Hah! Your desperation is showing.

And indeed the Boss is no longer running the show. Cashmoney is.

He threw 147 innings last season. He'll probably throw 180 this season, mostly in AAA, and then come up for some easy innings in relief in August, by which time the Yanks will be cantering towards the finish, resting the vets, having wrapped up the division.

The important thing is that they don't really have any competition in the AL East. Now if they were in the Central, you might have a point, but given the state of the East, even question marks such as Pettit's elbow, Moose's age, the big increase in Wang's ip last season from previous seasons, don't matter.

All those guys can spend a month on the dl. And we've got a queue of righty sps lined up in AAA, all of whom are better now than anything the Sawx have that doesn't have a Japanese name. Call it 5th starter by committee.

No team in contention ever leaves its best pitcher at AAA.

It's not a question of whether he pitches in the bigs this season, but whether as you say the Yanks will test his arm by throwing him for over 200 innings. The former will happen, the latter won't, primarily b/c they won't be tempted by the pressure of a pennant race, but also b/c they're too smart.

Meanwhile, Hughes 2.0 is progressing nicely.

Yes, that's why you can't let him open at AAA, where he'll be in the rotation. 30 big league innings are better for him than 100 minor league before he goes into the big league rotation for another hundred.

Yeah, you're right about that. It's not out of the question that they'll have him start the season in the bigs.

Supposedly Torre asked about putting him on the big league squad last Spring training, when Moose and Giambi and Jeter all said St. Phil had the best stuff in camp.

And it would be better to let him get his first taste of the show in middle relief.

It'd make sense on another level as well, in that the Yanks have a logjam in their starting rotations in both AAA and AA -- too many good arms, too few slots.
We shall see.

Hughes matters. No one of the other guys do.

A number of the other guys will develop into decent pitchers. They need to get some innings in at the proper minor league level. W/ Hughes still in the minors, there'll be some folks left in AA who've already proved themselves there. All the more reason to put St. Phil in the Bronx asap.

They'll be 4th starters in KC.

Hughes is the only starter and Sanchez will be a good reliever for awhile.

Chamberlain and Kennedy will be top of the rotation men. Both should be in AA by midseason at the latest. And for all the talk about Sanchez in the pen, he would seem to have to good an arm to waste there. The only question I suppose is his health.

Hughes, Chamberlain, Betances, Kennedy. They'll give the O's big 4 from the 70s a run for their money.

Chamberlain is Charley Kerfeld, but teens pitchers don't succeed and asking three to is silly.