Where will all the innings come from?

That’s right Yankee fans. Phil Hughes is and will be the real deal, if not this year, than next-high ERA this spring notwithstanding. But the way Baby Boss Hank is pressing the kids (Hughes, Ian Kennedy and especially Joba Chamberlain) to go easy, WHO is gonna cover innings 6-7 (sometimes 5 if Mussina REALLY struggles) for you on a regular basis? That Yankee bullpen will see much work. You better hope Andy Pettitte can keep his head on straight if the Roger Clemens mess rears up during the summer-not forgetting Pettitte’s nagging elbow and at least for now, sore back. The Good Book says, “Bad company corrupts good character.” Andy, known as a man of strong Christian faith, should have remembered this before his good ‘friend’ Clemens introduced him to Brian McNamee and steroids. If my best friend told the whole world I ‘misheard’ and ‘misunderstood’ conversations about using steroids-or anything bad-I’d ask the Lord for strength not to kill him-and probably get a new best friend.

Joe Girardi will need to do more juggling than a circus clown to get to Joba and Mariano at the back end of games. Playoff struggles aside, Wang is the only dependable starter the Yanks have right now. They WILL score runs. But there is a lot of age here-Giambi, Matsui, Damon and Abreu are aging and a bit brittle. Ducan, Betemit, Cabrera will have to step up. The Yanks will win about 90-93 games. The only way they make the postseason is if the BoSox have a major fall off. With the Tigers, Indians, Angels, Mariners and even the Blue Jays all competitive, there is NO automatic fallback to the wild card.

The Sox could falter-Manny, Big Papi, Varitek, Schilling (out till at least June) and Wakefield are a year older. Jacoby Elsbury will not surprise anyone now. How good is he? Is Josh Beckett’s back REALLY bad or did he hear bad things about the seafood in Japan before deciding to stay home?

The pick: Red Sox win AL EAST/Yanks miss the playoffs.