Newsday: Davidoff: Yankees in need of a killer-instinct rotation

Sorta like when Brady and Hindley or Gerald & Charlene Gallego had their rotations going…

What the Yankees missed most of all in 2008, you sense from talking to people around the team, is that intimidation factor one gets only from possessing a strong, deep starting rotation.

When the Yankees rode the bus from their Toronto hotel to the Rogers Centre, for instance, and knew they would have to deal with Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett and Dustin McGowan (before his injury) in the next three days, it took something out of them before they even saw a pitch.

So even though the Yankees allowed fewer runs (727) this past season than they did in 2007 (777), they lacked the pitchers - either big names or big stuff - who made clubs dread coming to the ballpark.

That’s what they’re trying to recapture, in addition to the obvious: tangible improved pitching.