Chien-Ming Wang is down for the count

Yankees report Chien-Ming Wang will begin the season on the DL after tweaking a hamstring yesterday. Wang, last season, was arguably the best pitcher and the anchor of the Yankees starting rotation. Yankees were hoping for Wang to build upon the success of last year and was slotted as the number one starter in the rotation (probably making Mike Mussina happy, who never liked being number one in a pitching rotation).

There's speculation that oft-injured pitcher, Carl Pavano, may be slotted to pitch Opening Day against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Pavano has had an inconsistent Spring Training so far, with him posting 4-1/3 IP, 3 R, 3 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 2 K in his last outing. Not stellar numbers this late into spring, with Opening Day a little over a week away. I'm sure Joe Torre will wait to announce who will start Opening Day in order to see how his other starters perform.

The Yankees are going to face Scott Kazmir, a young and very talented lefty. It would be a better idea for them to start a pitcher that has been consistent and better over the past month.

Mike Mussina has been the Opening Day starter before, so why not choose him? He's been a consistent starter throughout the spring and he's known to pitch quality games. They'll need a good starter out there to match up with Kazmir. Of course, the manager needs to have faith in every pitcher he has on his staff, but you also want to start the season on the right foot.

Although Kazmir is young and has limited major league experience, he has a winning record in his career even though he's been on a lackluster team. His ERA in 2006 was 3.24, with 163 strikeouts, over 144-2/3 innings pitched.

Even newcomer Kei Igawa has pitched better than Pavano has. Andy Pettitte might have some injury issues, so he could be out of the question. The point is Pavano is not who you want against Kazmir.

The Devil Rays do have a very balanced and potent lineup that few give credit for. Carl Crawford has power, speed and hits for average, as does Rocco Baldelli. Delmon Young is a great young talent and showed his talent off with his brief stint with the Devil Rays last year batting .317 in 126 at bats. Ty Wigginton had a break out season with power hitting 24 HR in 122 games. Jorge Cantu will try to bring himself back to his 2005 numbers of .286, 28 HR, 117 RBI after an injury plagued season last year. There's a lot of talent right there.

The Yankees lineup is very potent as well, but don't expect the Yankees to be teeing off Kazmir. They need a pitcher that will guarantee keeping them in the game and Pavano hasn't proven that he can be counted on, yet. I'm sure the Yankees will beat upon the following starters because the Devil Rays don't have much depth in the starting rotation, but to win that first game you need a solid pitcher. The Yankees can throw any pitcher out there the next two days. They could be very high scoring games as the Yankees tee off on Devil Rays pitching, they'll have enough offense to win games even if their starter is weak, because the Devil Rays are weaker.

They need to start the season on the right foot and maybe Pavano could be a surprise and have a solid outing, but go for more of a sure thing.