As we near the reporting date for pitchers and catchers I will be looking at the major battles for both New York teams. Let’s start off with really the only big question mark for the Yankees: Who will be the fifth starter?

Locks: Sabathia, Vazquez, Burnett, Pettitte

Competition: Chamberlain, Hughes, Mitre, Gaudin

Long Shot: Romulo Sanchez

Call up Possibilities: Zach McAllister, Ivan Nova

Don’t Forget: Alfredo Aceves

There is no need to go into why the Yankees “fearsome foursome” are locks to be in the rotation. If healthy, Sabathia, Vazquez, Burnett, and Pettitte will give you quality starts most nights out. The innings that each potentially will provide makes a strong bullpen that much better. For a while, the Yankees won with a strong offense and bullpen, but their starting pitchers were basically five inning league average types.

Last year, despite imported Sabathia and Burnett, they essentially got away with three quality starters for the majority of the year. Chien Ming Wang was rendered useless very early in the season and Joba Chamberlain was inconsistent, as well as limited to a finite number of innings. I don’t need to get into the September little league starts.

I hope the Yankees have learned from that developmental disaster of a year ago. Make no mistake about it, this is a two man race between Chamberlain and Hughes. They only way I see a Gaudin, or even more unlikely, Mitre taking the spot is if the kids are injured or disastrous. If the Yankees plans are to start both the kids long term then both sould start the entire year. There are enough bullpen arms to navigate the season. Send the loser of the competition to AAA and only call him up when injuries arise.

The most logical long term development scenario is Hughes in AAA and Chamberlain as the fifth starter. Let’s see Joba, once and for all, show us what he’s got without training wheels. Hughes can be placed at Scranton and work on his secondary pitches, specifically his changeup, which pitching coach Dave Eiland believes is essentially for his success.

The good news for the Yankees is there are some interesting young arms, outside of Hughes/Chamberlain, that could fill in if necessary. Zach McAllister and Ivan Nova are highly regarded prospects. Brian Cashman gushed about Nova during last year’s Eastern League All Star Game in Trenton. Another sleeper fill in is Romulo Sanchez, who was acquired from Pittsburgh for Eric Hacker. A lot would have to happen for these kids to start long term, but depth is a nice thing to have. Remember, most GM’s will tell you that sometimes 8 to 9 starters are necessary in order to make it through 162 games. Last year nine different pitchers started a game for the Yankees.

One other name to remember is Alfredo Aceves. He was a very successful starter at the end of 2008. He provides great value out of the bullpen, but I would be curious to see if he could sneak into the conversation with a strong spring.

Prediction: The Yankees will put Hughes into the rotation, Joba in the bullpen, and spot Hughes with some of the veterans and kids I mentioned. This scenario makes Aceves that much more important as I believe he is a far more competent fill in than Mitre or Gaudin. Hopefully, if Chamberlain is put in the bullpen, it’s to stay and become the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera. Even though I would like to see him pitch without restrictions for a full season I doubt he has the makeup to be a consistent big league starter pitcher.

Listen to WFAN’s Neil Keefe and I talk about the Yankees during last night’s show.

Mike Silva is a freelance writer and radio host since March of 2007. This website is his own personal "digest" of New York Baseball He's also hosts NYBD Radio on Blog Talk Radio and 1240 AM WGBB. Check out his sports media commentary at www.sportsmediawatchdog.com. Check out his official website, www.mikesilvamedia.com

Mike Silva

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Tags: A.J. Burnett, Alfredo Aceves, Andy Pettitte, CC Sabathia, Chad Gaudin, Ivan Nova, Javier Vazquez, Joba Chamberlain, New York Yankees, Phil Hughes, Romulo Sanchez, Sergio Mitre, Yankees Starting Rotation, Zach McAllister