Yankees GM Brian Cashman could not land the the big fish of the free agent market this past offseason, Cliff Lee and to add to the disappointment Andy Pettitte retired just before Spring Training. Meanwhile the hated rivals Boston traded for Adrian Gonzalez and opened up the checkbook for Carl Crawford giving Yankee fans a cause for concern. Most baseball minds said the Yankees had a horrible offseason and would struggle just to be the Wild Card team out of the American League. Cashman decided to do what the small market teams usually do, take chances on old washed up pitchers for cheap to fill in the back end of rotations. Minor League deals to Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia barely made tickers, scrolling across the bottom of tv and computer screens. It's only April but Colon looks like the Bartolo of 5+ years ago, hitting 94 on the radar against the Blue Jays with nasty movement. His appearences out of the pen for Phil Hughes were solid and helped save the rest of the bullpen from being over used early in the season. Garcia pitched a 6 inning shutout against the high powered Rangers lineup after being pushed back several times due to rain outs. It would be a VCU longshot for both to keep this up over the entire season or even until the All Star Break but that might be all Cashman and the Yankees need until they can go back to doing what the Yankees usually do when they make a big Trade Deadline deal , like say for Felix Hernandez!
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