With A.J. Burnett coming aboard Friday, the Yankees have four high-end starting pitchers in CC Sabathia, Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain. That's your October starting rotation right there, and it's superb.

So don't give up entirely on the youth movement. Allow Alfredo Aceves, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy a chance to contribute from that fifth starter's role, rather than overspending on the fading Pettitte. Maybe Phil Coke and even Andrew Brackman can get into the mix.

One veteran official from an American League club wisely noted, "It's not the five spot that's been the Yankees' problem."

Nope, the Yankees' streak of eight straight title-less seasons - and even more so, the last five years without a World Series appearance - can be attributed mostly to the absence of front-line starting pitchers. Since 2004, the Yankees have placed only one pitcher - Randy Johnson, in 2005 - among the American League's top five strikeout leaders.

Suddenly, they have the reigning AL strikeout man in Burnett, who fanned 231 hitters in 221 1/3 innings in 2008, and Sabathia, who struck out 251 batters in 253 innings for Cleveland and Milwaukee. Chamberlain could be in that strikeout leader tier soon enough. Wang doesn't fan many opposing batters, but he keeps the ball on the ground with his power sinker.

Potential obstacles loom with that quartet, as they do for any pitching staff. Most of all, Burnett is such a risk at five years and $82.5 million because he is known as much for the frequency of his disabled-list visits as for the velocity and movement of his fastball.

So that's why you can perhaps sell Pettitte on the idea of a midseason comeback; you might well need him. But in the meantime, don't give up on Aceves, Hughes and Kennedy by automatically relegating them to minor-league duty.

Hughes and Kennedy have become the poster boys for "why you can't do a youth movement in New York," and it is, of course, ridiculous. Both bombed in their big-league opportunities. And both - Hughes in the Arizona Fall League, Kennedy in Puerto Rico - displayed why they're not quite dead yet. Look at how long it took Mike Pelfrey to find himself with the Mets. Wasn't it worth the wait?

It's not a healthy message for young players in the Yankees' system to think they won't get time to prove themselves and work through some issues. One 89-victory season that causes the team to miss the playoffs shouldn't blow up everything good that came before and alongside it since 2006.

It's understandable why the Yankees went so hard after Sabathia and Burnett. And it would be inexcusable to dismiss their young pitchers without a better opportunity to be part of this new era.