For those who may not remember, the Yankee brass, led by general manager Brian Cashman, decided they were going to limit the number of innings Joba Chamberlain would pitch as a starter.

Joba had been a starting pitcher in college and for his entire minor-league career. When he was brought up in 2007, he was used exclusively in the bullpen. But the plan was to have him return to his starting role.

But not really. Or at least not completely. Because Cashman thought Joba was too young to start and go long in 30-plus games as a starter.

So they fiddled around with him, limiting his pitch counts and his innings, and there is at least some credible argument they screwed him up because of it.

Joba injured his shoulder slightly and lost a great deal of velocity on his fastball, which he never seemed to regain as a starter.

In 2010 Joba once more competed for a starter's role but lost the job at the end of spring training to Phil Hughes. Joba went to the pen, where he has been ever since.

So Hughes, who had come up to the Yanks as a starter way back in 2007, was in the rotation. Or was he?

See, Cashman thought Hughes was too young to be turned loose in an unlimited way as a starter. So there were modified rules for Hughes last season.

Now Hughes is hurt, and there is talk it is a circulatory problem affecting his pitching arm.

Can young pitchers go out and throw 200-plus innings per season before they are 24 or 25 years old? Let's check, shall we?

For purposes of this analysis, I looked at stats to determine whether well-known pitchers were able to pitch at least 900 innings by the season they were 25 years old.

Going way back in history, I looked at some Hall of Fame pitchers who are icons of the game.

Cy Young won 511 games in the major leagues, and by the time he was 25 he had thrown 1,023 innings. He would finish his 22-year career with 7,356 innings pitched.

But Young didn't start in the major leagues until he was 23. He threw only 147 innings his first year at age 23, something Cashman would probably approve of.

But Young threw 423 innings when he was just 24 and 453 innings when he was 25. Don't think Cash would approve.

Walter "Big Train" Johnson is another Hall of Famer and by the time he was 25 he had thrown 2,069 innings. Yeah, you read that right—2,069 innings by age 25. What about that, Brian Cashman?

Christy Mathewson had pitched 1,990 innings by the time he was 25. He would finish his glorious career of 17 seasons with 4,788 innings pitched, or an average of 274 innings over a 162-game season.

Kid Nichols, another Hall of Famer, had thrown 2,524 innings by the season in which he was 25. He would go on to throw over 5,000 innings in his 15-year career.

Okay, all those guys are from the dead ball era at the turn of the century. What about pitchers in the modern era?

Bob Feller was pitching in the big leagues when he was 18, and by the time he was 22 he had thrown 1,446 innings. It would be unbelievable how many Feller would have thrown by age 25 if he had not given three years of his career to serve in World War II.

Robin Roberts threw 1,321 innings by age 25.

Don Drysdale threw 1,628 innings by the time he was 25.

Tom Seaver had thrown 1,092 innings through the season in which he turned 25.

Don Sutton threw 1,217 innings by the same age.

Coming to the present, how are pitchers of the past 20 years and right down to current pitchers faring with this much work?

Roger Clemens had thrown 1,030 innings through the season in which he turned 25, and of course he would go on to win more than 300 games and have more than 3,000 strikeouts.

Pedro Martinez had thrown just over 900 by age 25.

Jon Garland had thrown over 1,000 by that age.

Carlos Zambrano had 975 by age 25.

Mark Buehrle had accumulated 986 innings by then.

Matt Cain of the Giants had tossed in 1,093.

CC Sabathia had thrown 1,163 innings, including the season in which he turned 25.

And King Felix Hernandez, always on Yankee fans' trade radar, had thrown 1,155 innings before he was 25 years old.

There are a couple of young pitchers to consider here as well.

Clayton Kershaw is just 23 years of age, but he is throwing 197 innings over an average 162-game season. At that rate he would have 1,182 innings in the books by the time he is 25.

Trevor Cahill, also just 23, averages 206 innings over the statistical 162-game stretch. At that pass he would have thrown 1,030 in the year he is 25.

By protecting his young pitchers, Cashman has seen Hughes throw only 378 innings to date. With the current questions about his health, we cannot know at this point whether he will ever pitch another inning in the major leagues.

