looking ahead

What will the 2011 Yankee rotation look like? CC and AJ are locks, but Pettitte and Vazquez are probably going to be gone. So the Yanks have to look ahead. There are some attractive free agent starters including Cliff Lee, Josh Beckett and Brandon Webb, but at most they would sign one of them since so much money is committed to CC and AJ. That leaves two spots remaining. I think that Cashman has his heart set on Joba and Hughes being those two pitchers.

This leaves the Yanks with a dilemma. With Joba and Hughes battling for the 5th starter role this year, the conventional wisdom is that the loser of that slot will end up being the primary setup man to Mariano. The problem is that whomever winds up in that role will only throw about 75 innings this year, and won't be in line to be a full fledged starter in 2011. With inning limits of 40 more than the year before, the 2011 fifth starter would have "Joba rules" all over again.

It will be interesting to see if the loser of that role gets sent down to AAA to be a starter to avoid that problem in 2011. Is this why the Yanks signed Park?