It is with a heavy heart that I sit down to craft this post, and I must admit that updating Yankees Chick is a task I've been dreading all weekend for lack of anything non-A-Rod-related to say. After today's game, I have finally progressed from frustrated about the pitching to downright sickened and some bitching is therefore in order.

My delightful friends, it is a sad state of affairs when a team's offense can consistently score 6+ runs, has seven starting position players that are hitting at least .300, and gets on base with with supreme consistency but still cannot win a goddamn game. Every single one of the Yankees embarrassing 10 losses can be attributed to their pitching woes, which range from injuries to inconsistency to the apparent inability for the starters to last longer than 5 innings. It is the latter two that concern me most, as injuries leave the hope of a return while inconsistency and that horrendous "I will spontaneously combust the moment this game gets into the 6th inning and henceforth my life quite literally hinges upon me not pitching well enough to convince Torre to keep me in any longer" condition afflicting the starting rotation do not appear to have any sort of remedy.

At the risk of burning your retinas, take note of the following:

• The Yankees have racked up 75 appearances from their bullpen, the most in the MLB (and in just 18 games, surely some sort of mathematical improbability).
• After tonight, the collective ERA of the starting pitchers is a dismal 5.64.

Despite the unfortunate overuse of the bullpen, they have actually been pretty effective as a whole - their ERA is 3.51. The inevitable burnout and blowout of all their arms is going to come much too soon at this rate, though, and there are over 140 games to go in this marathon. Proctor was a savior of sorts last season, but the workload he's been shouldering spells doom to me; the same goes for Bruney, who is one of my favorites but is way too young and unseasoned to handle so much work (and such intense pressure!).

The good news - and there is some! - is that there is help on the way on the starting pitching front. Wang has recovered from the hamstring trouble that has had him sidelined since before the start of the season and will be pitching tomorrow, hopefully a solid 6+ innings to let the poor bullpen take a little nap. Finally, the one and only Philip Hughes, Prospect Extraordinaire, will be joining the roster this week for an emergency Thursday start. This is obviously a bit sooner than anyone would really like, but the Yanks are out of alternative options (I'm sorry, Chase Wright) and Phil seems up to the job. The return of Wang and the excitement of seeing Hughes so early in the season makes your Yankees Chick cautiously optimistic for a turnaround on the mound...

...And if the pitching implosion continues, give A-Rod the ball and send him out there. He's on a roll.