With less than two weeks left until opening day, Yankee fans everywhere are wondering who will get the fourth and fifth spots in the starting rotation. What looked like an easy pick of Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova has transformed into a rather tight race thanks to the rebirth of Bartolo Colon.

There are three guys looking to fill two spots and Joe Girardi hasn’t given any hints as to which direction he is leaning. However, with the Yankees normally babying their young pitchers and not believing in putting youth on the hill, my money is on the two veterans snagging the last two spots.

Bartolo Colon was signed to a minor league contract this past winter after missing all of 2010 with a series of arm injuries. With a few less than stellar performances and a couple of cliché pitching injuries, it was thought that the overweight 37-year-old would hang up his spikes. But that was not the case. Colon has performed near flawlessly this spring and is a serious contender for a spot in the Yankee rotation.  Maybe he can find a way to pitch like he did in 2005 when he went 21-8 with a 3.48 ERA and a Cy Young Award.  But if I’m Brian Cashman and the rest of the Yankee front office, I’m thinking anything around .500 is good for the money they’ll end up paying him.

Freddy Garcia is my top choice for the Yankees 2011 “Pleasant Surprise” award.  I think he has plenty of arm left and that his 6’4,” 250 lb. frame will give him enough strength to pitch another couple of seasons. At 35-years-old he is definitely approaching the end of his career, but the Yankees aren’t looking for a number 1 or 2 guy. They need someone to help round off the end of the rotation and I think Garcia can do it.  From 2001-2006 Garcia pitched over 200 innings a season. That is a lot of wear and tear on his arm by today’s standards but I think it says more about his strength and durability as a starter.

Since 2006 he moved around a lot and was injured for most of the next three seasons. But last year he pitched 157 innings (more than in his previous three seasons combined) and went 12-6. This tells me he is healthier and growing comfortable with his “over-the-hill” arm. If you’re lucky, you get a veteran who has learned to pitch smarter and craftier when his arm starts to get worn down, and it can often yield great results. I predict this to continue to happen for Freddy Garcia.

Most people wanted Pettitte back this season (myself included, though mostly due to nostalgia) and he was 38-years-old last year with an injury prone 11-3 season that was compiled of a 127 innings. Being three years younger than Pettitte and having thrown more innings than him last season, makes Garcia seems like the better move. It’s OK to think positively about Garcia this season; it doesn’t make you a bad fan. Just remember me when your talking about how clever Garcia is with the ball and how you never would have guess he’d be a great addition to the Pinstripes in 2011.

Nova, is the wild card pick. With little experience and few professional starts, it is hard to predict if he should win the fifth and final spot. While I predict that Garcia will be the fourth starter and Colon will be the fifth, I’d much rather have Nova in the fifth spot.  I like to promote young talent. And if the Yankees are supposes to have even younger and more talented prospects than Nova, when does he get his shot? I think he deserves it more than Colon and I would be shocked if Colon could even make it through an entire season. Nova has had just as good of a spring as the two vets, and has shown in just 3 starts last year, that he is not intimidated by big league hitters, nor is he overwhelmed by wearing pinstripes and all that it entails. I think they should promote their youth and hopefully find a gem of a pitcher in Ivan Nova. At 24-years-old I think he is the ideal age for young talent to blossom.

The Yankees don’t have the starting rotation everyone expected them to have just six months ago. The big free agent went to Philly, not New York and the Bombers will have to adjust. I think the answer is a nice mixture of youth and experience, but we’ll just have to wait a couple weeks and see who ends up on the hill come games 4 and 5 of the regular season.