It's going to be a long summer

Tonight in the seventh inning in Cleveland, in the scene of the insect crime that derailed his only playoff experience, Joba Chamberlain reared back in the longest outing of his season and hit 98 on the gun.

The pitch was high and away, in an inning where he'd give up a run, but in many respects, that didn't matter worth a damn. What mattered was that Chamberlain, after two months of mostly iffy performances in the starting rotation, was throwing hard and easy deep into a game, even if it was against a wildly disappointing opponent that he should dominate. What was the point is that Chamberlain wasn't trying to manage his arm, his velocity, or his pitch count, since he had worked economically to get to that point.

The Yankees now find themselves in the position, maybe for the first time in years, of having too many viable starting candidates. CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett have the money, the pedigree and reasonable results; they aren't going anywhere. Andy Pettitte has the rings, a 5-1 record and a 4.10 ERA; he's not going anywhere. Chamberlain might have the best stuff and has been slowly managed out to actually take the ball in the rotation; despite his past success as a breakout set-up man on a team that could use one, he's not going back to that role, and assuming he stays healthy, really shouldn't.

Which leaves the final two candidates for one chair -- Phil Hughes and Chien-Ming Wang. The former has been good for five out of six starts; the latter was terrible early this year, but seemingly is back on track now and has won too many games over the years to be a long man in the bully. In the long run, someone in the rotation will falter or get hurt, and it's not as if the Yankees are cash-strapped to the point of needing to deal for, say, someone in the pen to strengthen the team's only real weakness.

Meanwhile in the rest of the AL East, the Rays can't stay healthy or effective in the bullpen, the Blue Jays fell apart as predicted by everyone outside of Ontario or with a childlike faith in the power of the Jays' farm system, and the Orioles are, well, the Orioles. (Albeit it with a better everyday lineup than usual.) Which leaves us back to MLB+ Time, as usual in the division, with the Rex Sox a game back and with the inferior everyday lineup -- and when I say inferior, I'm being way too kind. David Ortiz is a corpse, Jason Varitek's bounce-back year is bound to end in tears, Jacoby Ellsbury isn't getting on base, Dustin Pedroia isn't having an MVP year...

Well, far be it for me to root for Boston in this century. At least when the Yankees win, their fans don't ask you to hug them. But four more months of living in this soap opera is going to make me a National League fan, really. (That, and the fact that the Oakland A's may be the very worst team in all of MLB. That's just great, too.)