Ill-Timed: Chamberlain is a 22-year-old rookie who started only 15 games in the minor leagues. The last thing he needs is the added pressure of being the pinball in a power struggle between the owner and the hired help. He particularly didn't need it at this time. It showed no class to single out Chamberlain just as the youngster returned from "bereavement leave" in Nebraska, where he had been bedside with his ailing father. While Chamberlain's dad now appears to be recovering, Steinbrenner, at 51, should at least have enough judgment to consider the young man's distress. Instead, his first consideration appears to be "I want" (and then, with a rich kid's sense of entitlement, the assumption that because he wants, everyone else does too), and that adolescent sensibility bodes future trouble.

Wrongheaded: There is a growing body of baseball science that suggests that young pitchers are vulnerable to career-threatening injury if their innings are ratcheted up too quickly. The magic number appears to be 30, as in it is ideal to boost a pitcher's workload by no more than 30 innings a season. Chamberlain pitched only 116 innings last season, so the Yankee brain trust would like to limit him to at most 150 this year. That means he might be ready to assume a starting role later in the season. But 25 or more starts beginning now would likely push him well over the desired limit. Next year, when that limit rises to around 180, Chamberlain should be a neat fit in the rotation.

Moreover, Steinbrenner is showing precious little appreciation of his team's recent history. The setup role has been a critical part of the Yankees' tremendous success for more than a decade, be it Mariano Rivera setting up for John Wetteland or later the Nelson/Stanton tandem filling that role for Rivera. The Yankees haven't had a decent setup man since Tom Gordon departed after the 2005 season. Gordon was so valuable that former Yankee manager Joe Torre simply wore him out—171 appearances in two seasons—so that Gordon had nothing left when his manager called upon him six times in the historic 2004 ALCS against the Red Sox. Torre's punishment was to be reduced to choosing between such luminaries as Kyle Farnsworth, Luiz Vizcaino, Sean Henn and Brian Bruney for that critical late-inning role. Why remove Chamberlain from the mix and saddle new manager Joe Girardi with another Farnsworth flop or the dreaded LaTroy Hawkins option?

It is worth noting that there are many writers and fans who regard Red Sox setup man Hideki Okajima as the MVP of the team's 2007 championship season. He was an impeccable bridge to closer Jonathan Papelbon and spared the team any temptation to overuse its young closer, who had had shoulder woes the previous season. As a result Papelbon stayed healthy all year while pitching a scant 59.1 innings—and he was fresh and untouchable in the postseason, nailing a win and four saves while surrendering no runs in seven appearances. Chamberlain has been superb in a critical role. He will likely excel as a starter, too, someday, but rushing that transition could create a new problem without solving the old one.

The Yankees face some more pressing problems in the transition from the George and Torre era to the Hank and Girardi era. The lineup boasts some aging and declining big-name, big-money players, most notably Jason Giambi and Johnny Damon, while the team's favorite son, Derek Jeter, whose already limited range at shortstop is further diminishing, should probably be relocated to another position. (First base, anyone?) Some Yankee fans have fretted that in recent seasons the team has lost its sense of urgency, drifting—with Torre at the helm—toward an unhealthy complacency rather than its former healthy cockiness. This may be the rare case in which Steinbrenner is the perfect owner for Yankee lovers and haters alike. He does not appear to be a man who will simply make mountains out of molehills, but rather one who recognizes no difference between the two.

© 2008