Meanwhile, the Dodgers and Padres are locked in a brilliant race in the NL West, and both teams are desperate for a big bat. Both also have well-stocked farm systems. If the Yanks can get a couple of position player prospects and maybe a middle reliever, it just makes sense to do it.

The team is old. Jason Giambi got hurt early on and there's no telling when he'll be back. Johnny Damon is hurt constantly and can't play center field every night. When he does play, his arm is terrible. Cabrera, Cairo and Phillips are bench players. The team doesn't have a back-up catcher who can hit Kate Moss' weight. Middle relief has lately been awful. Did I mention that Jorge Posada has only a year or two left catching five games a week?

I doubt the Yankees will trade A-Rod, if only because that would signal surrender, and the Yankees never surrender. There's something admirable in that. But the team has been sinking slowly but surely over seven seasons now. At some point, major rebuilding is necessary, and they've reached it.

If the Yankees played .700 baseball from here to the end of the season, they'd win 95 games. That's a pretty good total. But if Boston simply plays .505 ball, they'll finish with 96 wins. So, while it's possible for the Yankees to win seven out of 10 from here to the finish, it's unthinkable that Boston won't play at least two games over .500, which would be all they'd need.

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Detroit, the current wild-card leader, would then have to play .585 ball to beat the Yankees, which is almost exactly what they're playing now.

So the Yankees need a miracle and the teams they're pursuing need to just keep doing what they've been doing all year.

This isn't 1978, when the Yankees were 14 games behind Boston and won in a one-game playoff. Back then, the Yanks had Ron Guidry going 25-3 and they had a lot of players who were injured get healthy in the second half.

Boston, meanwhile, had a string of injuries. And when the Yankees were 14 back, they were still six games over .500. They haven't been better than three games over all year, and that was for one day.

They used to be the best team money could buy. Now, they're the summer version of the Knicks: Never have so many been paid so much to do so little.

Trade A-Rod. Fire Joe Torre. It doesn't matter, not this year. This team is finished.

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