia lost weight. He’s in the third year of his contract. He can opt out after the season. He’s thinking about this.

Great for him. The dropped weight will help his stamina, because he’s going to have to pitch 300 innings during the regular season when the Yankees eventually settle on a 3-man rotation. Yes, he is. Yes he can. He probably is, but asking him of his plans in February? If the opt-out clause is in there in the first place, he was thinking about it THREE YEARS AGO. The caveat, he’s not A-Rod, so this will probably work out.

* Joba Chamberlain is not going to pitch meaningful innings this season. Not with the Yankees, most likely.

Not to toot my own horn, but I’m tooting. This was predicted four years ago, when they caught lightning in a bottle with him. Not recognizing his rightful ascension to replace Mariano Rivera at that time effectively ruined his career as a Yankee. Perhaps another team can repair him.

* Jorge Posada is going to be a full-time DH.

This is not news.

* Yankees looking for starters.

That slug actually appeared as a link on ESPN.com’s headlines area. It was a story from Buster Olney. This was not news. Does anyone expect the committee of Sergio Meat Tray, the Ghost of Freddy Garcia, and Ivan Nova to carry bottom half of the rotation? Wait, don’t answer that. They’ve started seasons with Tony Womack and Enrique Wilson at second base, at one point were intent on Bubba Crosby as their center fielder, and had Gary Sheffield play first base. This is entirely in the realm of possibility.

The guy to root for in all of this: original Yankees draft pick Mark Prior. Let’s not make a big deal about his having trouble getting his breaking stuff over the plate yesterday. If he makes the team and somehow makes an impact, it could be the story of the year.

* AJ Burnett, after playing winter ball in the California Penal League, beaned a player. During batting practice.

That’s only half true. Burnett did nail Greg Golson in the head. No truth to the rumor that Larry Rothchild is stocking up on cardboard hitters to help Burnett visualize the target. Who’s more of a punchline in New York baseball at this point: Burnett or Oliver Perez?

* Mark Teixeira needs to get off to a fast start.

Again, not news. Bernie Williams used to start off slowly every year, too. By Memorial Day, he’d be hitting .300 or better. However, there was an interesting revelation in the day of Teixeira stories: he admitted that he has taken for granted that his hitting would always be there. That he would turn it around eventually. Great stuff from Tex. Perhaps in his work with Kevin Long, he’ll practice driving the ball to the opposite field.

* The Yankees take Grapefruit League games seriously.

After the second day of games, Joe Girardi was already in midseason form, talking about how “bouncing back” after a loss is a result of “believing in ourselves.” This, with Ivan Nova on the mound, no less.

__________________________________

The thing is, while I know this is a panoramic critique (with no links, I know), and it sounds like I’m the old man on the porch holding a shotgun, if I was on the beat, I’d probably be writing the same stories. There are two stories, though, that I’d like to see:

1) Re: Joba. Is he the second coming of Shane Spencer? Forget the position player vs. pitcher comparison for a second and focus on the “lightning in a bottle” concept. For two months in 1998, Shane Spencer was a revelation. He was kept on as a reserve outfielder and made modest contributions for the next several seasons, but when given the chance to earn the starting lineup in 2002, couldn’t crack it. There was no way he was ever going to live up to that brief stretch. Chamberlain, same thing. We could include Aaron Small in this discussion. Maybe the type of pitcher Joba Chamberlain is now is always what he was, and he peaked immediately.

2) A Rafael Soriano profile, written in the context of “recent Atlanta Braves retreads who had success elsewhere but are bound to not work out.” Look, I would like to see the Yankees turn games into 7-inning affairs. But, history shows us that unless your name is Mike Stanton, it’s likely not going to work out for you in New York if you were previously a closer employed by the Braves. Consider: Steve Karsay — great first year in 2002, got injured in 2003 and was never heard from again. Kyle Farnsworth — just a comedy of errors here. Boone Logan wasn’t a closer, but his ride with the Yankees has been a roller coaster. Maybe he could be a Stanton / Graeme Lloyd type of guy.

