Well, as a lifelong Yankee-hater (I grew up in Kansas City in the 70's and 80's), the thought of the Yankees getting A-Rod makes me very, VERY unhappy. It will be very hard for me to root for A-Rod-the-Yankee, and I think that he will end up being one of the two or three players that we can tell our grandkids about actually seeing play the game.

On the other hand (having already revealed my total bias) I sure hope they put A-Rod at third and leave Jeter at short. Jeter is a defensive liability (Baseball Prospectus rates him at 3 runs below replacement level at short for 2003). A-Rod, on the other hand, is one of the better shortstops in baseball (31 runs above replacement last year, always in the 30's year after year). I would love to see Joe Torre explain to Kevin Brown why the guy who keeps turning all those middling grounders into singles for him is still playing short . . .

That being said, the Yankees are better with A-Rod than with Soriano (or any other single player). Paradoxically, the Rangers are also better off (I agree with initial post on that account).

I will sign off with my small-market whine. It truly is a problem when the Yankees can add Brown, Vazquez, Sheffield and (likely) A-Rod. I'm sure Yankee fans love it, but for the rest of us, it is another big dollop in an already overfull bucket of disillusionment.