1. In today’s Post, in my every Sunday Hardball column, I wrote further about the proposed new Joba Rules in which Chamberlain will be transformed during this season from a reliever to a starter. I took a look at recent history and pitchers who have made this in-season shuttle. In theory I believe in protecting young arms. There is enough data now to show that if you push you arms too far too fast that the breakout rate rises. But I also have come to believe that genetics and pitching deliveries have more to do with the success/failure rate when it comes to health than anything. Some pitchers can be babied and just are never physically going to be able to withstand the grind annually. Imagine, for example, that Carl Pavano was brought along at the most conservative rates you can conceive. I suspect he would have still ended up on the DL all the time. And I think no matter the burden – within some reason – that you put on Mike Mussina early in his career that he would have been able to endure it and have a long, successful career. That is because he is a terrific athlete, which allows him to repeat like a mimeograph machine his ideal delivery over and over and over again.

2. I have always assumed that when it was time to switch Chamberlain from the pen to the rotation that he would be sent down to the minors to be stretched out. And I still do believe that because my suspicion is that the Yanks will want to control his environment as much as possible with pitch counts and innings in the build-up phase. However, in the three recent cases I found most comparable to what the Yanks are intending to do with Chamberlain – Kelvim Escobar in 2001, Johan Santana in 2003 and Chad Billingsley in 2007 – each of those pitchers was built up from reliever to starter in the majors. It will be fascinating to see how the Yanks decide to handle this maneuever.

3. It is easy to forget now but the plan in 1996 – even as he showed a dominance in the bullpen – was for Mariano Rivera ultimately to be moved back to the rotation. It was not only the plan, it was what he wanted to do. This was a quote from Rivera in 1996: ”Starting is still my choice, but closer down the road. Starting is my thing. I don’t see it this year. I have to do my job this year.” That quote was from a story by my good friend Jack Curry of The New York Times. I encourage you to read the rest of the piece, which was perhaps the first really in-depth look at a player who would go on to be a Yankee legend. As always with Jack’s work, the reporting and presentation were excellent, and the story holds up even more than a decade later.