Random thought to end … Manny Banuelos: His last name is a mixture of the Spanish words for bathroom (bano) and handkerchief (panuelo). The scouting reports have him pitching better than that odd mixture.

And a final random thought: the Yankees’ issues are much easier to stomach than the Mets’.

[Photo Credit: Brian Rose]

 Check out these spring training pictures by Michael G. Baron.

C.C. Sabathia reported to camp lighter; Joba Chamberlain is heavier. My favorite headline today comes from the Times of all places: Heftier Chamberlain Arrives with Thud at Yankees Camp:

Asked Wednesday morning for his impression of Chamberlain, General Manager Brian Cashman said: “He’s heavier. Let’s just leave it at that.”

Told that Chamberlain has said he packed on muscle, Cashman said: “He’s obviously heavier. That’s as much as I’ll say.”

…“You think about it as a manager, you think about what it says,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “As I said, Joba is going to be pretty much evaluated on how he pitches. That’s the bottom line. We’ve been very pleased in what we’ve seen so far.”

The Wall Street Journal asks: Is This the Fattest Yankee Team Ever?

Yeah, it’s cold again in New York, but their is plenty of hot air about C.C. Sabathia keeping heads busy down in Florida. Hey, Sabathia might opt out of his deal at the end of the year: Oh, word?

Meanwhile, George King has a piece on A.J. Burnett:

“Last year it really hit me how important I am to this team,” Burnett said yesterday on the way out of George M. Steinbrenner Field.

“I am not saying that we didn’t win the World Series because of me, but I know if I had been right, it would have been a lot easier chore. I never knew how important I was to a team. That’s not being cocky or arrogant, it’s the way it is. I mean, what did I do to help?”

King also reports that Joba Chamberlain is ready to step up to Brian Cashman’s challenge.

First off all, something interesting: last night many people (including me) were eager to jump on the Cliff-Lee-took-less-money story, embracing the idea that here was the rare athlete motivated by something different, and therefore in some way admirable. Well, beware of easy storylines. It now seems that Lee may not have taken much less money at all. Our old friend William argues, at his blog and The Yankee U, that when you include the Phillies’ vesting option for a sixth year, the difference is negligible; he gets into the details of things like tax rates and interest rates which I am wary of diving into myself, but it does at least seem clear that while Lee may have taken less money, it was not near the $50 million less that was being thrown around last night. (Of course, I would love to get paid in a year what Cliff Lee will make in an inning, so it’s pretty much all magic-fun-numbers anyway at this level).

None of this really changes my reaction, which could be summed up as “probably for the best down the road, and if you need me in 2011, I’ll be on the floor, curled into the fetus position around a bottle of Laphroaig.”

With the drama of days and days of fevered speculation behind us, what’s next? The Yankees are already beginning to move on, making the non-inspiring but likely harmless move of signing Russell Martin to a one-year deal. To me, this doesn’t say they’re necessarily planning to trade one of their catching prospects (though of course that’s a possibility), but rather that they really, really do not think Jorge Posada can catch much anymore. Will the catching situation be the new dead horse upon which we release our impatience and frustration?

I’m taking suggestions, but I would like to preemptively oppose further debate on the Joba-as-starter idea. Yes, it makes sense to me too… but apparently it doesn’t to the Yankees, and there’s no meat left on that bone. He remains, for now, the World’s Most Famous Mediocre Middle Reliever.

Also, anybody who so much as whispers a word rhyming with “Pavano” gets slapped with a fish, Python-style.

55 days ’til spring training…

First, there’s my weekly Awards Watch column, which this week looks at the two Cy Young award races. Those who haven’t been paying attention will be surprised to see that Ubaldo Jimenez no longer tops the National League list. Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes, who were regulars on the American League list earlier in the season, are both off but have been replaced by one current Yankee and one former Yankee that will likely send the average Bronx Banter reader into hysterics.

