After a great run to the title in 2009, the 2010 season would not end as sweet for the New York Yankees and their fans. The Yankees had a relatively successful season in 2010, once again reaching the playoffs and dispatching of the Minnesota Twins as they seem to do on a yearly basis but 2010 would be cut short, as the Yankees were then bounced by the upstart, high powered Texas Rangers in 6 games in the ALCS.
The night the season ended for the Yankees, the offseason began and the questions and the speculation of who would be joining the team and how much money the front office would spend started. Would Andy Pettitte come back? How much money would the Yankees throw at Cliff Lee so he joins them? What about Derek Jeter and Mariano? As the offseason unfolded, things just weren't going the Yankees way and it was becoming increasingly uneasy for fans to watch the team not getting any better. Then they were making marginal moves, Russell Martin, Pedro Feliciano, Andruw Jones were a few of the names that were being linked with the team and eventually signed on. What about the pitching? What about the captain and the game's greatest closer of all time?
Cliff Lee was not a Yankee after the Winter Meetings...and Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez were both now on the Boston Red Sox. Needless to say things were not looking too good for the Bronx Bombers. And unfortunately they weren't going to get too much better. The biggest signings for the Yankees in the offseason turned out to be their own, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera as Andy Pettitte opted to retire (some believe he had underlying legal issues forthcoming, IE: Roger Clemens). Cliff Lee ended up shocking everyone by not choosing the Yankees, not even the Rangers but instead he chose to go back to the National League and re-join the Phillies who already boast a rotation of Roy squared (Halladay and Oswalt) Cole Hamels and even Joe Blanton ain't that bad. So there you have it, Cliff Lee is now part of one of the best rotations ever assembled on paper in the history of baseball.
So that leads us to what the Yankees were to do now that their biggest signing just ditched them for what he said was a better chance to win. As Spring Training drew nearer, the Yankees were bargain shopping with minor league deals for Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon. Not to mention they plan on letting rookie Ivan Nova, with a cup of coffee in the league last year work for a rotation spot. Fast forward to the end of Spring Training and the Yankees have themselves a patch work rotation of sorts. They went about it a different way then they normal do, they didn't spend the money, didn't ship off the prospects for Felix Hernandez (at least not yet) and now as the 2011 season approaches the Yankees will begin the season with a rotation of CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Phil Hughes, Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia.
As a Yankees fan there are some things to like about this rotation, first and foremost there is Sabathia, pencil him in for 20 more wins, 240 innings, he's nails. AJ Burnett is HUGE for this team, he has to turn it around and there is no reason to think he can't or he won't, look for him to be in the 12-15 win range followed by Phil Hughes who could possibly reach 20 wins (18 last year) and then there is Nova and Garcia. Nova has good stuff, he could win 10 games with the Yankees hitting behind him and Garcia won 12 games last year and there is no reason he can't do it again. So as the 2011 season draws near, the Yankees and GM Brian Cashman authored an off-season rotation remix to put together a 5 man staff on a budget, if it works, great, if not...well there won't be an "if not" because everyone knows the Yankees will be there in July looking to deal for a starter, which goes to show, some things really do never change.
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