the 2007 NY Yankees : Starting Pitching

First in a five part series... Mussina, Pettitte, Wang, Igawa, and Pavano are penciled in for the rotation and it is good enough to win the American League in front of a top offense. The weak link is Pavano since no one knows if he will compete. If he resembles the fellow from Florida the Yankees will be in good shape: a 6-7inning quality performance three+ out of five outings.
The issue is health//depth. Nos. 6-9 are important and here they are young Karstens, Rasner, Sanchez, Hughes in that order then Clippard and a host of other possibles--they have good young arms not much experience. The Yankees seem willing to try their kiddie corps after seeing Detroit succeed and Boston flame out last year doing the same thing...they feel thay can manage it and Cashman has gathered the personnel to give it a good test. The view here is that Sanchez is ready to shine and Karstens and Rasner would be decent at the back end of the rotation and hold their own. Hughes is ready to be a No.3 it is better to wait uintil September if possible--or at least til July. Then there is the Clemens factor. I see Clemens going anywhere but NY... but id he lands in NY then Pavano would become a trade and the Yanks would try to build towards another important goal: somehow getting Miguel Cabrera.