MLB

SKY’S THE LIMIT WITH THIS LOADED ROTATION

THE Yankees have reloaded like never before and you can sense the optimism around the team. Baseball is all about pitching, and because of the way the rotation stacks up, this will be the Yankees’ Year.

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But it will not be easy. The AL East is going to be a battle from Opening Day today in Baltimore until the end of the season.

“We feel good about the potential of this club, but at the same time we recognize the real stiff competition that we are up against in our division alone,” said GM Brian Cashman, who engineered the three big moves of the offseason, signing free agents CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira.

“I think if you are a baseball fan and you like to watch a good fight this should be a real interesting fight this year in the American League East, because I don’t think anybody can predict what’s going to happen,” Cashman said. “It’s good for the game. It might not be good for my ulcers, but it’s good for the game.”

Cashman earned his ulcers last year when the Yankees fell to pieces and did not make the postseason for the first time since 1994.

There were many reasons why those Yankees collapsed under the weight of expectations, but the biggest reason was the starting rotation. There were too many question marks, the hitters began pressing, the team didn’t play solid defense and it all came crashing down.

Yankees starters produced a 4.58 ERA last season, ninth best in the AL, and their 898 1/3 innings placed 12th. That tells just part of the story. The teams with the three top starters-only ERAs all came out of the AL East. The Blue Jays were No. 1 with a 3.72 mark. The Tampa Bay Rays were next at 3.95 and the Red Sox were third at 4.02. Then there were the Orioles, who tied the Rangers for the worst mark in the AL at 5.51.

The Yankees have to match up within their own division before they can go anywhere, and that means matching up with the Red Sox and Rays starting pitchers, no easy task.

Having Sabathia carry the load will be the difference. Today he becomes the first African American to start an Opening Day game for the Yankees. Overall, this is the kind of Yankees staff that can dominate opponents and win the short series come October.

What separates a No. 1 from everyone else? Joe Girardi listed four things, saying, “Stuff is usually the first thing. Mechanics are second. A lot of times it’s hard to be consistent in your pitches if you don’t have the proper mechanics. You look at CC’s mechanics and he’s very consistent. The third thing is he is big and strong. You know he can give you a lot of innings. You don’t necessarily get concerned when his pitch count goes over 100 because he’s so big and strong.”

Girardi then added the other key factor that separates the great from the good.

“They’re fairly relaxed on a daily basis,” he said. “Their mind doesn’t get away from them where they get too pumped up in a sense and aren’t able to make their pitches.”

Sabathia is just that. He is relaxed on the day he pitches.

Burnett, Chien-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte and Joba Chamberlain make up the rest of the rotation. The Yankees want to have strong starters from top to bottom and that’s the real reason they have Joba in the rotation now and not the bullpen.

“We think the five starters are necessary, five very good starters are necessary in our division,” Girardi said. “We saw what Tampa did and Boston did last year. You’re going to have to win a lot of games to win this division.”

That winning has to start today with Sabathia on the mound.

kevin.kernan@nypost.com