During the long off-season for the Yankees, two leading pitchers were lost. Andy Pettitte, who will be retiring as of Friday, was their powerful left-handed pitcher, and Cliff Lee, who was a free agent, was not won over by the Yankees offer. The big question on everyone’s mind is: Will the Yankees rotation, minus Pettitte and without the expected addition of Lee, bring down the team for the Season of 2011?

Ken Davidoff, in an article on Dailymail.com, described the Yankees offseason as “the worst . . . in a long time.” This leaves the die-hard Yankee fans in fear of what will happen. Pettittee, age 38, has been playing in the MLB since 1995, has been on two teams: the New York Yankees and the Houston Astros. He has had a phenomenal career on both of these famous teams. Sadly, he has been playing in the MLB for 15 years and is considered an older player. For that reason, he has retired. Derek Jeter, a fellow Yankee, said in an interview with Myfoxny.com "It's been a pleasure to play with Andy for all these years, and the Yankees have been fortunate to have him representing the organization both on and off the field. More importantly it's been an honor to get to know him as a person, and I consider him family. I wish for nothing but happiness for him and his family, as I know how important they are to him."

The Yankees, without Pettitte, still have a rotation; yet, it is still undecided if it will ever reach the peak it was at with C.C and Pettitte teaming up. This is causing much tension in recent headlines. On the positive side, the Yankee line-up still has Phil Hughes. The 18-game winning pitcher is left with a great weight on his shoulders to keep the team rolling along with A.J Burnett, who finished with a record of 10-15 last season. The Yankees don’t have much to be enthusiastic about, considering the stats of last season that display the 8 losses during a span of the last 10 regular season games pitched by Burnett.