The Rafael Soriano problem

In 2010 Soriano had a pretty magical year for the Tampa Bay Rays, he posted a 1.73 ERA, a stunning .802 WHIP (Walks,Hits per Innings Pitched). He won 2 and a half games all by himself for the Rays (a 2.5 Wins above Replacement). So the inevitable happened, the Rays couldn't keep him, so he joined the Yankees to be the 8th inning man. Before today (in which he gave up the tying-run against the lowly Orioles), he had just a .4 WAR, an ERA of 4.30, and a WHIP of 1.3, and has battled injuries. For comparison, the 8th inning man for the Rangers (Mike Adams) already has a WAR of .6 and he has only been on the team for a little over a month. One of the set-up men for already 95-loss Astros (as of September 8th) Sergio Escalona has a WAR of .4, and Red Sox setup man Daniel Bard has a WAR of 2. Soriano also makes more money than all these guys (a 3 year $35 million deal). So far this year, he has earned about $402,000 per IP (more than many young players make in a season). Sometimes the Yankees look like geniuses (see my Aaron Laffey post), and sometimes they throw money at the wrong person. The latter (see A.J. Burnett) is why the Yankees will have quite a few pitching questions going into the post-season.