The New York Yankees' streak of 13 consecutive trips to the postseason ended last year, preventing them from giving their venerable former ballpark - you know, the one that Babe Ruth built - an October sendoff.

A year later, the Yankees are primed to give their new home an October baptism.

With the help of a lavish, $423 million wintertime spending spree that landed them Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, the Yankees have rebounded from their third-place finish of a year ago and have run away in the American League East after passing the Boston Red Sox on July 21.

The Yanks have the best record in the majors. They will become the first team to reach 90 wins, possibly this week. They are a juggernaut, the favorite to host Game 1 of the World Series. (Who knows? Maybe it will be an Amtrak World Series against the Phillies.)

There are a lot of reasons to believe the Yankees will be the AL champion.

"Two hundred million of them," one slightly envious executive chortled on Friday. "They're the best team - the best team money can buy."

There's no doubting that deep pockets have helped the Yanks assemble (and retain) their talented club, but this is not about baseball's haves and have-nots.

This is about how good the Yankees are.

They lead the AL in runs and homers. They project to have eight players finish with 20-plus homers and 70-plus RBIs. Eight! They have frontline starting pitching, the best closer in the game, and a wealth of postseason experience.

That experience has already come up huge. Shortstop Derek Jeter is having another tremendous season that will likely earn him a place in the top 10 of the league's MVP voting. Catcher Jorge Posada has been on fire lately. Closer Mariano Rivera - 38 for 39 in save chances entering Friday - might be having his best season. All three were part of Yankees' World Series championship teams in 1996 and 1998-2000.

And then there's Andy Pettitte, another four-time World Series winner. Pettitte has had rough times over the last couple of years. His career accomplishments were questioned when it was revealed he used human growth hormone. He issued a public apology in spring training 2008. Last winter, Pettitte dangled as the Yankees debated whether to re-sign him, which they did with a sizable pay cut.

The 37-year-old lefthander has endured. He is 5-0 with a 2.96 ERA over his last seven starts. The Yanks have won all seven of those games, including yesterday's against Toronto.

In terms of talent and stuff, Pettitte would be the Yanks' fourth starter in a postseason rotation. In terms of postseason experience, he'd be their ace. The lefthander is 14-9 with a 3.96 ERA in 35 postseason starts.

Pettitte's experience could be a boon for the Yanks because the balance of their rotation is not exactly filled with postseason stalwarts.

Sabathia has a 7.92 ERA in five postseason starts. The Phillies helped plump up that ERA with five runs against the lefthander in the second inning of Game 2 of last year's NL division series at Citizens Bank Park. Shane Victorino highlighted the rally with a grand slam off Sabathia, then with Milwaukee.

Burnett, who has struggled recently, has never pitched in the postseason. Joba Chamberlain's postseason experience totals 32/3 innings of relief.

So Pettitte could end up being valuable to the Yankees in October, just as he was in 1996, when, at 24, he outdueled Atlanta's John Smoltz in Game 5 of the World Series.

Of course, playoff experience isn't everything in October. Talent rules.

The Chicago White Sox blazed through the 2005 postseason on the backs of pitchers Freddy Garcia, Mark Buehrle, Jon Garland, and Jose Contreras. Only Garcia had ever started a postseason game before that October.

A young Josh Beckett, then with Florida, showed the importance of talent when he completed his first postseason by shutting out the Yankees in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series.