What would have happened if they had allowed Joba and Hughes to go out and start 30 games when they were 21 or 22 years old?

We will never know.

The argument is that using young pitchers in this way creates a grave risk that they will break down before they reach their full athletic maturity and the prime of their careers.

There are examples of pitchers who have broken down after heavy early workloads. But it is impossible to know whether they would have broken down if they had been spared as Joba and Phil were.

Cashman completely ruled out Manny Banuelos and Dellin Betances being given a chance to make the major-league roster this season. They were sent to Double A Trenton.

Both Banuelos and Betances were impressive in spring training, when the Yankees seemed desperate for starters. But they were never given a chance to make the Yankee team.

If the Killer B's had been in a different system, say San Francisco or Oakland, they might both have been given a legitimate chance of sticking with the big team in the spring.

Every team has a system, a working theory on player development.

Other teams develop great young pitchers like Felix Hernandez, Matt Cain, Clayton Kershaw or Trevor Cahill, and they are throwing 200-plus innings at age 21 or 22.

One has to wonder why the Yankees can't do the same thing.

At least part of the reason is that Brian Cashman and other Yankee brass believe too much in limiting innings and pitch counts.

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Most Yankee fans salivate about the possibility of getting Cy Young winner, Felix Hernandez from the hapless Seattle Mariners.

Let's take a look at how significant a Cy Young winner or even a 20 game winner is to a team's chances to make it to the Fall Classic.

If you look at the Cy Young winners over the past ten years in each league, you have to go all the way back to 2001 to find a Cy Young winner pitching in the World Series for either league.

In 2001 Randy Johnson won the NL Cy Young and he pitched for the eventual champion Arizona Diamondbacks.

Facing Johnson in that World Series was Roger Clemens of the Yankees who won the Cy Young in the AL in 2001.

No other Cy Young winner since 2001 has helped his team get to the World Series. In many situations the Cy Young went to a hurler from a team who was so far down in the back they couldn't even imagine playing in the World Series.

The AL Cy Young in 2010 was, of course, Felix Hernandez. And the Seattle Mariners were among the worst teams in baseball.

In 2009 Zack Greinke won the award in the AL and his Kansas City Royals were pitiful.

Tim Lincecum won that year in the NL and the Giants finished 88-74 and were third in the NL West. Lincecum also won in 2008 when the Giants were 72-90.

Looking at the last three years no team that made it to the World Series had a pitcher with 20 wins.

The closest was the 2009 Yankees when Sabathia won 19. But after CC, the top Yankee pitchers in terms of wins in '09 were Andy Pettitte with 14 and AJ Burnett with 13.

The Yankees beat the Phillies in 2009. Philadelphia featured Joe Blanton, AJ Happ and Jamie Moyer all of whom won 12 games during the regular season.

In 2010 the Giants beat the Rangers in the Series. Lincecum won 16 games, Matt Cain won 13 and Jonathan Sanchez won 13.

For Texas CJ Wilson had 15 wins, Colby Lewis had 13 wins and Scott Feldman had 12.

Every true Yankee fan will remember Cliff Lee going to the Rangers at midseason after being traded by the Mariners. But for the final two months of the season Lee was only 4-6 for the Rangers. Counting his time in Seattle his 2010 record was just 12-9.

Going back to 2008 when the Phillies beat the Rays for the title, Philadelphia was led by Jamie Moyers with 16 wins, Cole Hamels with 14 and Kyle Hendrick with 11.

The Rays had no pitcher that year with more than 14 wins. James Shields and Edwin Jackson each had 14, Andy Sonnenstein had 13 and Scott Kazmir had 12.

The point is that pitchers who win 20 games or get the Cy Young do not guarantee entry to the World Series.

Yankee fans who are so anxious to trade the future of the club for Felix Hernandez or any other so called "ace" should realize that clubs who make the final round have deep staffs, not necessarily stars.

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King Felix is regarded by many baseball experts as among the top three or four pitchers in all of baseball. He won the American League Cy Young last year and finished second in 2009 on a really bad Mariners team.

Francesca suggested that the Yankees put together a package that would include the following players: Jesus Montero, Ivan Nova and either Andrew Brackman, Manny Banuelos or Dellin Betances. And one or two other major prospects who would be ready to play in the majors right now.

