Yankees 16, White Sox 3

Some thoughts on a game that went down like a good steak:

1. What cannot be stressed enough is that the Yankee will go as far as Abreu, Matsui and Cano will let them. Matsui (2 homers tonight) seems all the way back to his solid self.

2. A-Rod (0 for 5) headed for his second mini-slump of the season? Sitting on 499 as we speak.

3. A good strategy for Moose's starts: score thirteen runs. Seriously, starts like these for the rest of the year should be sufficient.

4. Not trading a prime pitching prospect to obtain Texiera was the smart move.

5. Professional trading deadlines have lost their allure. When was the last big deadline move in major league baseball? The Astros acquiring the Unit in '98? The days of the Braves aquiring Fred McGriff, or the Tigers acquiring Doyle Alexander, or the Red Sox acquiring Mike Boddicker--in other words, a July trade that will transform a pennant race or postseason, is all but over. No one wants to be the GM who gives up the next Jeff Bagwell for a Larry Andersen, or--for all the help Alexander was in '87, going 9-1 down the stretch as the Tigers beat the Blue Jays by one game--a John Smoltz for a Doyle Alexander. It was telling that the biggest trade this week was not even a baseball trade, it was a basketball one: Garnett to the Celtics (for, as Sill Simmons pointed out, the Al Jefferson poo-poo platter). Nobody in baseball wants to trade even a B-prospect, even for a retiring contract, which is why the Astros started the weekend with four third basemen and, after all the wheeling and dealing, were left with three. Mark Loretta is a .300 hitter who can play all four infield positions; Mike Lamb is a middling-fielding third baseman who can hit .290 with some pop. Both will turn free agent after this season; with Ty Wigginton (probably less talented than either of them) locked in for two more seasons, both will leave after this season, leaving the Astros nothing. The Astros, with nothing left to play for this season, will get nothing for them. And what they were offered for Lamb and Loretta was not enough to move them, even under these circumstances. Telling.

6. The one exception to all of the above may be Gagne, who a) may prove a difference in the playoffs, and b) may come at the price of a few future All-Stars. We'll see