One Shouldn't Scoff

At Least I Shouldn't When It Comes To The Yankees Pitching
One should howl.
The Yankees have trotted out 12 pitchers as their starters this year. They have had a season of injury travails that they haven't had in a long time; gone are the certainties of 2003 where they used to regularly trot out reliables like Roger Clemens, David Wells, Andy Pettitte with Mike Mussina. This year's starters so far have been:

Randy Johnson
Mike Mussina
Carl Pavano
Jaret Wright
Kevin Brown
Chien-Ming Wang
Tanyon Sturtze
Sean Henn
Darrell May
Tim Redding
Al Leiter
Aaron Small

Okay, one understands the first 3 names in the rotation, and when they pitch well, the Yankees ought to be in it with more than a chance. Jaret Wirght's an injury waiting to happen, while Kevin Brown these days seems to be more of a back pain waiting to pitch. Chien-Ming Wang was the stand-out success story for the farm system's pitching program this year; Tanyon Strutze's emergency start was ugly but he's been a much better pitcher in relief; Sean Henn was a Double A guy who got psyched out and mashed; Darrell May and Tim Redding were desperate clutches at anything resembling a warm body; Al Leiter came off the scrap heap from Florida and pitched one good outing against Boston and one terrible outing against LAA. Aaron Small was a sort of punt that worked for one start in a game where Juicin' Giambi slugged 2 homers. .

And now, they have claimed Hideo Nomo off waivers from the Devil Rays and signed him to a minor league deal. There's an old adage over at Baseball Think Factory that goes: "TINSTAAPP" It stands for 'There's no such thing as a Pitching Prospect".
The relative merits of that statement have been dissected to kingdom come, but to date, the Yankees have been extremely wary of promoting their farmhands. In fact, their tattered rotation represents the cumulative decisions not to trust their own youngsters. To whit:

- Randy Johson (41y.o.) came in exchange for Javier Vazquez and prospect catcher Dionar Navarro; but Vazquez came in exchange of Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera, 2 very useful players playing elsewhere. While it is arguable if any combination of the players will amount to Johnson's career value, the value over the next 2 years could be entirely different.
- Moose, Pavano, and Wright were Free Agent Signing, One could quibble with the choices (especially InJuret Wright), but it's the Yankee way to sign F.As.
- Kevin Brown (40y.o.) came in exchange with the Dodgers for Jeff Weaver. The problem there is the Yankees got Weaver for Ted Lilly when clearly Lilly was doing just fine having brought him up from the minors. The Lilly-Weaver trade was so gratuitous it wasn't funny; and we know how Weaver turned out. Right now, this is a series of decisions that really stink.
- Wang, who was a 'pitching prospect' we know.
- Henn is still considered a 'Pitching Prospect', but his bad starts may have tarnished that label.
- Strutze (34y.o.), who was claimed off the scrapheap, we also know.
- May was had for Quantrill. It was a fair trade of spare parts; you get what you buy and they bought crap.
- Redding is a poster boy for TINSTAAPP. It seems like he's been a 'Pitching Prospect' for over a decade. He too came over in the Quantrill deal; and had no business making an emergency start. He was keen, I give him that.
- Al Leiter, 38 y.o., fits snugly into a rotation of guys that are in their late 30s.

So you can see why adding Hideo Nomo, the 37 y.o. Japanese righty with the burnt out shoulder to the above list as their '13th Warrior', is TINSTAAP to the extreme.
I just had to get that off my chest. On a lighter note, Juicin' Giambi seems to be JASON GIAMBI again. he's got an OBP in the .440 range for the season. His OPS for July is 1.500!