AL | Hank Steinbrenner stirs the pot on Joba Chamberlain

Once Hank Steinbrenner gave his forceful opinion about Joba Chamberlain's pitching future with the Yankees, the voice-mail and e-mail messages began piling up for Brian Cashman. It was another restless day in Yankeeland. Steinbrenner, the co-chairman of the team, spoke in a blustery way, and Cashman, the general manager, had to react.

Steinbrenner was insistent Sunday that the sluggish Yankees needed to move Chamberlain from a setup man to the rotation. Cashman, who spent the offseason deciding with his staff how the Yankees could best use Chamberlain, said Monday that Steinbrenner must wait to see Chamberlain as a starter.

"We discussed this extensively this winter about how things would unravel or unfold," Cashman told The New York Times. "Right now, that can't change. There's no reason for that. Hank knows that."

If Steinbrenner knows that is the plan, why did he speak out? Cashman did not know and did not want to speculate. But, since Steinbrenner and his brother, Hal, replaced their father, George, as the leaders of the organization, Hank has sometimes been as vocal as his demanding father used to be.

But when asked about Chamberlain on Monday at the team's complex in Tampa, Fla., Hank Steinbrenner told The Associated Press: "We're not going to rush him. I think most people agree with me, including the baseball people and most of the fans, that sooner or later it would be nice if he was a starter."

When Steinbrenner was contacted Sunday, it took him a few sentences to contradict months of preparation regarding Chamberlain.

"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. "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."

Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez spent Monday in New York getting physical therapy on his strained right quadriceps. He is listed as day to day.

Rodriguez's wife, Cynthia, is expected to give birth to the couple's second child any day in Miami.