Most Yankee fans know that Montero is the highest rated Yankee farmhand. He is only 21-years-old, and is currently hitting over .400 at Triple A Scranton and has been said by some to be too big to be a major league catcher.

Francesca mentioned again today that Montero would never be a major league catcher and that the Yankees should groom Austin Romine to advance as a major league catcher.

Ivan Nova, of course, is a 24-year-old starting pitcher who won a role in the regular rotation out of spring training.

Nova has been less than impressive in his first three starts this season and was even used in a relief role for one inning in Toronto last week.

The so called “Killer Bs” of Brackman, Banuelos and Betances have been considered by some as untouchable. If the Yankees are ever going to develop their own excellent starting pitchers, these three are the best possibilities in the Yankees' system right now.

Apparently, Francesca was saying that the Yankees would have to also include a couple of position players who are ready to play in the majors right now.

There are a few players who might fill that bill and Eduardo Nunez is the first that comes to mind.

But last year, when the Yankees were trying to rent Cliff Lee in July, Cashman declared Nunez off limits. He was willing to trade Montero—his highest rated prospect—but not Nunez.

The other young players in the Yankees' system, who come immediately to mind, are Ramiro Pena, Brandon Laird and Greg Golson.

So Francesca would give up the Yankees’ top prospect in Montero, one of the highly rated minor league pitchers in Ivan Nova (who pitched well last year) and as many as two of the other high prospects in the system for Felix Hernandez.

Okay, let’s look at what the Yankees would get in return.

Hernandez is 25 years old. In fact, he just turned 25 this month, but he has already thrown almost 1200 innings in the major leagues.

Look at that number carefully. 

Felix was pitching for Seattle when he was 19 years old and started 12 games in 2005. When he was not quite 20 in 2006, Hernandez started 160 games and would do so over the next five years. He had 172 starts before he turned 25.

When he was 20 years old he threw 191 innings. Since then, he has averaged 219 innings over the last four years and threw 249.2 innings last year at age 24. In an average 162-game season, Hernandez has thrown 228 innings per season.

Brian Cashman and the other Yankees brass have been the most notable advocates of innings limits for young pitchers.

Do young pitchers wear out due to overuse when they are young? Does allowing a 20-year-old kid to start 31 games and throw almost 200 innings guarantee arm problems down the road?

If Cashman and the Yankees don’t believe that, why did they implement the stupid Joba Rules?

If Cashman does not believe that, why was Phil Hughes limited last year?

If they don’t believe that riding young pitchers guarantees arm injuries, why are they so protective of Banuelos and Betances?

Either they believe young kids have to be protected or they don’t.

So would Cashman really trade for Felix Hernandez, when he has been used the very way Cashman says young pitchers should not be? And if he would trade for Hernandez, would he trade the best young players in the Yankee system to get him?

This writer personally thinks Mike Francesca is out of his freaking mind.

Yeah, give them Nova and give them Pena and Golson—even give them Brackman if they will take him.

But there is no way you trade Montero, Banuelos or Betances for Fernandez.

The Yankees cannot risk that much when their whole theory on young pitchers is that you can’t use them as much as the Mariners have used their Young King.

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In a land where almost everyone was focused on Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Toronto Blue Jays held Batman captive so long he had to tell them where the Bat Cave was.

With the New York Yankees holding what certainly seemed like a comfortable two-run lead going into the ninth inning and with the greatest closer in baseball history coming into the game, a 10th win for the East-leading Yankees seemed certain.

But this time when The Hulk flexed his pecs, his shirt didn't rip off.

The superhero for Yankee fans proved himself human last night.

Mariano Rivera, who had seven saves and had not given up a run all year, came into the ninth inning in Toronto last night and was not his perfect self.

Rivera gave up four hits, a base on balls and a wild pitch in blowing his first save and allowing Toronto to tie the score which allowed them to win in the 10th.

It was so uncharacteristic of Rivera. Even more odd was that Mariano let his frustration show.

He said after the game that his worst frustration came with the wild pitch which he said he just held on to too long.

The wild pitch allowed Toronto to score their fourth run. A safety squeeze bunt by John McDonald would push the tying run across the plate.

