Ka-ching goes the Yankee Cash Register

Probably more on this later, but briefly... The Yankees have apparently agreed to an other whopper contract. They're about to sign AJ Burnett to a 5 year deal, which will pay him $16.5 million per year. That means they have committed $243 million to two pitchers this week alone. It also means the Yanks will have the three top paid pitchers in the game: $23 million per year for CC Sabathia; $16.5 million to Burnett; and $15 million per year to Mariano Rivera.

Yes, they'll be tough this year. But what about next year and the year after and the year after...Because they've locked this guys in for many, many years: CC for 7 years, AJ for five. To me, that's the real question mark.

Life in the AL East just got even more interesting....

It's all about pitching

Yes, pitching is the big key to our current run. Great article in today's Globe - featuring an interview with pitching coach John Farrell (who is doing an incredible job - obviously!) - pictured above. I think this is the coolest part - something I've been sensing and fun to see confirmed:

"There's an inner competition that has developed among the starters here that's been fun to witness," Farrell said. "It's nothing that is spoken or that's even said in jest. It's just this feeling that the starter who's pitching the next game wants to be as good as the starter who pitched the last game. There's a responsibility each guy has every time he goes out there, that he wants to perform at a high level, do his part. It's very healthy."

Baltimore comes to town tonight for three games. Many seem to think this should be an easy series - but those O's are pretty pesky!