My point was that Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson were supposed to be the two huge mega aces, and really, they weren't.
No, I hear you, I'm just saying that Johnson hardly had the wheels come off this year despite his high ERA due to the offensive output of the team. Wang also led the league in wins, Johnson was two games back from him, Mussina was two games back from Johnson.

I do disagree strongly on Kevin Brown being brought in as a mega-ace (or even a #3 pitcher). Brown had a series of excellent years in the mid to late 90s, then two lukewarm years (13-6 and 10-4) in 2000 and 2001. He was injured in 2002 and out for most of the season. His return year, still with the Dodgers, was also not terrific at 14-9 out of 32 starts. He went 10-6 in 2004 with the Yankees, and imploded in 2005. The guy was quite obviously long past his prime, as he had posted great numbers almost 10 years prior that steadily declined. You could literally graphically represent his pitching stats over the years with a bell curve. I do agree that the club tends to pay too much for too little in many cases, but the idea that he was brought on to replicate numbers produced a decade earlier - especially coming off an almost full-season injury two years earlier - is a little ridiculous.

This year the Yankees had the #1 mostest winningest pitcher in baseball with 19 W's, Johnson with 17, Mussina with 15. Considering the above-average performance of the last two, you can't rattle any of these guys off as the reasons things fall apart (at least for this year). The only angle is to to either lay the entire blame on their #4 and #5 spots on the rotation, since it wasn't the #1, #2, #3, or the offensive lineup. Or, it was the management.

If you want to see a manager who does jack shit with good players, look at Bobby Cox.
Zing!