Then, I noticed that SI linked to the gallery of the top ten Hall of Fame classes that I ranked and captioned last year. This year’s class of Hawk, the White Rat, and God didn’t threaten to dent the list, so it’s just as relevant now as it was then and a fun read, if I do say so myself.

Finally, I have the lead baseball story for the day (until a trade bumps it) in which I take a look at five of the biggest holes on contending teams. One of those five exists in the Yankee bullpen. Dig:

Yankees

Need: Relief pitching

8th Inning: 4.74 ERA

MLB average 8th Inning: 3.88 ERA

The Guilty: Joba Chamberlain (5.66 ERA, 41 1/3 IP), David Robertson (4.76 ERA, 34 IP), Chan Ho Park (5.74 ERA, 31 1/3 IP)

Potential Targets: Scott Downs (2.41 ERA, 41 IP), Shawn Camp (2.92 ERA, 49 1/3 IP), Aaron Heilman (3.60 ERA, 45 IP), Koji Uehara (2.35 ERA, 15 1/3 IP)

When the Yankees moved Chamberlain back to the bullpen, he was supposed to return to being the dominant set-up man he was in late 2007 and early 2008. Instead, he has brought the inconsistency he showed in the rotation to the ‘pen, helping to make the eighth the most problematic inning for the Yankees other than the sixth (when starters typically start to tire and relief pitchers frequently become involved). With Robertson and Park also struggling and Alfredo Aceves and lefty Damaso Marte on the disabled list, the Yankees are running out of in-house alternatives. They still have the majors best record and look like a safe bet to make the playoffs, but the defending world champions will need to lock down those set-up innings if they want to go deep into the postseason again.

There’s a lot on my mind — nothing new there — and I wanted to get it as much of it down as I could, not only for my own cathartic reasons, but also for your reading enjoyment.

Here we go …

* The discussion regarding the fifth starter spot was rendered moot very quickly, Phil Hughes, with an improved cutter and curveball and most importantly, and an Eff-You attitude that he took from his eighth-inning role in ’09, took control in Spring Training and never let go. He won 10 of his first 11 decisions and earned an All-Star appearance. Now, with Andy Pettitte on the shelf and AJ Burnett looking like an extra in “Girl Interrupted” — more on this in a bit — Hughes is effectively the Yankees’ No. 3 starter, maybe even No. 2, depending on your opinion of Javier Vazquez. Yes, even though Hughes got roughed-up last night. 

The question with Hughes now becomes how the Brain Trust wants to handle the Phil Rules. He is supposedly on an innings limit (160 innings? 175? What’s the number?). But what will that do to his effectiveness? Skipping starts to curb innings is likely not the best move, as evidenced by the 10-day break between his home starts in June against the Mets and Mariners. The Yankees need him to be effective in September and October, yes, but they have to figure out a way to do this right.

On WFAN Saturday, Steve Phillips, commenting on the Cardinals’ management of prospective NL Rookie of the Year Jaime Garcia, said Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan are not taking chances with Garcia; they’re not allowing him to start the seventh inning when he has a big lead. The Yankees can learn from that with Hughes. Skipping starts, especially as the pennant race heats up, could be devastating to both the Yankees’ chances and to Hughes’s development. Look what happened to the Tigers and Rick Porcello last year. Porcello was skipped several times over August and September as a means of preservation for the stretch run. He pitched well in the one-game playoff against Minnesota, but then this year had a miserable start and was optioned to Toledo in mid-June. He’s back with the team now amid rumors he’ll be packaged in a trade? Do the Yankees want to take that chance with Phil Hughes? Probably not.

