Keith Foulke is a textbook example of how some fans lose perspective.
I believe that Foulke basically sacrificed his arm in the 2004 postseason for a championship.
But in 2005, when he was pitching badly, there was no mercy for him. (Leading to the infamous/hilarious Johnny from Burger King line.)
When your payroll is pushing the top threshold and your farm is depleted, then yeah, you pretty much need Plan A to work.
Getting Cashner seemed like a decent little tweak.
If we had some well-pitched starts lately the W-L record would be looking considerably better. We're losing a lot of games where we're putting up 5 runs or more.
You're right except the AAV is reduced to $25.6 million because of deferred money. This type of adjustment must have been something new in the last CBA.
And you can say the same about the Yankees rotation:
CC, Tanaka, Happ, Paxton - all diminished, based on the numbers
German - only one on upswing
Perhaps the rocket ball shouldn't be overlooked as a factor in all this...