Joba, Hughes try to make good first impressions on Girardi

TAMPA, Fla. - The opening shots, exactly 60 of them, were fired Friday morning in the Joba Chamberlain-Phil Hughes battle for the fifth spot in the Yankees' rotation.

With Joe Girardi watching closely, Chamberlain and Hughes threw their first bullpen sessions of spring training. Together. "I think I gained a percent today," Hughes joked.

It will be that kind of spring, with each session scrutinized. And that's before either takes the mound in a game.

Each threw 30 pitches Friday, all fastballs and changeups. Girardi made sure to tell both pitchers that the competition wouldn't be won on the first day, but both said human nature makes it difficult to go along with that.

"He was a competitor himself,'' Chamberlain said of Girardi, "so I'm sure if somebody told him that, he'd probably let it go in one ear and out the other. We have a long time to go, but you can't take a day off. You're not going to win the job today, but what you do today is going to prepare you for the rest of the year."

Hughes said he was mindful of Girardi's presence. "You always want to impress people and show that you can at least throw strikes on your first bullpen," he said. "As much as they say it's not going to be won on the first day, he's still standing there, so you want to make some impressions. So it was a good, solid first day."

The Yankees would like to see Chamberlain show the consistent aggressiveness as a starter that he's shown as a reliever. They would like to see Hughes, who threw mostly fastballs and curveballs with the occasional cutter out of the bullpen last year, develop a changeup.

Although Hughes might not be entirely comfortable throwing changeups, Girardi said he and pitching coach Dave Eiland will insist that he does throw them in games.

"We're not going to necessarily force him, but we're going to say, if he goes out the first inning and doesn't throw it, 'well, we need to work on this a little bit,' " Girardi said.

He stressed, however, that what happens early in spring training, competitive tendencies aside, isn't as important as what happens later.

"The first couple outings, you're not going to say, 'Oh, that's our starter,' " Girardi said. "It's not going to be that way. They haven't been throwing in competitive situations for the last three months or so, so you can't expect them to just go out and have every pitch and be locked in with every pitch. Each time is a stepping-stone for the next time."

Notes & quotes: Girardi has been struck by the number of quality arms he's seen. "I really like the arms we have in camp," he said. "And there's some young players in here . . . That's good to see because you think about your future and you need depth in your rotation, you need depth in your bullpen. You'd like to say the 12 guys you start with are all going to do very well and stay healthy, but the reality is it's probably not going to happen." . . . Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson again were in the clubhouse.