FORT MYERS, Fla. – Clay Buchholz told Joba Chamberlain his thoughts on the matter.

“I gave him my opinion of it. I thought he should be a bullpen guy because he’s lights-out,” Buchholz said regarding the opinion he relayed to the Yankees pitcher concerning his role as starter or reliever. “Everybody sees what he does in the bullpen in the seventh, eighth inning. He has that mentality of a closer, a mentality like [Jonathan Papelbon] has. It’s two different things. It’s so hard to be that intense for seven innings vs. one or two. That’s his nature and that’s what I told him. But I’m not a front office guy.”

But while Buchholz believes his good friend is a good fit for the bullpen, the same can’t be said about how he feels about his own situation.

Buchholz wants to be a starter, and evidently the Red Sox are in line with that way of thinking.

According to both the hurler and the team, there have been no discussions regarding the possibility of Buchholz finding himself leaving spring training as a member of the Boston bullpen.

And while there appears to be a surplus of starters at this moment, the plan going forward remains to treat all parties involved as members of the starting rotation, as Red Sox manager Terry Francona’s recent proclamation that Tim Wakefield is a starter would suggest.

“At this point and time, no, we haven’t [thought about moving Buchholz to the bullpen]. We haven’t discussed that role,” said Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell. “We view him as a middle-of-the-rotation to front-of-the-rotation type of pitcher. He established himself very well when he came up here. From Theo [Epstein] to Tito [Francona] and our entire organization, we view him in that role.

“Anything can always change, but I think our focus in spring training is to get him prepared to take 30-32 starts, and there’s no reason why that won’t be the case at this point.”

Buchholz makes it clear that if called upon, he would gladly re-enter the bullpen for the first time since Aug. 17, 2008. But he also insists that, unlike with Chamberlain, starting is the best fit for him.

“That topic never came up, or hasn’t come up yet,” Buchholz said of the possibility of morphing into a reliever at some point. “Obviously, I’m preparing to be a starter and that’s basically what they told me, wanting me to throw a lot of innings this year. Whether that’s starting or coming out of the bullpen, I don’t really care at this point. I just want to break camp and be with the team and finally get a full season of straight major league ball under my belt.

“I want to start. The mindset of a starter and the mindset of a bullpen guy are two totally different positions, and I didn’t really understand that until I made a couple of bullpen appearances. Your mind is in a different spot. You haven’t set up a batter two at-bats already and then heading into a third at-bat. It’s a different atmosphere.”

Part of the desire to remain a starter comes from the progress Buchholz has made in approaching each start, as the results from a year ago might suggest. Instead of simply going out and unloading everything in a game plan from the outset, the 25-year-old has learned the value of setting up a lineup to get optimum results in the later innings.

For instance, in 2009 Buchholz saw his opponents batting average drop from .287 the second time through the lineup to .258 in the third time through. The fifth and sixth innings also proved the most productive frames for the righty, with opponents hitting just .182 and .216, respectively.

“Whenever I get five years under my belt, that’s whenever I’ll be able to say this is what I’m doing and I’m not doing that,” Buchholz said.

“I just think the mentality I’ve grown up to put in my own mind, where I’m starting a game and say, ‘We’re starting this and this, and then we can finish later doing this and this,’ instead of coming out of the bullpen and say, ‘Here’s all four pitches.’ Either way, I’m here to pitch and that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take the ball whenever I’m asked to.”