Joba Set to Throw From Mound

Joba is set for a 30 pitch bullpen session today. This will be the first time he throws from the mound, and he will be limited to throwing fastball and changeups. As his rehab progresses he will begin to add in the slider and curveball.

And there's a good chance when he returns to the mound for the Yankees it will be in the bullpen.

From Ed Price:

Joba Chamberlain is scheduled to return to a mound today for the first time since Aug. 4, and when he gets back into games for the Yankees, it may be as a reliever at first.

"We've always thought of him as a starter," manager Joe Girardi said Friday. "That's how I still think of him.

"There's not a lot of time to build up, so we might have to be creative how we build him up. ... We're not exactly sure how we're going to do it."

Girardi didn't give details on how Chamberlain's pitch counts could be increased to starter level, but it could be out of the bullpen for a while. By the time Chamberlain is ready for games, minor-league seasons will likely be complete, ruling out a rehabilitation assignment.

From what I've been reading the earliest he will be back on the mound for the Yankees is early September, most likely the second week. I wonder if that give the Yankees enough time to get his pitch count to where it needs to be for him to start? They'll likely try to build up his pitch count the same way they did it earlier this season, and that took about a month before Joba was up to 100 pitches. I wouldn't be too surprised if he pitches out of the pen for the remainder of the season.