What a difference a year makes.

The New York Yankees plan to keep Joba Chamberlain in the starting rotation, will consider bringing back Andy Pettitte and Mike Mussina and would like to sign more than one of the top free agent pitchers available this offseason, according to a story published in SportsIllustrated.com.

With their strategy of building from within and keeping homegrown prospects failing miserably this season, the Yankees will again open up the purse strings to pursue, among others, CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Derek Lowe, and possibly Ben Sheets, along with first baseman Mark Teixeira and potentially Manny Ramirez as free agents, Jon Heyman’s story indicates.

The team may also pursue San Diego pitcher Jake Peavy, who may be on the trade block.

The Yanks have $80 million-plus in expiring contracts coming off the books so the team is ready to go back on the offensive as they enter their new ballpark in 2009. Heyman expects that the team may dangle Ian Kennedy and Philip Hughes, two guys they were adament on keeping a season ago.

Do they never learn?

The Yankees dominated the late 1990s and early 2000s in Major League Baseball, yes, with a high payroll, but with internally-grown stars like Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter. Smart trades added fireplugs like Paul O’Neill, but guys like Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada were the heart of the team.

As soon as the team got cocky and started buying every high-priced free agent available on the market – e.g. Alex Rodriguez, Carl Pavano, Jason Giambi, et al – the team started losing in the playoffs.

Now the team wants to have a superstar at every position. The Johnny Damons and Hideki Matsui have come in and played well for the Yanks, but the team spends so much on having a high-priced stud at every position that it neglects to develop its prospects or fill in less glamorous spots like, say, the bullpen?

It seemed like Hank and Hal, the sons of George Steinbrenner, realized this last season when they refused to dump Hughes and Kennedy along with a collection of other prospects in a deal for Johan Santana. It looked for awhile like the team might be going back to developing from within while picking a select few free agents and trade targets that would fill out the roster.

And by most accounts it wasn’t a horrible season. The Yankees went 89-73 – they just happened to slide a bit during a season when the rival Boston Red Sox were as good as ever and a Tampa Bay Rays team filled with maturing prospects hit on all cylinders. So they missed the playoffs.

And apparently missing the playoffs for one season changes the reaffirmed developmental strategy. And I think that’s a mistake. My high school history teacher had a variation of this famous George Santayana quote pinned up on the wall of his classroom: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Here’s a prediction. If the Yankees go out and spend another $100 million on free agents this offseason the New York fans will get all excited and the team will get back to the playoffs. But they won’t win the World Series.

And in the Bronx that’s all that matters.