Brackman may detour through Yankees' pen

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Andrew Brackman sees himself as a starter, as do the Yankees. But the 6-11 prospect's quickest route to the Bronx probably will be via the bullpen, and that's fine with him.

"I would be open to anything that would get me in a pinstriped uniform," Brackman said.

Brackman, the Yankees' first-round pick in 2007 out of North Carolina State, made his spring debut Tuesday, pitching a scoreless seventh inning in a 5-4 victory over the Braves at Champion Stadium.

The 25-year-old righthander, after impressing team executives and coaches early in the spring, had been slowed since Feb. 25 by a groin injury.

"First time out he was good," Joe Girardi said. "He threw strikes. Saw a good curveball."

Brackman, however, wasn't as pleased. He said he didn't "sit still" the entire game before coming in to pitch and carried that excitement to the mound, and not in a good way.

"The game just sped up on me a little bit," Brackman said. "I didn't really throw it the way I did those first two BP's. Just glad the first one's out of the way."

The pitcher might have been being a tad hard on himself.

David Ross lined Brackman's first pitch into leftfield but Brackman, who sprouted another inch over the winter, induced a potential double-play grounder from Matt Young, leading to a forceout. Brackman struck out Shawn Bowman on a nasty curve that darted out of the zone, and he got Martin Prado to fly to center for the inning's final out.

"I didn't really feel like I threw the ball today the way that I could," said Brackman, whose fastball twice reached 96 mph.

Although Girardi never will rule anything out, Brackman currently isn't a candidate for the Nos. 4 and 5 rotation spots. Brackman said in the back of his mind that he hasn't given up on it, but it's highly unlikely, given the time he missed and how well Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia, Bartolo Colon and Sergio Mitre have pitched.

The bullpen also appears set, but few teams have the same bullpen two months into the season that they leave camp with, the result of injury and/or underperformance. So it benefits Brackman, likely to start the season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, to pitch well in the spring, something he didn't do in his first two big-league camps.

"There's a lot of young players that break in in the bullpen first before they become starters in the big leagues, so I think that's something you definitely could consider," Girardi said. "He's pitching for a spot. We brought him to camp to pitch for a spot. We called him up last year [in September] to understand the atmosphere and give him a chance."

Brackman said "thank God" several times in discussing his first appearance of the spring being behind him. Girardi said Brackman was likely to see action again in another four days.

"I tried to get out there and find my rhythm early," Brackman said. "I found it on a couple pitches, but I need to really get that rhythm down and have it there all the time to be consistent and be where I want to be."

The "where" ultimately meaning New York.

"Every time I go out there, I want to try and throw the way I know how to throw and try and show the coaches something," Brackman said. "Worse comes to worse, if I don't make the club, keep fighting day in and day out and see if I can get up there as soon as possible."