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NEW YORK -- The silliest storyline to emerge from Spring Training? That's an easy one. Any story that somehow synthesized the name "Yankees" with the word "underdog."Certainly, the vast reporting public fawned over the Red Sox in the wake of their aggressive offseason, but the thought of the Yankees as "The Little Engine That Could" never really sat right.The 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, if mem football shop ory serves, did not have a $200 million payroll."We've worn the target of being the hunted," general manager Brian Cashman had told reporters way back in February. "Let's be the hunter and see if that works well for us."Hey, if all those zeroes at the end of your paycheck don't spark your interest, perhaps an imaginary underdog label helps.Now that they have the No. 1 seed in the American League a football shop nd are headed into the Division Series against the Tigers, we all know, as we all should have known then, that it was wrong to count the Yanks as anything other than a serious contender. Not only did they hold their own in what was, for five months, a too-close-for-comfort AL East race, but they found themselves sitting pretty atop the standings as the BoSox pushed the panic button down the stretc football shop h.All those questions about the rotation, all that drama over Jorge Posada getting dropped in -- and then from -- the batting order, all those subpar statistics from Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. None of it really mattered in the end, because the Bronx Bombers coasted to the crown.Let's keep matters in perspective, though. Even when the Yankees were embracing the "underdog" nonsense, a playoff football shop appearance -- in any way, shape or form -- was always considered a certainty. This season was always meant to serve as the canvas for Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit and Mariano Rivera's 602nd save. It, like seemingly every season in the Bronx, was viewed as an appetizer to the main course that is October.And now the main course is about to be served. A best-of-five looms against a Tigers team that wil football shop l clearly be no pushover, but the Yanks have the seeding to match their payroll, the "No. 1" moniker to match their mystique.They are underdogs no more.Or are they?The Yankees won their division not because their rotation greatly exceeded expectations but because it stayed healthy. Healthy enough to adequately support an outstanding offense. And healthy enough to regularly eat up innings and get t football shop he ball to a deep and effective bullpen.Over the course of 162 games, the loss of Andy Pettitte to retirement, the inability to lure Cliff Lee in free agency and the surprising inactivity at the Trade Deadline had absolutely no bearing on the race. The Yankees churned on with CC Sabathia and company, no matter how gangly that company might have looked at times.But the uncertainty in the starting s football shop taff will undoubtedly take on added import from this point forward. While beating up on the Twins has been the Yanks' first-round forte the last two years, they're about to run into a Detroit club that is every bit its equal, from a lineup-fear-factor standpoint.And yes, the Yankees have to have at least a little fear about their own rotation.As in the 2009 World Series run, they are likely to ask football shop Sabathia to make three days' rest his new norm. But Sabathia had finished that '09 regular season strong, posting a quality start in 10 of his last 11 appearances and notching a 2.16 ERA and .559 OPS against along the way. This time around, his results were slightly more spotty down the stretch. He had quality starts in seven of his last 10 outings, but his ERA was 4.06, his OPS against .858. In football shop five of those outings, he allowed 10 hits.Was the downturn in performance a product of going on five days' rest in the Yanks' six-man rotation setup, as opposed to CC's preferred four?Or was it the inevitable result of five years of heavy -- you might even say excessive -- workload? Counting the postseason, Sabathia has worked, on average, an astounding 254.1 innings per year since 2007.Even for a football shop big guy, that's a huge number.Sabathia has plenty of extra rest going into Game 1 on Friday night at 8:37 ET on TBS, so perhaps that will help. Because once again, much weight has been placed on his wide shoulders.This Yankees club could end up like that '09 one, but the absence of a stable, veteran presence like Pettitte in the third spot does make a difference. Rookie Ivan Nova has proven himse football shop lf a worthy No. 2, but his youth and inexperience immediately invites some uncertainty at this stage, as does the fact that he's in uncharted waters, from a workload standpoint.Nova has succeeded this season because of an extreme ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio and extreme run support. He'll need both on his side in Game 2, and, potentially, Game 5. The Game 3 starter, expected to be Freddy Garcia, football shop will be on a short leash, and don't be surprised if Sabathia pitches on short rest in the event of a Game 4.As seamless as the AL East title run turned out to be, the Yanks do have legitimate reasons to be concerned going into October. Those crooked numbers will, inevitably, be harder to come by for the offense, particularly when Justin Verlander is on the hill. And the bullpen will, as usual, hav football shop e to be at its best.The Yankees as underdogs? Let's not go that far. The label didn't apply in Spring Training, and it doesn't apply now.But for the game's most highly compensated club to make it out of the first round and get where it wants to go, the starting staff will have to exceed the sum of its parts. football shop
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