How Yanks Can Win When Burnett and Sabathia Are Watching

Contextual Note : If we hadn't acquired Burnett and CC Sabathia in the off-season adult flesh auctions, the Yankees would be 17 games out by now.

This fact is another testimony to the abject, complete, and unrelenting failure of the Yankees to draft, identify, retain, properly utilize and develop major league talent...especially pitching.

We paid $50 million for Kei Igawa. We have Ramiro Pena shagging flies in Trenton. We have Ian Kennedy back in surf city, remarrying his wife for the third consecutive season. We have Andrew Brackman hanging dry wall in a Charleston development. We have another former first pick getting ready for his first season as point guard at Kansas state. And another studying biology at UCLA.

And now we are proving that the Yankees could not hurt themselves at all by simply conceding all remaining games with both the Red Sox and the ( supposedly ) punchless Angels.....who, if memory serves, always beat us.

Given the recent work of Andy, Joba and our former ace Chien-Ming Wang, here's what Joe needs to do in games where anyone other than CC or AJ start:

1. Innings one and two: both Pettitte and Joba are usually ok early. Neither usually gives up more than 3 runs in the first two innings ( on average ), and often they can put up goose eggs.

2. Inning three : I think Coke can give us two thirds of an inning ( sometimes departing without a home run and , at worst, leaving two guys on base with walks), and some combination of Albaladejo and Robertson should get us the third out.

3. Inning 4 : Brian Bruney, if he can regain his mental and or physical acuity, might give us one decent inning every other turn. He and Tomko can flip a coin each day to see whose stuff is worse. But this will remain a vulnerable inning for the Yankees.

4. Innings 5 & 6 : "Ace " Aceves has proven reliable for these longer stints. As long as he can get six outs every day, we should be ok.

5. Innings 7 & 8 : Phil Hughes can give us 1 and 2/3 in this critical "bridge " to Mariano spot.

6. Innings 8.2 and 9: MO is going to have to save a lot of 4 0ut situations. It is simply a fact.

As to some of our other assets:

Mark Melancon is not and will never be a useful Yankee reliever. He is great for batting practice. But he is , at best, a AAAA pitcher. If some fool wants him in a trade, package him with my blessing.

Nice to see Hinske's "pop" return. Unfortunately, the Yanks remain 0-3 with him in the line-up

And, has anyone besides me noticed, that our " come from behind " magic seems to have left the building?

I hope you are listening, Joe.