Eiland won’t name favorite to be Yanks’ fifth starter

Besides the fact that the Yankees haven’t actually played a game in two days, pitching coach Dave Eiland tells us that it’s still way too early to name a front-runner to be the club’s fifth starter:

“I don’t think anyone has pulled ahead,” pitching coach Dave Eiland said. “Ace has thrown the ball extremely well, but as of right now, if we had to pick, we really couldn’t pick one. They haven’t been out there long enough.”

While Alfredo Aceves, Segio Mitre and Chad Gaudin are auditioning for the gig, Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain -- the two with the most upside -- are considered the favorites. Of course, Chamberlain has been a complete mess thus far -- allowing 11 runs and six walks in just 3 2/3 innings (27.00 ERA) -- but Eiland insists that it would be foolish to weigh the candidates based on statistics alone.

“When you say results, it’s not just numbers,” Eiland said. “It’s the quality of each pitch, working ahead in the count, first-pitch strikes, stuff, command. How economical are they? Are the outs hard-hit? You can go out and pitch a few innings, give up lasers all over the field but walk away up no hits and no runs. That doesn’t mean you made a lot of good pitches.”

Chamberlain and Hughes obviously have the most talent of the lot, but Eiland sees room for improvement in each. He believes that Hughes needs to better utilize his changeup to be an effective starter while Chamberlain needs to get ahead in the count more often. For what it’s worth (seemingly little), Aceves has yet to allow a run in six innings of work this spring, while Mitre has pitched five scoreless frames.