New York, NY (WFAN)  -- “God have mercy on the man who doubts what he’s sure of.”
--from Bruce Springsteen’s “Brilliant Disguise.”

Brian Cashman is sure that he made the right decision in keeping Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy and not pulling the trigger on a deal for Johan Santana last winter. While others are starting to doubt, the man who made the call is still sure he made the right call.

Let’s go back to December. With the payroll again over $200 million the Yankees decided they had room for either Andy Pettitte or Johan Santana, but not both. Pettitte had yet to decide if he wanted to pitch again in 2008, but when he did reach that decision in early December the Yankees were no longer players for Santana.

And actually, the decision involved a lot more moving pieces. Of the deals proposed by Minnesota, one was built around Hughes and the other was built around Wang and Kennedy. Either one of those deals would have essentially included Pettitte, since the Yankees would have decided not to sign him at that point. Don’t forget Melky Cabrera was part of both packages too, and he’s proven to be quite valuable so far this season, more productive offensively than at any other point in his career.

I was in favor of bringing Santana here last winter. I thought it was a no-brainer to bring a 29-year old lefty with that kind of talent here. I understood the reasons against it, but that now that means granting the young kids patience. It’s been five weeks. That’s not long enough.

Phil Hughes is hurt and there’s nothing to do about that right now. But Ian Kennedy will be back here soon and when he does come back, it doesn’t mean he’s going to throw 7 shutout innings every time out and win 12 starts in a row. There will still be---say it with me now---growing pains (Kirk Cameron probably didn’t hear those words as much as Yankee fans have in the last month). But when Kennedy regains his confidence, and some believe that’s all he’s really missing, he’ll be right back where he started. He’ll be a young pitcher with very little experience pitching on a Yankee team looking to make the playoffs. That’s not easy. And if it doesn’t happen this year, it doesn’t mean these guys are failures.

Brian Cashman’s contract ends after this season. It would have been easy for him to make the Santana deal, but he saw a future that had three (counting Joba Chamberlain) young and successful pitchers in pinstripes, knowing full well that future might not include Cashman himself. But he’s convinced that one day this group of pitchers will lead the Yankees to a championship. Without concern for his own future, Cashman is now banking the Yankee future on his young arms much the same way Ernie Accorsi did with Eli Manning. It might be somebody else that gets to taste the champagne, like Jerry Reese did with the Giants. But Cashman believes he’s doing the right thing. What we may doubt, Brian Cashman is sure of.

Thanks for reading. Send comments and questions to yankees@wfan.com.

Sweeny