Mariano Rivera is the biggest reason the Yankees have five World Series championships over the past 15 seasons.

He is the most valuable player for this team over the long haul.

He will be a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection and should be a unanimous choice, although that has never happened.

As great as his career numbers in the regular season have been, his postseason work is even greater.

But last night, in a land where there are more Moose Crossing signs than baseball players, the Blue Jays pulled the mask off the old Lone Ranger and spit into the wind.

They did something no one is supposed to do: make Mariano Rivera look really bad.

It is more accurate to say Mariano was not made to look bad, but just that he was bad for this one outing.

This was a terrible loss for the Yankees in a game in which three other relievers were brilliant.

David Robertson, Joba Chamberlain and Rafael Soriano were all perfect in their work for 2.2 innings. None of them gave up a hit.

AJ Burnett, on the other hand, was his old enigmatic self. He pitched well enough to have gotten the win.

But he only went 5.1 innings. He gave up only two earned runs. But he also allowed five base on balls and had thrown 105 pitches by the time Joe Girardi was forced to take him out.

Girardi then chose to use David Robertson to finish the sixth and Robertson struck out both hitters he faced.

But the short outing by Burnett and the use of Robertson in the sixth led to a very odd choice by Girardi in the tenth.

Yankee announcer Ken Singleton first noted that Ivan Nova was warming in the Yankee bullpen as Rivera struggled in the ninth and Kenny was obviously surprised.

But when Girardi brought Nova in to pitch the 10th inning, everyone had to be scratching their heads.

He still had three relief pitchers in the pen: Boone Logan, Hector Noesi and Lance Pendleton.

Joe would say later that the reason he didn't bring Logan in was that he knew the Jays would just pinch hit for the left-handed hitter scheduled.

But that is a lame excuse to use a starting pitcher in relief.

Nova has been designated as the fourth starter since spring training. He was rocked in the 10th inning last night.

It's not the first time Nova has been hard this year.

But one has to wonder what goes through the mind of a starting pitcher when he is sent down to the pen and then is brought in when he knows there are three other guys down there who are supposed to do this work.

What effect does it have on Nova over the long haul?

There has been no regular rotation for the Yanks this season.

Part of that is due to rainouts and an extraordinary number of scheduled off days. The Yankees will get another off day tomorrow following this short two-game set in Canada.

But we have seen CC stretched to seven days between starts and he did not pitch well at all last Sunday with the extra rest.

We have seen Freddy Garcia pushed back and pushed back to the point that over 21 days of the season he has had one start.

And now, it is unclear when Nova, who started last Friday, will get another start.

Bartolo Colon will go today. There is no game tomorrow. So you would hope CC Sabathia would be brought back on Saturday. Even that would give him one extra day of rest.

One might anticipate Garcia pitching Sunday.

Would Nova then start Monday? 

If you count last night's work of less than a full inning an outing, then Nova would be pitching on regular rest if he starts on Monday.

But you can't look at things this way.

The mixed up schedule has reeked havoc with the pitching. Starters like to stay in their routine and go out and make maximum effort every five days.

That has not been the case for Girardi's staff this year. And you have to begin to wonder to what extent it has affected the starters.

None of that can explain Mo's problems last night.

The only explanation is that he really does not change his clothes in a phone booth and that he really is human.

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We were certain that success could be pinned to an improved pitching staff.

No longer would we have to sit on pins and needles as Javy Vazquez drove us crazy.

The Yankees starting rotation was going to be CC Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes and, regrettably, probably A.J. Burnett.

But we could survive with Burnett.

CC Sabathia had just won 21 games.

Phil Hughes had won 18 and was a certain star for years to come.

Cliff Lee was a former Cy Young winner who could not possibly pass up the kind of money Hank and Hal and Jennifer Steinbrenner were going to let Brian Cashman throw at him.

Never mind that some sweet Yankee fans had spit on his wife during the ALCS and spilled beer on her.

Never mind that Texas was making a big pitch for him.

And Andy Pettitte had come back from some midseason injury woes to have another great year. The Core Four was intact, and Andy would be back.

We could live with A.J. Burnett. After all, he was going to be the fifth starter in this stable of studs.

So let's analyze things now.

