MANNY Ramirez’s mantra in Cleveland, as David Justice remembers it, was “I just want to have a good year.” Ask the righty slugger about the day’s results. “I just want to have a good year.” Ask him about a slump or hot streak. “I just want to have a good year.” Ask him the time. “I just want to have a good year.”

Justice grew so amused – or annoyed – at hearing the refrain that at the All-Star break in 1999 he turned to his then Indian teammate and said, “Manny, man, you already have had a good year.” At the midway point, Ramirez was hitting .333 with 25 homers and an astonishing 96 RBIs.

Ramirez is close to another good year again already. The Red Sox DH went into last night’s game against the Yankees hitting .406 with 15 homers and 54 RBIs just beyond the one-quarter mark. He was leading the AL in the two most important offensive categories, on-base percentage (.492) and slugging percentage (.764). And with all that said, once they made the financial decision they could only have one or the other, the Yankees made the right choice in signing Mike Mussina last offseason rather than Ramirez.

However much the Yankee offense is struggling right now – and it is struggling to a worrisome degree – try to imagine what this team would look like now if it had Ramirez in the lineup, but behind Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, the rest of the rotation was Orlando Hernandez, Ted Lilly and Randy Keisler. Or maybe the Yanks could have delved into the secondary-starter market and signed Kevin Appier or Steve Trachsel. Well, we know how that looks, don’t we?

In the most favorable scenario in which the Yankees actually signed Ramirez, they would not have brought back Paul O’Neill and would have used Alfonso Soriano to acquire someone like Colorado starter Pedro Astacio. Is a team with Ramirez DHing, Justice in right, Luis Sojo at second and Astacio in the rotation better than the current arrangement? It certainly would have been costlier by many millions, which is why Yankee brass never used Ramirez as anything more than a decoy to try to get Mussina to sign quickly and affordably.

“Pitching is always going to be king,” Justice said. “The old adage is good pitching is going to beat good hitting. I understand fully the route the Yankees took. But any team that adds Manny Ramirez is going to be better than the year before.”

It is hard to argue. Ramirez is that good. Justice wondered aloud what the results of a marriage between Ramirez’s awesome right-center power and Yankee Stadium’s accessible right-field bleachers would have wrought. But the reality is outstanding hitters are easier to obtain in season than a starter of Mussina’s ilk.

Consider that last June, the Yankees completed a trade for Houston’s Moises Alou (for Soriano and Lilly) and for Detroit’s Juan Gonzalez (for Drew Henson, Ricky Ledee and Keisler), but had the two sluggers use their veto powers to kill the deals. The Yankees could have completed a deal for Sammy Sosa and they actually did land Justice. That is four outstanding hitters they were in play for. Denny Neagle and Curt Schilling were the only high-end starters available.

When the Yankees began to ponder free agents late last year, their management favored Ramirez. That was due in part to watching a tepid offense. But also because the Yankees believed neither Mussina nor Mike Hampton wanted to play for them. It was only after Joe Torre weighed in that he preferred the starter and the Yankees got an inkling that Mussina was willing to play for them that the organizational thinking changed. And nothing that has happened to date has swayed Torre.

“To me, getting Mike Mussina was my choice if given the choice because quality starting pitching is how we have been successful,” Torre said.

Torre worried about the wear on Clemens and Hernandez and what would happen to the rotation if either or both were lost for a period of time. So Mussina became the choice, a pitching arm over muscular arms. He is just 4-4 with a 3.75 ERA going into today’s matchup against Pedro Martinez. The Yanks need him to be better, more consistent, a winner.

But they remain comfortable with their decision. After all, it could be Randy Keisler vs. Pedro Martinez today.