The Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander would not be denied in 2011 – no matter what arguments the nonbelievers made against the 28-year-old flame-throwing right hander’s chances of winning the American League MVP, it’s only fitting that he still came out with the award on Monday.

“If you had told me at the beginning of the year I would be a shoe-in for the Cy Young, I would have been excited and ecstatic. I would’ve never even thought about the MVP,” said Verlander after learning that he had won the vote. The baseball writers gave Verlander 13 of the 28 first place votes, and he won with a total accumulation of 280 points, according to mlb.com.

The next closest player to him was Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who finished with 242 total points. As far as individual accomplishments for a starting pitcher are concerned, Verlander achieved practically all of them this year. He led the majors in both wins with a regular season record of 24-5 and 250 strikeouts.

He also led the American League with a 2.40 E.R.A., which effectively won him the league’s pitching triple crown. Let’s not forget that he threw a no-hitter in Toronto against the Blue Jays on May 7, the second of his career. The only thing really missing was a perfect game, which anyone could easily overlook.

All of these triumphs by Verlander earned him the Cy Young award last week. There was only one question to be answered: could this man actually be the league’s most valuable player? No starting pitcher had won the award since Roger Clemens with the Red Sox in 1986, and no pitcher had won it since Athletics Hall of Fame closer Dennis Eckersley in 1992.

The debate lingered for months due to a number of peculiar circumstances. Verlander is not a position player and was not out there every day going to battle with his teammates over the course of a six month, 162 game regular season.

However, Verlander was nothing but absolutely dominating and overpowering nearly every single time he towed the rubber for Detroit. He may have only played in thirty-four regular season games, but he provided an old-school ace-like mentality supported by the most lively arm in the league, almost stating, ‘I’m the best and I know it, so here it comes.’

If there were any pitcher to fear in 2011, it was Verlander. His MVP campaign was strengthened by the fact that the Red Sox suffered the most monumental collapse in history, missing the postseason after blowing what was a nine game lead in the Wild Card on September 3. Ellsbury, was viewed as the favorite for the award until the end of September.

He posted career high numbers: he had an average of .321, 119 runs scored, 212 hits, 105 in RBI, and 32 home runs. Other players who gained much consideration for the award included Yankees center fielder Curtis Granderson and Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista.

Granderson hit 41 home runs, drove in 119 runs, and led New York to the best record in baseball, but his .262 average was likely too low for the baseball writers to accept. Bautista batted .302 and led the majors with 43 home runs, but Toronto only finished at .500 with an 81-81 record.

Since no A.L. position player was able to run away with the award, Verlander began to gain a significant amount of interest as a potential winner.  The conversation will not end here, as many will discuss whether or not the proper decision was made. Nonetheless, Verlander had a pitcher’s dream season in 2011, and no one can take that or his MVP award away from him.

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The July 31st trade deadline, came and went, without the Yankees acquiring the help they so desperately needed. The Yankees needed a major pitching upgrade before the trade deadline.

Why did the Yankees need an upgrade? — Put succinctly, because of their nemesis the Red Sox. If the postseason started today, you can bet all the marbles that the Yankees starting pitching staff would be outperformed by a superior Red Sox starting pitching staff.

If the currently constructed Yankees starting pitching staff faced the Red Sox offense today, a can of worms would surely be opened; The Red Sox have such a potent offense this year, and the way I see it, the Yankees really only have one reliable pitcher in ace C.C. Sabathia. Thus, the Yankees do not stand a chance with their currently structured starting rotation.

As Bob Klapisch pointedly writes in a recent article, “Truth is, there’s no one behind Sabathia the Yankees can trust in October. Not A.J. Burnett (a .500 pitcher forever prone to blow-ups), Phil Hughes (still searching for his fastball), Freddy Garcia (a fake-out artist whose margin of error is too thin for the postseason) and Colon (who hasn’t thrown this many innings since 2005).”

Klapisch also rightly points out that Colon has the best stuff besides Sabathia, but cannot be counted on as a No. 2 starter during the post season, due to his age (37) and his “vulnerability to breakdown”. Colon has already been on the disabled list once this year.

The truth of the matter is, the Yankee will most likely regret their decision to not trade for more pitching weather it be the starting rotation or the bullpen. Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos, the two prospects that Brian Cashman seems to be enamored with, will hopefully be as valuable as he thinks they will.

Hopefully, the silver lining that comes out of this deadline, will be the big league debut of both Betances and Banuelos. If it is any consolation, Cashman seems prepared to bring up the young minor league talent if needed for the final two months of the season. In a Wall Street Journal article by Daniel Barbarisi, Cashman is quoted as saying “Betances has got it.

Warren’s got it. Phelps has been on the DL but he’s got it. Noesi, Montero, Romine. There’s a number of directions that can be taken with a number of these guys. We’ll see in 2011 if some of them can play a part or not. I can’t tell you yet. We’ll just let it play out,”

If the Yankees decide to keep them in the minors for the next 3-4 years there could be dire consequences. The Yankees might see both players value drop and then not be able to trade for a player of star caliber. Cashman may have Kept Jesus Montero for too long. Did he make the same mistake with Betances and Banuelos? Did Cashman pass on the chance to sell, when their value might have been at its highest?

Despite all these unanswered questions, Brian Cashman sounds like a pretty confident guy. Cashman seems ready to do the unthinkable. Cashman, sound ready to do something that hasn’t been done since the core four (Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte) came up to the big leagues in 1996. Cashman sounds ready to really on prospects in the Yankees farm system.

As written in the Wall Street Journal article, Cashman says, “There’s some guys I feel we can rely on, and count on, if need be, as choices as we move forward, I think we’re getting deeper, We have a stronger system, so I don’t think we’re in a position as we have been in years past where we might have had to go out and do something no matter what,”

Maybe Cashman is taking the right approach after all these years.  After all, relying on heavily touted prospects worked for the Yankees during their triumphs of the late 90’s.

From the season of 96’ to the season of 00’, the Yankees won four World Series Championships. This remarkable five-year stretch was done with smart acquisitions and trades for a laundry list of veteran player. These veteran players included the likes of, Paul O’Neil, Tino Martinez, David Cone, Wade Boggs and Scott Brosius and Dwight Gooden. In addition to bringing in outside help the Yankees brought minor league talent up through their very own farm system. These players included the core four (as mentioned before) as well center fielder Bernie Williams.

This years Yankees could resemble the 1996 team. Currently the Yankees have lots of talent brought in from outside, but many talented players in the minors who could give this 2011 Yankees team a boatload of needed help. Having a mixture of outside help and homegrown help breads success. Like the Yankees of the late 90’s look at the Red Sox.

They have traded and acquired players like David Ortiz, Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, John Lackey and Carl Crawford yet brought up just as many prospects from their farm system including, Dustin Pedroia, Jonathan Papelbon, Jon Lester Kevin Youkillis and Clay Buchholz.

Setting up a roster with a balanced approach of, outside help and homegrown help is the key to success. This approach has proven to be the winning approach time and time again. Looking at history, it looks like Cashman played his cards right this time.

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