Pete Abe reports that Ian Kennedy will be sent back to New York for an MRI and will be placed on the 15-day DL with the strained lat muscle he suffered in the middle of an unbelievably wet and sloppy night for the Yankees.

I would expect Chris Britton to get another call-up tonight from the "Scranton Shuttle Bus Crew" as Kennedy is officially placed on the DL and I wouldn't be at all surprised if "Dead Man Walking" Morgan Ensberg finally gets the proverbial boot in favor of Jason Lane. 

This move is certainly coming as evidenced by Ensberg's lack of plate appearances against left handers in recent days in addition to Lane's increase in reps at First Base at Scranton in recent days.

In other news, with Joba Chamberlain scheduled to throw 50-55 pitches in relief on Wednesday, speculation is that he could make his first major league start next week in Kennedy's now vacated slot in the rotation.

Now I understand that it might be difficult to stretch his pitch count past 60 pitches in a relief role, but I think this transition to the rotation is happening way too fast.  Tomorrow's outing will be just his third relief appearance in a span of 8 days and has not thrown more than 40 pitches in any outing as of this writing.

I'm aware that the Yankee hierarchy has more experience stretching out pitchers' arms than I do, but I have to question their sanity with speeding up this very delicate process with the Golden Boy of the organization after Girardi hinted on May 21 that this transition could take as long as 3-4 weeks.

As every PA regular knows, I'm 100% behind the Joba to the rotation plan.  But I also want to see this kid physically ready to make that switch because he's no use to this organization sitting on the DL with his Trinity Brothers - Ian Kennedy and Phil Hughes.

Here's hoping that Joba makes a smooth transition and my present concerns prove to be an overreaction.