Cliff Lee, of course, is playing in the City of Brotherly Love, where he apparently took less money to play in a city he says he really enjoyed in his short stint there before.

Andy Pettitte decided he liked staying in Texas with his beautiful bride when the kids were out of the house all day at school.

Let's go back to the morning after the Giants beat the Rangers to win the 2010 World Series.

If Cashman had come on YES and told all of us fans that the starting rotation on April 18, 2011 for the New York Yankees was going to be CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, Ivan Nova, Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon, how many people would have jumped off the Triborough Bridge?

How many tickets would have been sold to fans who couldn't wait to see a guy who was a disaster last year despite having some of the sickest stuff in baseball (A.J. Burnett)?

How many jerseys would have been sold to young kids who couldn't wait to get a XXXXXXXL jersey for a guy who didn't even pitch in the majors in 2010 (Bartolo Colon)?

How many dads were anxiously awaiting the chance to take their kids to spring training and wait patiently to get an autograph from an old guy who was 12-6 last year (Freddy Garcia)?

And how many new Yankee female fans would swoon for another young stud pitcher being heralded to the mound at Yankee Stadium (Ivan Nova)?

What hope would Yankee fans have had if we had known back in November that this was going to be the starting rotation?

How amazed would we have been if we had been told Phil Hughes would go on the disabled list with a "tired" arm after pitching 10.1 innings in three games?

How many of us would have cried unashamedly if we had been told that CC Sabathia would have no decisions after his first four games?

The Yankees are in first place despite this absolutely unbelievable rotation we now see for The Most Storied Franchise in the History of Sports.

A.J. Burnett has been the shining light. He has won his first three starts.

But before we start carving that plaque for Monument Park, let's pause just a minute.

Yes, A.J. has three wins.

But he also has an ERA of 4.57, which gives him an ERA+ of only 89. He has given up 17 hits and nine earned runs in 17 innings.

Don't think A.J. is going to finish 31-0. Don't even dare hope for 15 wins out of A.J. You know he will need Sigmund Freud before the weather gets hot for good.

CC Sabathia pitched very well in his first two outings.

But a week ago in Boston he survived only 5.2 innings. He only gave up one run in Beantown, but he gave up nine hits and walked four while striking out only four.

Last night against the Rangers, CC was probably worse. He pitched through 6.1 innings, but he gave up eight hits and four runs, all of which were earned.

I don't know about anyone else, but I am taking up donations to buy CC some more Captain Crunch and have it shipped to him. We gotta get that lost 25 pounds back on the big man soon.

Bartolo Colon has been Phil Hughes' savior out of the pen so far. Almost exclusively in Hughes' dismal three starts, Colon has come out of the pen to pitch 11.1 innings, and he has a respectable ERA of 3.97.

But can he start?

Can he pitch well over a long haul?

If he is starting (as he is due to do in Toronto this week), who is going to pitch long relief when he or Freddy Garcia gets in trouble early?

Garcia has been pushed back and pushed back by an inordinate number of off days and rainouts in the first 18 days of the season.

He has only been called on once, and he was really very good. He pitched seven innings and gave up only three hits and one run.

And he did it the way Eddie Lopat used to do it for Casey Stengel: He was the Junk Man re-incarnate.

How long do we think that can last?

Ivan Nova might be the answer for long relief if Cashman could go out and find one more old, fat man somewhere who can be trained to walk up the little hill and put his toe on the rubber.

After all, Nova ain't bad for about two-and-two-thirds innings. But as a starter, he wears thin fast. He has thrown 14.2 innings in three starts and has an ERA of 7.36.

Gets kinda old watching Nova come out in the fourth inning, don't it?

Again, let's take ourselves back. Imagine Michael Kay interviewing Cashman in November after he has announced the starting rotation of Sabathia, Burnett, Nova, Colon and Garcia.

And Cashman predicts that the Yankees will be on pace to win 104 games and that they will be in first place in the AL East after three weeks of play.

Would somebody please wake me up and tell me I can't eat Thai food anymore?

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After 11 games Gardner is hitting under .200 and also has an anemic on-base percentage.

But there is more to the story.

Watching Gardner, he seems uncomfortable at the plate. He is not swinging at the ball. Instead he is slapping at it.

