Joba: “I’m a starter, morons”

Okay fine, he didn’t say exactly that. Joba did talk about the whole starter or reliever thing however, and says he’s (heh) relieved to be starting:

The GM told the phenom to prepare over the winter to be in the Yankee rotation.

“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.”

[snip]

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

Friday, all appeared well during an easy bullpen session. He threw 30 pitches – all fastballs and changeups – and said he’d be ready to throw his breaking pitches in his bullpen session Monday.

“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.”

This is an understated part of this whole thing. The preparation needed to go into a season as a starter is different than the prep needed to relieve. I think the most interesting thing CC Sabathia said during his press conference was that physically he had no problems starting on three days rest down the stretch for Milwaukee last year, it was all the mental preparation that wore him down. If Joba approaches his innings limit and the Yanks can’t afford to just shut him down, then move him to the pen. I think the going from reliever to starter nonsense has to stop.

Also, I feel inclined to link to this.