After skyrocketing up the Yankees’ top prospects list and dominating hitters at all levels in the minors last year, hard-throwing right hander Joba Chamberlain took New York and the majors by storm when he was called up mid-season. Boasting a fastball that touches 100 MPH at times, as well as a sharp-breaking slider, Chamberlain excelled as a primary setup man out of the bullpen, allowing only one earned run in 24 innings during the 2007 regular season, while posting an impressive 5.67 K/BB ratio. This season, he has come down to earth a little, but not much, as his ERA sits at 2.28, largely the result of a three-run homer by Cleveland’s David Dellucci on May 6th, and he has nearly triple the amount of strikeouts to walks.

This week, Chamberlain will be moved from the bullpen to the starting rotation in what has been a much-discussed decision throughout the baseball world. Many have suggested that, as a reliever, he represents the successor to Mariano Rivera as baseball’s next great closer. Of course, that would mean a few more years in the eighth inning role as Rivera’s understudy until the veteran calls it a career, and it’s awfully hard to patiently wait for that while such a talented hurler remains a middle reliever. The Yankees maintain his future is as a starter, not wanting to squander two more plus pitches, which includes a curveball and changeup, that he doesn’t feature in his arsenal as a reliever. With his first major league start coming this week, Chamberlain will look to begin his journey in the role the Yankees have envisioned as the one best for him, and while he has been relevant to the Yankees for a while, his relevance to fantasy owners will increase dramatically.

The Yankees will continue to be cautious with him. He will continue to be kept at an innings limit, which shouldn’t be much of a restriction going forward, since he has already spent two months as a middle reliever to keep his innings count low. For the first couple starts, he likely won’t go too far beyond four or five innings, since the transition to get him to over 80 pitches in an outing has been slow, partly because he’s been efficient in his recent appearances and Rivera has been brought in to close save situations. Even when he gets to an appropriate pitch count as a starter, the Yankees will continue to be careful with him, and he may lose some wins just by being taken out before he can get a lead.

For fantasy owners, the implications associated with his move to the rotation may be tremendous. A couple years ago, I waited patiently for my friend to get fed up and drop Francisco Liriano, who was a long man out of the Twins bullpen at the time. While I’m not a proponent of keeping middle relievers on fantasy rosters, unless the league counts holds, I knew that Liriano would start that season, and I was fortunate to grab him off waivers when my friend let him go which, much to his chagrin, turned out to be only a week before he moved into the rotation. Liriano became a big part of my team that year, and I thanked my friend for his generous contribution to the waiver wire. While you probably won’t get so lucky with another owner dropping Chamberlain, you might consider making a play to get him through a trade. If he’s owned by a very possessive owner, be careful of excessive demands. If not, go get him. And for those who held on to him for this long: congratulations, your wait is over.