Last night, in the Yankees win over Baltimore, Gardner struck out three times. For the most part he seemed to have no plan at the plate.

He was late on almost every pitch. Although he had some long at-bats fouling off pitch after pitch, almost every foul was on a late swing in which he weakly tapped the ball  down the third-base line.

It almost seems as though Gardner is not picking the ball up very well. He takes a lot of strikes and swings on bad pitches too often for a good leadoff hitter.

Gardner is not getting on base much, but when he does, he seems to be clueless in what is supposed to be his most efficient area.

Gardner is praised mostly for his speed. But one example of Gardner running the bases came on an attempted steal in a game earlier this week.

Gardner got a good jump as Derek Jeter took a strike at the plate. But cameras caught Gardner's path toward second, where he would be thrown out easily by Orioles catcher Matt Wieters.

Gardner had taken about eight strides when he took a look toward home. Okay, many runners do that, even though the greatest base stealers teach against it.

But about halfway to second, Gardner hesitated in his stride. He seemed to actually reconsider his steal attempt, and he was thrown out by two feet.

Gardner stole 47 sacks last season, and that was a major reason for making him the leadoff hitter.

He is not a good base stealer though. He is too hesitant when standing on first and is reluctant to go on the best running counts. There is no way to determine whether he runs on his own accord, but he misses opportunities, which can affect the hitter at the plate (especially Derek Jeter).

Gardner seems lost on the field right now, except defensively.

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Montero is 6'4" and weighs about 235 pounds.

That is almost exactly the size of a catcher who has been a major league MVP. Joe Mauer is 6'5" and about 230 pounds.

At any point in time did anyone say Mauer was too big to catch? If so, I don't remember it.

Please don't interpret this to mean that Montero is going to be Mauer. No one knows. I am only trying to make the point that size makes no difference for a catcher.

There is a young catcher in Baltimore that drew raves as he moved through the minor leagues and made his way to the bigs. Has anyone cautioned using Matt Wieters behind home plate? Don't think so, and the Orioles seem to like him back there.

By the way, all Yankee fans must hope that if Montero gets to NYC he will hit better than Wieters. Again, I am only talking about size.

There was a time when the prototype catcher was short and stubby like Yogi Berra or Roy Campanella.

But that is no longer the prototype. Think Carlton Fisk 25 years ago. Think Javy Vazquez.

There is no such thing anymore as someone being too big to be a catcher.

If Montero is too slow afoot, he cannot get down to block balls or cannot throw to second, then we have something to talk about.

But if any of those things were true, why would he still be catching at the Triple-A level? 

Why did Brian Cashman say last November that Posada was the Yankee DH and Montero would be given a chance in camp to start for the Yankees behind the plate?

There was a time a few years ago when a certain gentleman was considered too big to play shortstop.

That man was Cal Ripken, Jr.

Because of Ripken, the future was paved for shortstops such as Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra.

It is simply ridiculous for anyone in this day and age in baseball to say that anyone cannot play a particular position because of his size.

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Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter have proven finally and forever that they should not be at the top of the order for the Yankees.

Gardner struck out three times in the game against the Baltimore Orioles, stranding runners in critical situations and proving that he is just not ready to hit leadoff on a major league roster.

Garnder finished the game with a batting average of .150 and an on-base percentage of .227. No major league team should have a player with those kinds of numbers at the top of the order.

Derek Jeter is no better hitting second. 

Jeter finished the night one-for-five with a .233 BA and a .306 OBP. This old man has now proven he can no longer play at the major league level.

There are several solutions to these problems. If manager Joe Girardi insists on keeping these two worthless players in the lineup, he has to drop them to the bottom of the order.

So who will replace them at the top?

Obviously, Curtis Granderson should lead off and Nick Swisher should hit in the two hole.

Wait a minute. Let's look at Grandy and Swishy's numbers.

Granderson was two-for-four last night but is still only hitting .194 with an OBP of just .275. Maybe he is not the perfect leadoff hitter either.

Swisher drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning. But he ended the night hitting only .211 for the season with an OBP of .298.

So maybe Granderson and Swisher aren't the perfect match for the top spots in the order.

Who else is there?

