Not reality.

I believe 12 pitchers are typical for a playoff roster. 

Top three starters in my mind are Cole, Gil, and Schmidt. I don't think it's debatable.

The fourth starter I suppose is Rodon, though I'd be just as comfortable (read: uncomfortable) with Stroman. 

Cortes goes to the bullpen, undermined by his own versatility and, gee, a 3.90 ERA doesn't distinguish him from the others.

So that's five. If you want to put Stroman on the playoff roster, that's six, though I'm not sure why you would do that.

In what possible scenario is Stroman going to be more reliable out of the bullpen than Holmes? In which pitching statistic is Stroman better than Holmes?

OK, but let's just say for the purpose of discussion that Stroman makes the roster. That's six and there are six more to go.

In order to eliminate Holmes from the roster ... why are we doing this? ... you'd need to find six players in the Yankees bullpen who are better than Holmes.

1. Kahnle

2. Weaver

3. Cousins

4. and 5. Hill and Mayza because you want lefties?

6. Ian Hamilton? Rob Marinaccio?

OK, I suppose this is possible, but I think Holmes is the fourth-best pitcher in the bullpen ... and I wouldn't even include Stroman on the roster in the first place.

So while I think it's obvious that Holmes is on the roster due to the simple math involved, Keith McPherson has other ideas:

"Keith would give the spot to nearly anybody else at this point, including youngster Clayton Beeter, an exicting pitching prospect brought over in the Joey Gallo trade who is finally fully healthy this season."

Clay Holmes is a two-time all star with 29 saves this season, but McPherson is ready to put Clayton Beeter on the playoff roster to save the Yankees' season.

Fine.

Let's hope the offense and defense show up and we don't have to pin our hopes on either Holmes or Beeter. Maybe we can agree on that.