Yankees Pitching Staff

Okay I hate the Yankees. It's probably related to the fact that they have won lots of World Series and that they can afford to have a payroll of a gazillion dollars and not have to worry a beat about who they add to said payroll. I never thought I would write about them that's for sure but I was on MLB.com earlier today and it gave me some ideas to write about on here.

Yesterday they traded what many feel is their best prospect in Jesus Montero to Seattle for Michael Pineda who I guess they are slotting right behind C.C. Sabathia in their starting five. That trade in itself isn't a game changer money-wise as a couple of young guys making minimum were traded for each other.

Let's face it the Yankees have been real quiet this off-season. Besides re-signing Freddy Garcia in early November for $4,000,000 plus some bonus targets; they haven't really done anything else.

They let several of their veteran players elect free agency. Guys like Jorge Posada, Andruw Jones, Bartolo Colon, Eric Chavez. All of these guys were role players last year and can be considered replaceable.

Yesterday they also signed Hideki Kuroda (ex of the Dodgers) for what is being bandied about as a 1 yr. contract for $10,000,000. That's revenue neutral as well when you think of what Jorge Posada was pulling in last year $13,100,000. He was getting that for 387 ABs. Not too many teams can afford that kind of money for a part-time player.

Anyways getting back to the point. You figure that you have Sabathia ($23M), Pineda ($414K) and Kuroda($10M) as 1,2 and 3. I'm thinking that Garcia ($4M) slots as the 5th starter as you don't want to have back-to-back soft tossers in the rotation. These four combine to $37.4M in salaries.

So this means that there's one spot open. The 4th starter. This is where it gets complicated for the Yankees and where it gets to be a point of jealousy for fans of other teams.

At this time competing for that slot is A.J. Burnett at $16.5M for each of the next two years. Yes he of the 11-11 season record and 5.15 ERA. Also in the mix is Phil Hughes who in 2010 won 18 games. He had a dead arm last year and didn't pitch much but made $2.7M and is up for arbitration. Let's not forget last year's true number two starter on the team was Ivan Nova who was pretty much a rookie but ended the year with a 16-4 record. He's making Pineda money so he's a cheap option.

So if you look at the trade and look at the signing you kind of wonder what the Yankees are doing. Pineda is a great trade. Signing Kuroda I would thinks means dumping Burnett and his remaining $33M contract somewhere. It isn't like there too many teams that want A.J. and his fragile and know-it-all makeup I think.

That means the 4th slot is between Nova and Hughes. Given Nova's 2011 stats it looks like Hughes is going to be a mop-up pitcher unless the Yankees try to deal him as well. I think that Hughes is getting short shrift here. I think there are a few teams that would like to get their hands on him. He seems to be the forgotten man. Maybe he still has issues with his arm. Who knows? I know lots of teams would love to be in this predicament. The starters and those not making the cut add up to north of $60,000,000. That's more than some total team payrolls. Add A-Rod, Jeter, Granderson, Cano, Rivera, etc. etc. It's an obscene amount. No wonder prices are sky-high!