Andy Pettitte

Even though the New York Yankees are in 1st place in the AL East and currently hold the best record in all of Major League Baseball, there are still a plethora of trade rumors and debates taking place in the Bronx.

With the main areas of concern being the bullpen, the bench, and the outfield; everyone seems to have their own opinion about what the Bronx Bombers should do on their quest for their 28th World Series Championship.

Pitching Preview: Champs vs. Phillies Game 3 will be looking at a pair of veterans on Thursday’s match-up, in this 2009 World Series revival between the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Yankees .

Game 3:

Team Power Rankings:
NOTE: Team W-L records and player statistics accurate as of Monday June 14, at 11:00 AM CT.
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Team with the largest jump in the rankings over the week.
BUST OF THE WEEK: Team with the furthest drop in the rankings over the week.

1. New York Yankees (40-23)

When Andy Pettitte decides to retire, he will be remembered by Yankee fans as one of the best pitchers in pinstripes. With the way Pettitte is pitching this season, retirement may not come for several more years.

On Friday night at Yankee Stadium, Pettitte became the 35th pitcher to win 200 games as a Yankee as New York knocked off Houston, 4-3, in the opener of the three game interleague series. Pettitte joined Whitey Ford and Red Ruffing as the only pitchers to win at least 200 games for New York.

By Larry Barnes | Yankees ‘n More and The New York Yankees Daily-Press
It is past time for the New York Yankees to have a fulltime pitching coach on staff – a benefit the Yankees haven’t enjoyed for a week and counting. That’s because Dave Eiland has some unnamed personal issue that has kept him away from the team.

The Yankees were happy to leave Toronto after their first visit with the Blue Jays over the weekend.

This series provided a lot to think about in regards to what the Yankees are dealing with regarding strengths and issues.

Losing the first two games was making the Yankees look like has-beens. Thanks to Javier Vazquez’s impressive performance the Yankees avoided getting swept on Sunday.

Watching Saturday’s 14 innings proved that the Yankee pitching is pretty sturdy and continued to add more worries about the Yankee bats.

Thursday's matchup is definitely a good one featuring Andy Pettitte and James Shields .

Another hard winner to pick because Pettitte has been so good and Shields has greatly improved since the last time he faced this Yankees lineup.

David Ortiz may be starting to turn a corner, as he's hit safely in his last six games and driven in 11 runs over his last nine.

The injury bug has been taking out Yankees one at a time. Is the Sports Illustrated cover curse taking its place in the Yankees locker room? The core four appeared on the cover this past week and three of the four have been battling injuries.

Jorge Posada is day-to-day with a calf strain, Mariano Rivera has missed a few games because of stiffness in his arm, and Andy Pettitte had to leave Wednesday's game with stiffness of his own in his left arm.

Let's start today with a little numbers exercise:

Player A: .333 BA    1 HR    5 RBI    .443 OBP    .471 SLG

Player B: .380 BA    3 HR    9 RBI    .404 OBP    .600 SLG

Player A: 3.57 ERA    0-2 W-L    14 K    1.47 WHIP

Player B: 1.35 ERA    2-0 W-L    14 K    1.20 WHIP