New York Nine

In case anyone hasn't heard but the yankees have spend a few bucks this winter. 181 mil on Mark Texiera, another 160 on CC Sabbathia, and another 80 million on AJ Burnett, quite a spending spree for sure but it seems as though even Hal and Hank have their limits, or so they are suggesting. Indeed, when it has come to the case of Andy Pettitte, the Steinbrenner brothers have been reluctant to shell out the big money for what would be their 5 starter and in many ways its hard to argue their rationale. Consider Andy's numbers last year 4.54 ERA 233 hits in 203 innings and 19 home runs, not exactly great numbers, and moreover numbers that hardly merit the 16 million salary he is asking for. Instead Cashman offered 10 million, a paycut from his previous two seasons, but not exactly pennies, but adjusted to the economic realities of this past year. But for a moment consider Andy's position. Andy has been given "true yankee" title years ago through years of competant and gutsy performances since he came up in 1996. He did leave for a time for houston, but he has never really lost that "true yankee" status in the eyes of fans and ownership alike. Now Andy had a bad year for sure, but he's given the team a lot, he's paid his dues and he see the spending spree they've put on this winter, seemingly tossing money at everyone, some less reliable and deserving that you are (at least in his eyes) and they're going to quibble with you over six million? Especially with the current fragility of the rotation I think the Steinbrenners need to just swallow their pride and give the guy what he's asking. Take a look at the rotation

Sabbathia
Wang
Burnett
Chamberlain
Hughes/Kennedy/Alceves/some other guy

I count there two guys you can count on giving you 200 innings (and even that is a stretch with Wang out half the year last year), and that's not enough. As I've mentioned earlier you can't win without pitching, specifically pitching depth. The red sox have gone out and gotten guys who are proven and you can count on giving innings. while i love the potential of joba hughes and kennedy last year showed that we cannot count of them yet, they need to prove that they can be counted on still. I say Hal, bite the bullet, its too much money to give a guy with a 4.5 ERA but you need him, and you need his innings to ensure any kind of consistency in the rotation this year because if not I fear Cashman will be looking in the rolodex for the old re-treads who are still out of work like our boy sidney ponson. If we want to have any shot to compete with the great pitching of the sox and rays we need to have comprable pitching to compete and right now I dont see enough durable pitching to do that. Maybe Andy will meet them half way, but I doubt it, this six million they give him could be worth more than they think.