1. The Yankees have one nine-inning complete game this year. It is by Chien-Ming Wang. The Yankees had one nine-inning complete game last year. It was by Chien-Ming Wang. The last time that a Yankee not named Chien-Ming Wang pitched a nine-inning complete game was May 31, 2006 by Mike Mussina against the Tigers. As I wrote in 3 Up this morning, this is Wang’s greatest value to the Yankees: That he drags the ball deep into games. The only other Yankee starter who can seemingly be counted on to do that now is Andy Pettitte, and that is if he is the Andy Pettitte he was projected to be this season, and not the one he is now. Mike Mussina and certainly Darrell Rasner already have given the Yanks far more than they could have anticipated this year, and both are probably best when limited to three turns around an opponent’s lineup.So now there is greater pressure on this Yankee bullpen to pick up innings.

2. This is a point I will make to a greater degree in tomorrow’s Post if you are kind enough to read it, but the Yanks actually won the AL East with Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small in the rotation in 2005. So maybe they can still make the playoffs with a rotation that will have to survive for a while with Rasner and Dan Giese in it. But it does feel as if the Yanks are at a tipping point. One more injury to a main starter and it becomes pretty close to impossible to see how the Yanks stay in strong contention. And this may not just be a key member of the rotation. Because with this rotation the Yanks are going to have to depend more than ever on their offense to be powerful and Mariano Rivera to be ironclad. So if, say, Jorge Posada’s shoulder puts him out for a long period again or something were to befall Mo, the Yanks could possibly be looking at their current strengths being too depleted to prop up the injury-struck rotation.

3. At this point, Joba Chamberlain’s transition to the rotation is no longer about some long-term future. The Yanks need him to be good in that role now if they are going to be a playoff team.