And that's good. As I articulated here ad nauseam, Brian Cashman made the right choice in not sending all the Yankees' best prospects away for anything less than a Cliff Lee-type dominant starter. Good on you, Brian.
Does that mean we should have total confidence in the starting five (or six) as it stands? Not necessarily. The Yankees will make the playoffs this year, barring a catastrophe of Debt Ceiling-like proportions. And once they're in those short series against the league's best pitchers, their starters (except CC) might be exposed. Or not. Short series are unpredictable; the Giants were not supposed to BE in the World Series last year, let alone win it.
With the reappearance of Ivan Nova, and his clear superiority in one start over the same sample of Phil Hughes, the Yankees will have an interesting choice to make soon. But not before they are finished with the Boston series next weekend. And that series has become a much bigger deal than it should be, for good reason.
The embarrassing complete domination of the Red Sox over the Yankees in the teams' first nine meetings this year (Boston 8, NY 1) must be stopped in this series. The Yankees can't wait until the end of this month, heading into the September stretch run, to do it. They must win at least two of the three games at Fenway Park this weekend to prove they can do it, if for no other reason.
And that won't be an easy task. Don't be fooled by the recent offensive outbursts: The Mariners, A's and Orioles are not even approaching the level of good teams. You're SUPPOSED to beat them in 7 out of 10 games. The real test will come not over the next four days in Chicago, but the following three in Boston. Rest assured CC will pitch one of those games, probably against Beckett. And then, we'll see.
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