Yankees' pitching plan to start second half vs. Braves portends real doom

The New York Yankees are starting the second half in Atlanta against the Braves on Friday night, but maybe they shouldn't, actually?

It took the Yanks a surprisingly long time to announce their rotation plans for this weekend's set, and now we know why: the plan stinks, and it's also a little scary!

Both Will Warren and Marcus Stroman will pitch this weekend, taking Saturday's and Sunday's outings against the Braves. That'll push Carlos Rodón and Max Fried into the Blue Jays series that begins next week - as long as Fried's blister issue is resolved, that is. While it makes total sense for Yankees management to shuffle their best arms into the hotly contested AL East series instead of this weekend's NL East on-ramp, we'll need to ... hear about Fried's injury status before we can totally exhale here and believe that it's purely a managerial decision.

As for Friday's second-half starter, it's going to be ... Ian Hamilton as an opener. What happened to Cam Schlittler? Is he following in bulk? Is he okay?

Yankees to open second half rotation with Ian Hamilton as bulk guy instead of Cam Schlittler

If the Yankees announce that Schlittler will be handling five innings on Friday, then fine. Great. Totally makes sense. If they announce ... that he didn't come out of his first MLB start quite as freshly as they'd hoped, then we're going to lose our minds. One start. One damned start.

Ideally, none of this portends doom, and the short-handed Yankees are merely planning for their pre-trade deadline reality. But if they wanted to use an opener anyhow, why was it not in favor of Warren, who tends to scuffle in the first frame before settling into a groove? Where's the sanity in this strategy? Is it an emergency? Is it creativity? Is it disaster?

Very unpleasant, to say the least, that this is how the Yankees are beginning their crucial second half, just two games in the loss column ahead of the surging Red Sox and four games up on a postseason spot. This doesn't exactly scream "position of strength".