I know! Alex Rodriguez is hitting .412 with an OBP of .512. So obviously, he should be leading off. And Robinson Cano is hitting .328 with an OBP of .340, so he should hit second behind ARod.

Move Gardner and Jeter to the bottom of the order if they stay in the lineup.

Hit Russell Martin third. After all, he has a .289 average right now, 64 points higher than Mark Teixeira.

Hit Jorge Posada cleanup. He is only hitting .189, but of his seven hits, five have been home runs. His power makes him the perfect cleanup guy.

Granderson is not suited for leadoff as we have seen. But he would be perfect taking Cano's place in the five hole since he has so much power from the left side.

Even though he hasn't shown much lately but sac flies followed by cream pies, let Swisher hit sixth.

Teixeira is terrible, but he might be able to fill the seven hole followed by Jeter and Gardner.

I would only give this new lineup through the weekend to succeed.

If there are not major improvements by Sunday, I would make the following additional changes.

ARod moves to shortstop and Jeter is benched.

Eric Chavez takes over at third base permanently because he is hitting .444 and will then bat cleanup.

Gardner is given his outright release from baseball and Andruw Jones is installed as the left fielder with a five-year extension on his contract. He is hitting .400 and still has enough speed that he could be the leadoff hitter if ARod does not work out there.

Phil Hughes can obviously not pitch. But he still has a good enough arm to be the next Rick Ankiel, so put him in center field and trade Granderson.

After all, Yankee fans are too devoted and too worthy of a good product to put up with a team that is only 7-4 after 11 games and is in first place by only one game.

Changes have to be made.

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I think someone should shoot Cashman right in the head if he even thinks of trading Montero for a starter.

And then go shoot Harper for suggesting it.

Last summer, as the Yankees desperately tried to trade for the Mariner's Cliff Lee, reports surfaced that Cashman was willing to include Montero in the deal, but that the young shortstop Eduardo Nunez would not be included.

Let's analyze that for just a minute.

The Yankees were in need of starting pitching. Lee was the best prospect out there. Any team in a pennant race should have wanted him.

At that point though, Cashman would have been renting Lee for a little over two months in the regular season and for the playoffs.

There was no certainty Lee would stay with the Yankees for 2011. All the proof you need for that is when Lee went back to the Phillies for less money, even after Cashman opened Scrooge McDuck's bank vaults in January.

To rent Lee for less than half a season though, the Yankees were willing to give up their top prospect in Montero, but not Nunez.

Analyze a little more.

The Yankee shortstop last July was a fella named Derek Jeter. He was in his "walk" year. (Like he was really going to walk!)

Theoretically (quantum physics kinda theory here), Jeter would be gone, and the Yanks would be out of a shortstop come November.

So, Cashman would have had to keep Nunez in case Jeter did indeed walk away from New York.

Montero has been touted by everyone who has seen him as a can't-miss,major-league hitter. He has hit superbly at every level of the minor leagues.

He is hitting .448 through the few games the Scranton Yankees have played in Triple-A so far this season.

Harper thinks that is just grand because the better Montero hits in Scranton, the better chances Cashman has of landing a starting pitcher.

Just how valuable does Harper think a front-line starter will be? Or how valuable does Cashman think one would be?

Valuable enough to give up Montero?  In the humble opinion of this writer, that is stupid.

The Yankees had question marks with their starting pitching in 2009 and still won the World Series.

The Yankees had serious problems with their starting staff in 2010 and still made it to the ALCS.

Another example, in 2008, the Tampa Bay Rays went to the World Series with no starters winning more than 14 games.

Montero can be a major league catcher. He showed that early in Spring Training this year when everyone was raving about his defense. He fell off about half way through camp, both defensively and with the stick.

But this kid is only 21 years old. He could be the answer for the Yankees behind the plate for the next 15 years. How often will the team have an opportunity to have a catcher who can tear it up with the bat for 15 years?

Never.

That is how often.

Jorge Posada has been a great offensive asset. On the other side of the ball, he has been a less-than-average defensive catcher, causing problems to the point that some big-name pitchers did not want to throw to him.

Can Montero possibly be any worse behind the plate than Posada was for more than a dozen  years? 

The answer is no.

