01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, April 28, 2005

The payroll is $200 million, by far the highest in the game.

The expectations are as big as the Ritz.

The record is below .500.

The lineup has more age on it than the Rolling Stones.

The Boss already has publicly erupted.

So what exactly is going on here?

Interesting question.

Or maybe we should pose it this way: Shouldn't $200 million get the Yankees more than this?

Go right down the list:

Kevin Brown, the aging pitcher signed last year to replace Roger Clemens, no longer seems to be able to get anyone out.

Jason Giambi, making huge bucks, is hitting .224 in his post-steroids career, seemingly no longer the power hitter he was supposed to be.

Jaret Wright, signed over the winter even though he'd already been on the disabled list seven times, is out indefinitely with shoulder problems.

Bernie Williams' best days are behind him.

Mariano Rivera, formerly the best reliever in the game, is on the downside of his great career.

The middle relief corps is old enough to be playing in a 35-and-older beer league.

Alex Rodriguez, as talented as he is, has yet to do in New York what he was brought in to do -- have big nights in October, not April.

This is the best team money can buy?

Makes you wonder.

This is a team that's grown old in front of our eyes, one that's been replenished in recent years by an infusion of high-priced free agents, Band-Aids to cover the warts, all to hide the fact the farm system has been bled dry, the fact there no longer are young players coming along.

This is the price the Yankees paid for their four titles in five years, the bill coming due on all the cheers and all the titles and all the times when it seemed as if the Yanks were just going to win and win and win until hell froze over. This is the price for nothing mattering except the present tense, for throwing money at free agents, so that ultimately you end up with an all-star team instead of a team. This is what happens when a team gets older and nothing is really done to halt time's rush.

Making it worse, though, is this just might not get a whole lot better for the Yankees. No one expects them to finish under .500, of course. And no one's going to be shocked if they eventually end up in the playoffs, even with their slow start. This is, after all, a team that came within three outs of sweeping the Red Sox and going to the World Series last year, and $200 million is still going to buy a lot of wins.

Still, there are visible flaws, ones that don't figure to go away anytime soon. Or what do they do now for starting pitching with Wright out and Brown ineffective?

It's been largely forgotten now, but the Yankees' starting pitching fell apart last year, too. The only difference is this year it's happened sooner. Last year, Brown and Javier Vazquez got off to good starts, even if they flamed out later. And when they did, El Duque came in and gave the Yanks a great six weeks or so. Even so, the Yankees limped to the finish line like a tired old horse squandering a big lead, betrayed by their starting pitching.

The point is, even then the Yankees were getting by on fumes, relying on money and memory, when it used to be pitching and professionalism. In fact, a case can be made that a year ago we were witnessing the last days of the Yankee dynasty, with just four players -- Williams, Rivera, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada -- left from the last Yankee team that won a world title.

Now?

Here it is the last week of April and their pitching seems as thin as a runway model. Or after Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina and Carl Pavano, where are the wins going to come from?

That's another interesting question.

For even when they won all their titles, the Yankees never were a team that bashed the ball and won by outscoring teams. It was their pitching that made them great, their pitching and the face that they collectively knew how to win in New York. Now, here it is the last week of April, they added Johnson and Pavano over the winter, and they still have pitching problems. Here it is the last week of April, and Jon Leiber would look good in the middle of their rotation. Here it is the last week of April, and the expectations trump the pitching, never a good sign.

And, yes, this is still very early. Yes, there are miles to go before this season sleeps. But right now the Yankees have real problems, ones that even a $200-million payroll might not be able to solve.