* The bullpen. Or can we call it the bulls–t? We’re back to 2008, 2007, or any year since 2003 that the Yankees didn’t go deep into October where the biggest question surrounded the bit players on the path to Mariano Rivera. Boone Logan? A LOOGY that can’t LOOG. Chan Ho Mer? Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Damaso Marte? He’s been inconsistent at best, and now he’s on the DL, retroactive to Saturday the 17th, with shoulder inflammation. Chad Gaudin and Sergio Meat Tray? Mark Melancon coming up from Scranton? Yikes. The best option for a bridge might be to extend David Robertson into a type of role that Rivera held in ’96, thanks to the travails of …

… Joba Chamberlain. What can be said that hasn’t been said already? Longtime Banterers know that I was a proponent of him staying in the bullpen two years ago, and the experiment with him as a starter was only going to be a path to ruin. A fantastic thread started by one of my former YES colleagues on Facebook yielded some sharp criticism and sound arguments, both for and against the merits of Mr. Nebraska. Heading into the break, his ERA was above 5.00 and BAA was .282. “Not set-up man numbers,” as my colleague put it. I went so far as to say he’s turned into a cross between Kyle Farnsworth (plus fastball but would rather throw his slider), and Hideki Irabu (“Fat Toad” level athleticism and plus fastball that has no movement). I was stunned to see his name was not included in the Yankees’ package that nearly landed Cliff Lee.

With the questions now surfacing about potential deadline pickups &#151 Dan Haren, Roy Oswalt, Ben Sheets and Brett Myers have all been rumored — I wonder if Joba is just broken and that the best solution would be to trade him now while he’s still young and his value is such that he’s a major-league ready commodity. Trading Joba would be an admission of failure on the part of the Yankees, yes, but after the way they mismanaged his development — you can argue that this all started in ’07 when based on a similar need, they turned him into a reliever and rushed him through the system — it may be the only option.

* DISCLAIMER: If you don’t like politics mixed with your sports or sports in your politics, skip this bullet.

Where was/is the local media’s coverage of the situation in Arizona surrounding Yankees and Mets players and front-office personnel of Latino origin, their reactions to State Bill 1070 and next year’s All-Star Game (I confess, I was en route back to NY last Tuesday and didn’t see the All-Star Game and don’t know if it was covered on the FOX telecast. Was it?)? Outside of a May 1 report in the New York Times citing Mets catcher Rod Barajas’s opposition to the law and a NY Daily News report from Andy Martino published today about Carlos Beltran’s vow to boycott next year’s All-Star Game if he’s selected, there hasn’t been much. I didn’t see any reports questioning the Latino Yankees, the Yankees’ travel secretary or anyone within the organization about concerns over the law, which pending the decision of two hearings to be held on July 22, will go into effect on July 29. At the All-Star media day, Alex Rodriguez, when asked about it, quickly diverted the question, saying, “Wrong guy.”

Fact is, there’s a wealth of information on the topic, from the position taken by the MLBPA, to statements made by Adrian Gonzalez, Yovani Gallardo (who was later silenced) and the differing opinions of Albert Pujols and Tony LaRussa. An opposition web site entitled movethegame.org has been created petitioning fans to urge Commissioner Bud Selig to move the game. Supporters of keeping the game at Chase Field, or keeping any major sporting event in Arizona, cite the economic effect a boycott would have, particularly on the amount of Latino workers in area restaurants and hotels.

Selig, for his part, is playing the way he should. The catch, and one reason why he may not even be able to move the game if he wants is that one of his bosses is Ken Kendrick, owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Kendrick helped bankroll the campaign of governor Jan Brewer and is helping to finance other Republicans who support the bill, even though he’s taken the opposite stance publicly.

Honestly, I don’t care what happens to the All-Star Game. Last week’s game was the lowest-rated ever. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. What matters, at least for this excerpt, is that for the most part, the local media dropped the ball on a major story.

