Joba Chamberlain will make his long-awaited return to the mound today ... when he throws 30 pitches in a carefully-monitored bullpen session. He's only going to throw fastballs and change-ups, and even if things go perfectly, it's still not clear when he'll actually appear in a game.

As speculated last week, Joe Girardi does sound open to putting his young ace back in the bullpen, at least until Chamberlain builds up his arm strength. From Ed Price of the Star-Ledger:

"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."

As Price notes, it'd be one thing if Joba were trying to return in the middle of the summer, but with the Yankees' farm clubs approaching the end of their seasons, he simply won't be afforded the opportunity to make a handful of three-, four- and five-inning minor league rehab starts until he gets back into shape. Instead, once he's ready to test his shoulder in a game situation, he'll probably have to be thrown into the fire as a big league long reliever.

Whatever happens, though, rest assured that the decision-makers aren't being pressured from the top. Whereas earlier in the season Hank Steinbrenner was quick to share his opinion regarding putting Joba in the rotation, he's now willing to defer to the experts.

"It's up to (manager Joe) Girardi and (pitching coach Dave) Eiland, how they want to do it. They know what they're doing, and the doctors obviously know."

Besides, Hank (may or may not have actually said), just you wait until next year! That's when Joba will really shine!