Hank Steinbrenner is putting pressure on the Yankees again:

"I want him as a starter and so does everyone else, including him, and that is what we are working toward and we need him there now," Steinbrenner said Sunday by telephone. "There is no question about it, you don't have a guy with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball and keep him as a setup guy. You just don't do that. You have to be an idiot to do that."

Steinbrenner said the Yankees were working on easing Chamberlain into the rotation, but he would not be specific on a timetable. The Yankees' brain trust had wanted to limit Chamberlain's innings by having him spend at least part of the season in the bullpen. "The mistake was already made last year switching him to the bullpen out of panic or whatever," Steinbrenner said. "I had no say in it last year and I wouldn't have allowed it. That was done last year, so now we have to catch up. It has to be done on a schedule so we don't rush him."

One thing I loved about George in his later years was that he wasn't afraid to put pressure on anyone in the organization, but he allowed his outbursts to be tempered later by the logic of the baseball people running the game. So I don't have a real problem with Hank spouting off like this. First, Hal seems to have some control in the tempering department. Second, this keeps the team on their toes.

Personally, I agree with him without the part about calling people idiots. I'd much rather see a good pitcher going seven innings in a game than one, and the more of those you put in the rotation, the less you need pitchers like Joba setting up the closer.