MORE GOOD NEWS FROM THE YANKEES

The New York Yankees fired pitching coach David Eiland today.

This means the Yanks feel that AJ Burnett, Javier Vazquez, Sergio Mitre, Joba Chamberlain, etc. are actually supposed to be really good pitchers.

If you look at last year's free agent class, the Yanks could have easily signed Billy Wagner to set up Rivera.  I know Wagner said he wanted to close, but the Yanks would have paid him handsomely to set up.  There were other options too.  Matt Capps and Octavio Dotel for starters.

Say what you want, but the Yanks could have also made a Roy Halladay trade last winter or a Cliff Lee trade this summer.  Simply put, they didn't want those guys bad enough.  They also could have made free agent plays for Brett Myers and Joel Pineiro, who combined would have been about the same salary as Vazquez (who was acquired in a trade).

If they really did their homework, they could have spent next to nothing on a player that went 2-and-0 against the Yanks in the ALCS:  Colby Lewis.

At the end of the day, I think Eiland did a pretty good job.  David Robertson, Boone Logan, and Phil Hughes far exceeded my expectations.  Hughes simply ran out of gas and maybe Logan and Robertson aren't cut out for postseason pitching.  But, overall I think they have to be ecstatic with the contributions.

Then again, maybe it is the fault of the pitching coach.  Carl Pavano had a pretty good year.