New York Yankees Set Starting Rotation

New York Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi has named his starting rotation to start the regular season. Here is what it will look like come Thursday…

1. C.C. Sabathia

2. Phil Hughes

3. A.J. Burnett

4. Ivan Nova

5. Freddy Garcia

One through four is no surprise, but the fifth starter is. I am really surprised Garcia got the nod over Bartolo Colon.

Girardi’s logic? “The innings that Freddy logged in, the wins last year, he stayed healthy all of last year,” Girardi said through the NY Daily News.

As we all know, that thinking makes absolutely no sense. I don’t know how you judge a pitcher on A. wins and B. the amount of innings logged last season.

I thought you would make a decision based on who gives you the best chance to win in 2011. But that’s just me.

While neither are anywhere near what they used to be eight years ago, I thought Colon would have been a better choice.

I thought overall he looked better than Garcia did this spring. Colon had 17 K’s and a 2.40 ERA in 15 spring innings, while Garcia struck out 12 and had a 5.93 ERA in 13.2 innings.

Colon will serve as the Yankees’ “Swing man” in 2011. They are hoping he will grow into the role and be their next Ramiro Mendoza or Alfredo Aceves.

I guess my question are; if the Yankees want Colon to be the next Aceves, why not just keep Aceves? And do they want Colon to grow anymore?

Kevin Millwood could factor into things as the season progresses as well. He signed a minor league deal with the Yankees yesterday.

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