Baseball Spring Preview: New York Yankees Pitching

The 2008 baseball season looks very promising for the New York Yankees, who are at what many people consider to be a crucial year for the team. With a new hands-on manager taking over in former Yankee Joe Girardi, the Yankees will be a much different looking team. The Red Sox are coming off of their recent World Series win and George Steinbrenner and his sons Hal and Hank have never wanted a championship even more than now. The Yankees seem to be in a championship drought with their last championship coming in 2000 against the San Diego Padres. The success of this year will almost certainly come down to their young pitching staff which will be put to the test

Starting Pitching: Chien Ming Wang, Andy Pettite, Mike Mussina, Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy

The Yankees were originally going to have Joba Chamberlain in their rotation as a starting pitcher but they decided to bring Ian Kennedy up to the majors to stay after having some success as a starting pitcher last year in games in the majors. Phil Hughes pitched much of last year in the majors before hurting his arm. He even had a perfect game against Texas before he hurt his arm. Hughes can be spectacular and has drawn comparisons to Roger Clemens and other Cy young pitchers with his power fastball around 95 mph and nasty slider. Ian Kennedy should fit nicely in the number 5 pitcher's slot and he did post the best ERA out of any Yankees stating pitcher in spring training with an ERA lower than 3.

Chien Ming Wang is the unquestionable leader of this staff, although he leads by example, not with his voice. He won 19 games last year, utilizing his splitter to get the ball on the ground and to his infielders. Wang had an ERA of 3.7 last year and while he doesn't strike out many hitters, he puts up victories and is a steady, reliable ace of the staff.