Ted Robinson

The Yankees' booming bats may bring them a ninth straight AL East crown, but unless their pitching -- especially their starting staff -- continues to defy Father Time while also getting its ailing members healthy, this fall will mark the sixth consecutive year a World Series championship won't be celebrated in the Bronx.

Not exactly a youth movement
The Yankees are an aging team even though they did shed some older players in the offseason. Kevin Brown's seven-year, $105 million contract came to an end as did his career due to the 41-year-old's chronic back woes.

After getting Brown in a trade from the Dodgers in December of 2003, the Yankees paid big bucks for an often ailing pitcher who in two seasons in New York posted a 14-13 record, and appeared in only 35 games.

Gone also is 38-year-old Tino Martinez, whom George Steinbrenner paid $3 million to last year to hit .241 in 303 at bats. Another 38-year-old, Tom Gordon, who had excellent results as the setup man to closer Mariano Rivera the last two seasons, walked away from the Yankees as a free agent, signing with the Phillies.

The Yankees went younger in replacing Gordon, opting to sign free-agent, hard-throwing, right-hander Kyle Farnsworth, who will turn 30 less than a month into the season. Whether Farnsworth --not known for his coachability -- can match Gordon's performance in getting leads to Rivera is one of the major questions facing the Yankees this season.

And it goes without saying that Rivera -- who had an MVP worthy year last season -- needs to remain impervious to age (he's 36), or the Yankees can pretty much forget about playing in October.  

No worse for the wear?
The Yankees starting rotation begins with Randy Johnson, who will be 43 in September. The Big Unit went 17-8 with a 3.79 ERA in the regular season last year, but in two outings and seven innings against the Angels in the ALDS, Johnson surrendered five runs and twelve hits, including a pair of home runs as the Angels batted .375 against him.

Johnson's build and his pitching style have led to concerns over him encountering physical problems ever since he arrived in the major leagues, but his last stint on the disabled list was in 2003.

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The Yankees are keeping their collective fingers crossed that over 3,500 innings pitched in the major leagues don't catch up to the 6-foot-10 southpaw in 2006.

Behind Johnson is 37-year-old Mike Mussina, who did not pitch well after July last season -- save one start in September and one postseason start. Mussina's ERA of 6.52 after July can at least in part be traced to his battles with elbow soreness.

He'll need to prove this season that his elbow is healthy, not only for the good of the team, but also for his own good as he is in a contract year. He's no longer a dominant No. 1 pitcher, and like Johnson he's thrown a lot of major-league innings (3,013).

Surprises -- good and bad
The Yankees hope that Shawn Chacon, who went 7-3 with a 2.85 ERA after being dealt to New York from Colorado last July, will hold down a spot in the rotation, and prove as effective as he was in the second half of last season.

Fact is Chacon was a better pitcher in the late summer of 2005 than he has ever been in his career, and he needs to repeat that form and not fall back into his struggling mode, which had his record at 1-7 at the time of his trade to the Yankees.  

Before last season, the Yankees gave free agent Jaret Wright a three-year, $21 million contract figuring he'd be an integral part of their revamped rotation. What they got instead was a pitcher who worked only the month of April before going on the disabled list with shoulder problems.

In all Wright missed over half the season, ended up making only 13 starts that resulted in a bloated 6.08 ERA, and has struggled through the first half of spring training this year. He's yet to hint that he can pitch effectively for a full season, or for that matter even make the rotation out of camp.

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Like Wright, Carl Pavano got a lucrative free-agent deal from the Yankees last offseason, one that runs through 2008. Maybe he'll find solid health by then.

Pavano's had more than his share of injuries since arriving in the major leagues in 1998. Last year was no exception as he missed considerable time with rotator cuff problems, and did pitch at all in the second half of the season.

This spring Pavano's dealing with back problems, and it's questionable whether he'll make it on to the opening day roster.

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