I’ll give Cash the credit for having, pun coming, the “cash” to go out and buy Roger Clemens – and get 20 starts (by the time the season is over) that he would have had no one else to cover – thanks to his plan of Pavano and Igawa.
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I think it has been overlooked that while Pavano & Igawa were counted on to be the 4th & 5th starters, there were backups in Kartsens & Rasner. Hughes, IIRC, was to come sometime after the ASB. DeSalvo was available to spot start as the org felt he had turned a corner.

Yanks happened to have a perfect storm of injuries and ineffectiveness.

Andrew–Give us all a break. With an owner who has spent a billion bucks on players over the last five years, it is very easy to come up with endless “contingency plans.” You are far too generous to Cashman, who operates with a cushion like no other GM in professional sports. Cashman is blessed with the capacity to make expensive mistakes–and then spend more to correct them.

Cashman said they allotted that amount of money for Clemens before the season even started. As I said, it was a contingency plan he already had in place, not a pull-it-out-of-your-ass desperation move.

Unfortunately for the Yankees and Brian Cashman, they needed those contingency plans. I would love to see where the Sox would be if they even needed to use more than one ‘contingency’ during the entire season. It’s been a blessed season for them, and a wretched one for the Yankees. Not to excuse poor performance, but to put the jobs by various GMs in perspective.

~~~Thankfully, Cashman knows what he is doing, and even though the Yankees had 1 starter for all of April, they’re still in contention today. Cash doesn’t get credit for that, though, does he?~~~

I’ll give Cash the credit for having, pun coming, the “cash” to go out and buy Roger Clemens – and get 20 starts (by the time the season is over) that he would have had no one else to cover – thanks to his plan of Pavano and Igawa. Brian was lucky that Roger was out there – and that Stein was willing to pay. Otherwise, it would have been Wang and Pettitte, only, and the Yankees would not be in contention now.

The plan was Pavano and Igawa, with Hughes as a contingency. Hughes was always going to come up this year, unless you seriously thought Cashman believed that Igawa and Pavano would last the entire season.

Believe me, if Cashman didn’t actually have contingencies in place, we’d be talking about one of the worst Yankee teams of all time. Thankfully, Cashman knows what he is doing, and even though the Yankees had 1 starter for all of April, they’re still in contention today. Cash doesn’t get credit for that, though, does he?

In hindsight, maybe. Just maybe. Lilly’s pitching okay for the Cubs…in the NL.

Also factor in that you’re paying him $11 million without luxury tax, with the 40% luxury tax, it’s more like $16 million a year, which is significantly more than what they spent on Igawa + the posting fee. And I doubt Lilly would have been able to be sent to the minors.

So, no. Even in hindsight, you can’t say definitively that it would have been a better investment.

~~~How is that much different than Pavano and Hughes?~~~

The plan was never Hughes and Pavano. The plan was Pavano and Igawa. And, that’s a bad plan. Cashman has to be held accountable for that, IMHO.

~~~Ted Lilly for $11 million for 4 years? ~~~

How much did they spend on Igawa – including the posting fee? That would have covered Lilly, and been a better investment, no?

Excuse me, “plans better”?

Even in hindsight, what should Cashman have done? Did you want him to sign Zito to a 7-year deal? Ted Lilly for $11 million for 4 years? Jeff Weaver? Predict that the Red Sox were going to become exactly like the Yankees and use their financial advantage to blow everyone else out of the water for the Matsuzaka negotiation rights, and blow THEM out of the water? Those were the options. Not everything can be exactly perfect. No GM can just go out and sign good, solid free agent pitchers to short-term deals. Oh. But wait! He did! Andy Pettitte! Funny how he never gets credit for things that work out excellently.

Anyway Steve, please, please, PLEASE tell me what teams have exact, solid plans for their fifth starters that you know will work out 100%. Heck, the ‘best team in baseball’ Red Sox counted on Julian Tavarez and (eventually) Jon Lester to make 20% of their teams starts. That has worked out better for them than they could even have dreamed. How is that much different than Pavano and Hughes?

It’s easy to criticize in hindsight, Steve. But it’s not real intelligent, or fair, or constructive.

I’m shocked and disgusted by how people are burying Hughes. I’m not talking specifically about Steve here, either. Michael Kay was a disgrace on the air yesterday calling Hughes overrated. Al Leiter is even worse for not articulating the obvious: PHIL HUGHES IS THE YOUNGEST PITCHER IN THE LEAGUE, ALL OF 21, THIS IS HIS SEVENTH MAJOR-LEAGUE START AND HE’S LEARNING ON THE FLY! You’re talking about someone who spent a few WEEKS in AAA. He basically went to the big leagues straight from AA. Is anyone stupid enough to think he’s not going to get hit?

I didn’t hear Justice say it, but if he truly said “he’s tough when his fastball is on the corners but when it’s over the plate it’s hittable” then he should get a gold star for obviousness. You can say the same thing about every pitcher in baseball.

Everyone was already claiming Hughes was a piece of garbage yesterday. Even a place like Pending Pinstripes, which was a real shock to me.

I just don’t understand what people expect. Do they expect no-hitters every time he’s out there? Complete-game shutouts? He’s proving he can hang in the majors at 21. That’s pretty impressive. Even when the end results haven’t been stellar (like yesterday) he’s still been pretty good. He only gave up four hits — two were misplaced fastballs for home runs and one was a bad play by Matsui that turned into an inside-the-park home run.

Hughes is 21, still learning how to pitch, still improving. What you see today is not what you might see in just a year or two. Are people this dense? You might accept this from fans, but writers too? It’s unbelievable to me.

And the velocity thing… it just seems like it’s going to be an endless debate. I don’t know why people pay so much attention to radar guns. Remember when Yankee fans were so upset because YES was clocking Randy Johnson at 88 and NESN and ESPN had him at 95? The Stadium gun is always 1-2 miles per hour faster than YES. The gun in Comerica is 3 miles an hour faster. The difference between the SNY gun and Shea gun is sometimes as much as 5 miles an hour. Which is right? And frankly, who cares? The velocity of a fastball always has to be judged based on how a batter reacts to it. In the case of yesterday’s game, Phil put two right down the middle and paid for it. But it wasn’t the lack of velocity — it was location.