(Credit: Getty Images)
If the Yankees’ Joba Chamberlain is to undergo the conversion from eighth-inning setup man to starting pitcher, the place for him to do so will be in eastern Pennsylvania, where the Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees play ball.
I called Scranton to ask the team’s director of media relations and broadcasting, Mike Vander Wood, what sort of process Chamberlain would need to undergo if he were sent to Moosic, Pa., for a three-week conversion program from big-league reliever to Triple-A starter to big-league starter.
“That all depends on the individual,” said Vander Wood, who was about to broadcast the conclusion of a three-game series against the visiting Rochester Red Wings on Monday night. “You have to look at it on a case by case basis. If a guy had been strictly reliever, you’re not going to have a guy throw 100 pitches the first time out.”
Vander Wood said that no one in the Bronx had contacted the Triple-A affiliate about making arrangements for Chamberlain, and said he was therefore willing to speak only very generally and hypothetically about the potential conversion of Chamberlain.
He did suggest that Scranton, where former big-league pitchers Kei Igawa and Scott Patterson toil, would be a good place to effect the change.
“This is one step below the major leagues,” Vander Wood said. “You’ve got some pretty good talent here.”
The process of making Chamberlain ready for a big-league start would be about more than building up his arm strength, Vander Wood said. Of just as much importance will be changing Chamberlain’s routine from one that focuses on daily readiness to one that emphasizes readiness on every fifth day.
“If that’s the case that they’re going to convert somebody to a reliever to a starter,” Vander Wood said. “It’s not going to be the stuff a pitcher has or the way that he throws — it’s just developing that routine.”
— Max