AJ…not sure. He was arguably the Yanks best pitcher for the first half of the season, so that counts for something. The second half he started off very good too, but it seemed that at some point that he just started to be on one game off the next (maybe one night at the end of July Jorge caught AJ staring at his wife?? I dunno…)

AJ was good this year tho. He could be better so I expect more out of him,

CC is the easier argument and probably not an argument at all. He dominated all his starts and in the Angels series, his starts were the only games that weren’t close or went to extra innings. When the team’s usually strong bullpen was suddenly shaky, he pitched 8 to hand it to Mo. When the team needed him to pitch for 3 days rest on consecutive series, he delivered.

AJ, I think, could go either way. I can see the logic in the argument that we need more productive seasons from AJ to truly capture his value, but here’s my argument for why AJ delivered on what was expected of him. There was no bigger game for the Yankees postseason than game 2 of the World Series. This was a Yankee team that really wasn’t tested enough in the first two rounds. They swept the Twins, and they were ahead all the way against Anaheim. But in Game 1, Cliff Lee had the type of game that could change a series. This was the first time the Yankees were really challenged to step up. I would argue that AJ’s game 2 performance was the single biggest performance by a Yankee this postseason. If he blew up, the Yankees would have gone to Philadelphia down 2-0 where they also lose a DH matchup that was favoring them.

My last argument is this: 3 man pitching rotations just aren’t conventionally done because pitchers get worn out. That’s why no one’s won with it in 18 years. The production of CC, AJ and Andy as a trio was so vital to this team’s success that if one of them wasn’t performing to their expectations, they would never have won the title. The fact that CC and AJ not only were durable for the whole postseason, but performed amazingly is why I think they have been worth every penny Cashman invested on them last year.

CC Sabathia was, in dollar value and based on regular season performance, worth $27M and paid $14M in 2010 (and will earn $23M per year from ‘10-.15).

A.J. Burnett was worth $14M and earned $16.5M. He’ll additonally earn $16.5 annually from ‘10-’13.

With the addition revenue generated in the postseason, the Yankees certainly got their monies worth.

It’s fairly safe to say that the Yankees don’t win a championship without either one of them.

Obviously, no one can predict the future, but I can’t conceivably believe that these two guys will not be able to continue in helping the team collectively win ballgames. Even if they both regress to becoming .500 pitchers for the remainder of their contracts and the Yankees continue yearly to reach the playoffs, I would still deem their signings a success.