* Injuries. Numerous reports have surfaced citing the Yankees’ intention to fill Andy Pettitte’s void with Sergio Meat Tray. In fact, GM Brian Cashman said the following: “I’m not looking for starting pitching. I don’t feel compelled. This is why we have Sergio Mitre.” For six or seven starts, it may not be a bad thing, but do you want to have to rely on your bullpen — a bullpen that’s spotty at best — that much at such a critical juncture? Additional reports have the Yankees scouting Kevin Gregg (maybe they should talk to Lou Piniella?), lefty Scott Downs (an interesting option with Marte out), and Joakim Soria (closer experience, could thrive in setup role and take some heat off of Rivera).

* The pennant race will be a three-team sprint to the finish. The Red Sox will get healthy and make a run, and the Rays will remain dangerous due to their rotation depth. Here’s where the Yankees have a tremendous advantage over both teams, and I haven’t seen it reported enough: the schedule is in the Yankees’ favor. Sure, they play the Red Sox and Rays another 10 times each and the AL East and Wild Card will likely be decided in those 20 meetings. The caveat to the schedule: the Yankees do not have to travel farther west than Arlington, Texas (twice), over the last two months of the season. The Rays, meanwhile, have one West Coast trip (a 7-gamer in mid-August), and the Red Sox are in the midst of a 10-game West Coast swing and have another six-game stretch out West from September 10-15. The Yankees have kvetched over the years about how the schedule makers have not treated them well. Here’s an opportunity for them to take advantage of a break.

It’s going to be a fun ride to October. And it’s going to be even more fun reading, watching and listening.

So, okay, the Yanks’ didn’t hit much last night. Felix Hernandez was tough again, though not as dominant as he’d been against the Yanks in New York (without Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada in the line-up, he wasn’t facing the team’s best). It eventually caught up to the Yanks when Joba Chamberlain coughed-up a slim, 1-0 lead in the eighth. Gave up a grand slam of all things as the Yanks fell, 4-1 to the Mariners. Shame because Javy Vazquez was terrific–he had a no-hitter through six.

According to Ben Shpigel in the Times:

“He’s a human being that’s giving everything he’s got out there, so I don’t get frustrated,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “I still believe in him. He hasn’t been the eighth-inning guy for a year and a half. Most of the times we’ve had the lead, he’s done a good job. Tonight, he struggled.”

Girardi is correct, in a sense: of the 31 times Chamberlain has entered with a lead, only four times has he departed with the score tied or the Yankees trailing. One other time, he left with the lead, but Mariano Rivera allowed three inherited runners to score. The larger problem plaguing Chamberlain and, by extension, the Yankees is his unreliability. After every implosion, he calls it a learning experience, but does not seem to be learning from it or to have an explanation.

“You’ve got to go out and pitch,” Chamberlain said. “That’s the art of pitching. You’re not always going to have your best stuff, you’re not always going to have your best command. That’s the journey we have as pitchers.”

Tough night. It might not be fair (since when does fairness have anything with being a fan?) but every time I think of Joba these days, this is what I hear:

[Photo Credit: AP Photo/John Froschauer]

On Tuesday night, Mariano Rivera announced that he’s going to skip the All-Star Game due to some minor injuries. Rivera has been pitching through the pain and doesn’t expect to go on the disabled list, but he’s unable to pitch more than one inning per appearance, and Yankee manager Joe Girardi has to be extra careful with the 40-year-old’s workload. That means Chamberlain, whose frustrating inconsistency has followed him back to the bullpen, will not only have to get out of his own jams, but could be called upon to close at points in the second half (he has already picked up two saves in the first half). While Rivera has been his usual dominant self thus far, the rest of the Yankee pen has been struggling, hurt, or both (see: Park, Chan Ho) for much of the season. Chamberlain dominated out of the pen before the Yankees moved him into the rotation in mid 2008 (1.32 ERA, 12.1 K/9 in 47 2/3 IP). In an AL East race in which the three best teams in baseball are separated by just three games and at least one will miss the playoffs entirely, Chamberlain needs to find that old consistency and fast to help ensure that the reigning world champions will be back in the playoffs to defend their title.

Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees’ two best right handed pitching prospects of my lifetime, don’t stand at a crossroads of their careers – they stand at a cloverleaf freeway entrance. Since 2007, Joba has been a starter, a reliever, a starter, a reliever, a starter, a reliever, a competitor for a starting job, and currently, a reliever. Phil has a more reasonable track record. He’s been a starter, a reliever and currently a starter. The buzz is that Joba may never make it as a starter, and if Phil also fails, they Yankees will have to ask if they handled them correctly.

Off the top of my head, I can think of several high profile, pitchers who jumped back and forth between starting and relieving roles and whose destinies were not forever derailed. Adam Wainwright and David Price pop immediately into mind as starters turned relievers turned back to starters with little detriment. And who could think that Mariano Rivera or Jonathan Papelbon were meant to do anything but hasten the extinction of rally caps and monkeys? Did the Yankees do anything that differently with Joba and Phil than has been done in the past?

I think the Yankees have a healthy respect for pitch counts and innings limits and are willing to pre-determine usage quantity for their young guys in the name of injury avoidance. But after that, I think they really don’t see much difference in which roles their pitchers accumulate those innings. What this may mean is that the arms are protected, but the starting pitching skills are severely under-developed.

Joba throws a 96-97 mph fastball out of the pen. He throws a 92-93 mph fastball in the rotation. Hughes throws 95 in the eighth, but only 91 in the first. These guys have to learn how to get out MLB hitters with the lesser stuff if they want to make it as starters. In short relief, they rarely work in a third pitch, and they never have to face any hitter more than once in a game.

Many on the Banter have called for them to be used as long relievers, allowing them the chance to work with diminished stuff, involve third and fourth pitches, and turn the lineup over once. It’s never happened. We can only guess as to why, but my hunch is that the Yankees have made an organizational compromise: we’ll respect the innings, but we won’t respect the role.

You can see why. The Yankees didn’t want to sacrifice a 2009 victory because they used Phil Hughes for three innings on Wednesday and didn’t have him available for a nail-biter on Friday. So they made him a short reliever so he could impact as many close games as possible. That decision solidified the bullpen when it was still a close race and helped them sew up home field advantage for a World Championship run. And though I disagreed at the time and in retrospect, I don’t want them to return the rings and try it again my way.

So Joba Chamberlain is likely done as a starter. There could be shoulder concerns and there could be mental issues contributing to this decision. But if it is based only on performance, then I would argue that the Yankees are much to blame for whatever performance he gave them. Did they learn anything? Will Hughes be given any more leeway to learn on the job? Or are the Yankees well aware of all of this and just don’t care? Maybe they know they screwed these guys up, they know they’ll have a season or two of growing pains, and they refuse to suffer them both simultaneously. Are the Yankees capable of developing a phenom starter that doesn’t produce immediately?

Howard Beale, portrayed by Finch, who won an Oscar for the role, is a network anchor who is fired due to low ratings. Then, he is allowed to stay on the air and responds by announcing he’s going to kill himself on television during his final broadcast. The stunt, plus his famous rant, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” leads to huge ratings over the next two weeks, in which time the network exploits Beale’s insanity rather than take him off the air.

How does Howard Beale pertain the New York Yankees? Consider the case of Joba Chamberlain. The once-upon-a-time can’t-miss phenom has come full circle. He’s back in the bullpen for the 2010, where he’ll have to “earn” his spot as Mariano Rivera’s 8th-inning bridge. Or maybe he’ll pitch the seventh inning or be a swingman. Joe Girardi still doesn’t know.

Pitching coach Dave Eiland has told anyone who will listen that even in the event of an injury to starters ace through four, or mediocrity from Phil Hughes in the fifth spot, Joba will remain the bullpen. GM Brian Cashman called him a “starter who can relieve.” Joba is taking this like Cush from Jerry Maguire: “I just want to play baseball.”

