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02/18/2008 10:00 AM ET
Mailbag: Which role is best for Joba?
Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch answers fans' questions
By Bryan Hoch / MLB.com








Forget winter -- pitchers and catchers are on the field in Florida, and with position players due to report this week, baseball is back. In our first Yankees mailbag of Spring Training, we attempt to answer some of your burning questions about the Bronx Bombers.
With all the firepower that the Yankees possess, their one need is a bona fide ace. Don't you think it would be wasteful to let Joba Chamberlain sit in the bullpen, waiting for Mariano Rivera to retire? If Chamberlain nears his innings limit in August, couldn't they then move him into the setup role until just before the playoffs?
-- James V., Middletown, N.Y.

Manager Joe Girardi was asked this question in a variety of ways last week, and the important thing to remember for right now is that nothing has been settled. Everyone who has been saying that Chamberlain will begin the year in the bullpen and that Ian Kennedy or even Kei Igawa will be in the rotation -- well, it's certainly possible, but you can't say it's definitely happening, because no one can forecast how the next six weeks will go.

Here's what we do know. Chamberlain is working out and preparing as a starting pitcher this spring, just as he did last year over on the Minor League side. He's throwing in the Yankees' pitching group along with Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Mussina and Kennedy, which should tell you a little bit about his company.

It's so difficult to envision taking the chance of moving Chamberlain to the rotation when he was nearly automatic setting up for Rivera -- he really was as close to a sure thing as possible in this game, and the 0.38 ERA speaks for itself. But the Yankees' investment in Chamberlain is as a starting pitcher, and they think he can be that true dominant ace eventually, even though they have to handle him carefully because of his innings limit.

Here's what Girardi said when asked: "I think the long-term projections for the organization are for him to be a top-end starter, but the thing about this game is that nothing is ever etched in stone. ... We project him as a starter. Three to five years down the road, we project him as a starter. Hopefully, 10 years down the road."

Wang has been criticized for not having enough strikeouts to be an ace. Last year Ron Guidry was working with Wang on a slider to up his total. It seemed to be developing. Any news on if he is going to continue to develop it?
-- Dennis S., Bellmore, N.Y.

It's early in camp to begin tinkering with the slider, but it is still on Wang's agenda. He knows he needs it to keep teams off-balance and stay off sitting on the sinker, which is something he experimented with last year and found some success -- notably against Boston, on occasion.

Expect to see him continue to find new ways to keep hitters honest, even though Wang said he doesn't explicitly need to raise his strikeout totals to earn people's admiration. The ace stuff may be overblown anyway: Girardi said last week that he doesn't remember the '96 or '98 Yankees having what you'd call a "true ace," either.

With all the chatter about the state of the Yankees' bullpen, one name I haven't heard mentioned anywhere is Humberto Sanchez. I was just wondering if he is on track with his rehab, and what the odds are that he makes his Yankees debut in 2008?
-- Chris G., Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

According to Sanchez, his best-case scenario puts him on a mound competitively by the beginning of May, barring no setbacks. He believes he'll eventually see some time beginning at Class A Tampa and work his way up to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before putting himself in competition for the bullpen in New York.

Right now, Sanchez said he's up to 50 throws of long-toss and will move to 90 feet in another week. He'll be able to throw a bullpen session sometime in March, and is quite happy he had his Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery last year to clean out the injury.

"It's great to just get it out of the way," Sanchez said. "It's been a big relief. I feel like it's step one to getting to the big leagues."

I would like to thank the Yankees immensely for their support through the tough times following the shootings here at Virginia Tech. When the Yankees come for the exhibition game on March 18, are they likely to play any big names at all or will they stick to guys that are fighting for Major League spots? Either way, we appreciate them coming.
-- Sean H., Blacksburg, Va.

That's a question we'll be able to better answer closer to the game, but it should be safe to say that many of the Yankees' marquee players will want to be involved. The Virginia Tech tragedy touched everyone and the organization quickly made it a priority to help the healing process however possible.

The club plans to have a charter flight on the day of the game and head up to Virginia before returning to Tampa on the same evening, so the logistics make sense for a lot of the players.

What's Rivera's role going to be this year? Last year, Joe Torre said that he would not use Mariano for the eighth inning but he sometimes did. Will he be used strictly as a one-inning closer, or will Girardi consider using him for more than that?
-- Elizabeth C., Scarsdale, N.Y.

In an ideal world, the Yankees would only use Rivera for three outs, but as Torre found out, you just can't promise that. They really do need to take special care to protect him at this stage, but that really falls upon whoever is setting him up. If the choice is between losing a game and using Rivera for four or five outs, I think you roll the dice and take the shot.

Rivera, for his part, says he'll take the ball whenever they want. But if it was up to him, he smiled and said he'd rather just make them all one-out, one-pitch saves.

Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.