Cashman wanted to protect a shortstop last summer who has proven nothing, while dangling a stud catcher who is going to be a star in the major leagues.

I repeat, if Montero continues to tear it up at Triple-A and Harper convinces Cashman to trade him for an arm, please, somebody shoot them both right in the head.

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But Mechin thinks Jeter is overrated.

I beg to differ, and rather than just add a comment to Tom's piece, I wanted to write an analysis of why Jete is not overrated.

You can begin with pure statistics. 

Right now Jeter has 2,930 hits. He has scored 1,689 runs, hit 234 home runs, has 1,136 RBI and has stolen 323 bases.

Other than Jeter, only four other players in the history of baseball have at least 1,500 runs scored, 2,900 hits, 200 home runs, 1,000 RBI and 300 stolen bases.

Those five players are Willie Mays, Paul Molitor, Ricky Henderson and Craig Biggio.

The first three are in the Hall of Fame and were never in doubt.  Biggio will be there soon.

Even Hank Aaron did not reach these marks in all five categories.

Aaron played 23 seasons, had 2,174 runs scored, 3,771 hits, 755 home runs and 2,297 RBI. But he only stole 240 bases, so he misses on the last category.

Jeter has completed 16 seasons in the majors.

Jeter will probably never reach Hank's hit total of 3,771 or his runs scored total of 2,174, but if Jeter plays seven more seasons, he could come close. 

Mays played 24 seasons in the bigs, Molitor played 21 seasons and Henderson played 25.

If Jeter could have their longevity, he could surpass many of their marks for runs scored and hits.

Also considering defense, in the purely subjective area of Gold Gloves, Aaron won three, Biggio won three, Henderson won one. 

Only Willie Mays, the greatest defensive center fielder in history has more Gold Gloves than Jeter. Jeter has five, whereas Willie collected 11.

The most important statistic of all of course is winning. And winning is what Jeter has done better than anyone else on the list here.

Jeter has five World Series rings. Aaron had one, Mays had one, Molitor had one, Henderson had two and Biggio never got one.

Only one other shortstop in the history of the game is in the same class with Jeter, statistically.

Honus Wagner played for 21 years, scored 1,739 runs, had 3,420 hits, 101 home runs, 1,733 RBI and stole 723 bases. 

Jeter will surpass Honus  Wagner in runs scored, will come close to him in hits and is already far ahead in home runs.

Wagner played in the dead ball era when no one hit home runs, so it is difficult to compare that stat. But in every other category, Jeter is very close to the greatest shortstop who ever played the game.

If you look at every major league player in the history of the game, only one player with 3,000 hits comes close to Jeter's World Series accomplishments.  Eddie Collins won four world titles in the early years of the 20th Century. 

But no one equals Jeter.

Jeter has been the consummate team player for his entire career.  Tom Mechin argued that Jeter was never the most important player on his team.

I would argue differently.

Whereas Mariano Rivera may have been the MVP for much of the Yankees' success in the postseason, without Derek Jeter's on-field play and intangible leadership skills, does anyone actually believe the Yankees would have played in seven World Series during his tenure.

Since 2004, Alex Rodriguez has been the greatest player on the New York Yankees when one considers only on-field skill.

A-Rod has played one full season more than Jeter, and his career records are better than Jeter in all but two columns. 

Jeter, of course, has more hits.  And Jeter has a higher career average than A-Rod.

Without question, A-Rod was also a better defensive shortstop when he played that position.

But A-Rod has never been close to Jeter as far as being the most important player on the team, because Jeter has always been the leader of his team.

Even from his earliest days, Jeter stood out. If you listen to other players talk about Jeter he exudes a quality that other players cannot match.

In statistics alone, Jeter proves that he is not overrated.  He is among the most versatile and excellent players ever to play the game.

How can a player who excels in so many areas of the game be overrated?

But statistics don't tell the whole story with Jeter. Mike Francesca on WFAN and YES has been debating for some time now that Jeter cannot be measured by statistics, or that if you do, he is not among the elite—even of his era.

Francesca says you have to measure Jeter among the elite because of his intangibles.  He is correct about the intangibles.

But he is wrong about the statistics. Jeter is great statistically, and no one can take that away from him.

There is no way Derek Jeter can be overrated.

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