Early reports and interviews from team personnel — primarily Cashman — have the Yankees leaving Joba in bullpen role only for this season. They were not looking beyond 2K10. But that’s not good enough. Our thirst for a resolution to the story that won’t go away is too great. We need to know the long-term plan for No. 62. The concern is legitimate, especially with Rivera in the last year of his contract, Javier Vazquez in the final year of his deal, and Andy Pettitte in the midst of another one-year deal. Who knows? There’s a chance he could be a starter again.

If you believe director of player personnel Billy Eppler, per Saturday’s WFAN interview with Evan Roberts and Pat Borzi’s entry to the Bats blog, which was re-posted here yesterday, Joba is in the pen, and will be there for the foreseeable future. Newsday’s Erik Boland also blogged on the Eppler leak, but had more quotes from Cashman in his post saying the contrary.

Those of us who have been shouting into the bullhorn this very message for the past 2 1/2 years, including myself, should be rejoicing. As happy as I am that the Yankees made a decision with Joba and are going to stick to it, again — well, for this season anyway — they can’t seem to get it right from a PR standpoint. Why be coy? Who cares? Is it that big of a deal to definitively say, “He’s a reliever. Yes, he has four pitches and could be a starter, but his best two are his slider and fastball, and he has been more consistent as a reliever since coming up in 2007. This is the best situation both for him and the ball club. If the question is, ‘Where do we put Joba Chamberlain to maximize his talent in order to help the New York Yankees win another championship?’ The answer is in the bullpen.”

See? Not that difficult. Eiland had no problem. He even went so far Even Derek Jeter said as much, dropping these nuggets of wisdom on Mark Feinsand of the Daily News:

“He gets by on emotion, and it’s easier — or at least more fitting — to get by on emotion when you’re in the bullpen. There are guys that can do it as a starter, but for him, I think being in the bullpen is a good thing. … To have a guy that can come into a game in any situation and has the potential to strike guys out pretty quickly, that’s an asset not too many teams have.”

What the Yankees have is an even split of pitchers who can get through a batting order more than once, and who cannot. And Sergio Meat-Tray. Joba, based on his recent history both at the tail end of last season and his March, falls into the category those who cannot go through a batting order effectively more than once. That’s the negative. The positive is that Joba gives the Yankees unprecedented depth in the bullpen, along with Alfredo Aceves, David Robertson, Damaso Marte, Boone Logan, and Rivera. Three power right-handed arms, two lefties who are above LOOGY status, and Aceves, who is this team’s version of Ramiro Mendoza, only slightly more verbal.

What does this all mean? The more the Yankees dangle this story because they know the media will salivate after hearing the bell like Pavlov’s dog, the more we in Fandom will continue to react.

Which brings us back to the Network parallel. Joba is not Howard Beale. He’s not in a position to bite the hands that have fed him. But the Yankees area a corporate monolith and a strong case can be made that the organization has exploited the 24-year-old. He’s been jerked around, switched to the bullpen in 2007 and rushed through the minors for the August emergency callup where he became a household name and a savior in the 8th-inning relief role; he was returned to the rotation in mid-summer the next year and suffered a shoulder injury as a result; and as a member of the starting rotation in 2009, with sporadic success and an insane innings restriction imposed after the All-Star break, he was returned to the bullpen for the postseason. After all that, one could hardly fault Joba if he pulled a Howard Beale and called his career “bullshit.”

From my standpoint, like many of you here in the Banter community, I’m ready to say enough is enough with the Joba story. Yes, I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore. I want to write about the media’s coverage of Joba’s success in the bullpen and keep it simple. The Yankees can help make this happen; they need to figure out which story they want to go with, keep spouting that as the company line to eliminate confusion and be done with it. And the media are not without responsibility here, either. Don’t egg the story because you can’t think of anything else to move circulation, ratings or incoming phone calls to the drive-time programs.

But none of that is likely to happen is because it makes too much sense, and it feels like the parties responsible for shaping the story are having too much fun with it.

Pat Borzi has a post over at Bats about Joba Chamberlain’s Yankee future…as a reliever.