I love the idiotic chatter about A-Rod, and how his sub-par (not awful, just sub-par) season led the Yankees to disaster. ESPN reports that A-Rod won't be traded, which might just demonstrate that Cashman (Yankees GM) understand the real problem: pitching:

"Brian Cashman and I had a discussion and he made it clear that he has no intention of trading Alex," Boras told the Daily News, "and I told him that Alex Rodriguez has a no-trade clause.

"There will be no movement of Alex Rodriguez this offseason," Boras said.

However, baseball executives are unsure whether Boras' statements are believable, particularly given Rodriguez's postseason struggles and the media scrutiny in New York.

Here's the real problem, and it has Steinbrenner written all over it: how many decent young arms could have been picked up for the money they are shelling out to Randy Johnson? Johnson is my age, and - as I've said before - that's not a good thing. He's well past his prime, and his ERA shows that.

Let's say that they could have acquired 3-5 young arms for that money. If even 1 had worked out, the Yankees would be better off. Forget A-Rod. He's not the issue. The issue is pitching, period.

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