MLB Trade Rumors: A Yankees Delusion, or How Can Cashman Count on Miracles?

This afternoon, Bob Klapisch tweeted that the Yankees were unlikely to make a deal for a starting pitcher. From a distance, this may seem understandable. CC Sabathia is leading all pitchers in WAR. Sabathia, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia rank in the top-25 in ERA in the AL. Perennial wild card A.J. Burnett is just about league-average in ERA and FIP just one season removed from looking like a sunken cost.

Sure, Phil Hughes has been mostly terrible, but there's a silver lining, to most, in that he was once the No. 4 prospect in baseball ... and he's only a year removed from 18 wins with average to slightly above-average peripherals ... and his velocity is ticking back up following his stint on the DL.

Should Hughes be unable to recapture his 2010 form, Ivan Nova is waiting in the wings. While few have any illusions of Nova being a top prospect or potential frontline starter, it would be difficult to argue that he's anything other than a fine back of the rotation starter as-is.

So yes, at face value, there is a fair bit for Yankees fans to feel good about when it comes to the rotation. Results are likely more important than the process or the background noise—to a point. That point is indeterminate, yet it is inevitable. What does this all mean, though?

Sabathia has been undeniably stellar. You'll find no nit-picking here.

Colon has also been stellar, yet I fear that there is far too much to be concerned about with the stout right-hander. Including his stint in the Venezuelan Winter League, Colon has tossed more innings this season than he had since 2005.

He last topped 100 IP in 2007, between the the Angels and Triple-A. Perhaps this is a pessimistic view, as Colon's peripherals suggest he has been as good as his face value numbers suggest, but it seems foolhardy to depend on such a curious resume as a contender's second starter.

Garcia's peripherals—FIP and xFIP in particular—suggest that he's been far closer to league-average than his sparkly 3.21 ERA would suggest. He's also had extraordinary luck with balls in play, as his BABIP is around 50 points lower than expected (though, this is certainly an inexact science). While it would be incorrect to label Garcia's performance as wholly fluky, his injury issues of the last half-decade and luck to date is certainly disconcerting.

With Burnett, you can always count on inconsistent—nothing more, nothing less. The mercurial $16 million man gets an above-average amount of strikeouts and groundballs, coupled with a lot of walks and a lot of home runs. There's really not much else to say (though, his strikeout and groundball percentage and xFIP are much improved in 2011).

As for Hughes ... there's nothing to say that hasn't been said already. The Yankees simply cannot count on him for much of anything at this juncture, as was re-established with gusto against the punchless A's on Friday night.

I suppose that this can be considered a glass half-empty argument. The Yankees rotation rates comparatively well this season—sixth in the AL in both ERA and FIP—and the offense has the punch to make up for many shortfalls.

That being said, with the litany of question marks beyond Sabathia and the aging team's World Series aspirations, it seems incredibly naive to ignore the starting rotation. Ubaldo Jimenez may be too costly, but a true No. 2 or 3 starter—Hiroki Kuroda or Ryan Demptster—could make all the difference in the world.