I'm not saying AR is not a better player than AS. Of course he is.

Defensively though, we don't know for sure that AR's defense at third will be any better than Aaron Boone's was, or that the Yanks defense at second will be any better with whoever they put there than it was with Soriano.

Offensively, it means that there will be a bunch of games when the Yanks score 7 or 8 runs instead of 6 or 7. Since 6 runs is probably enough to win about 70% of the time anyway, I don't think the extra offense will amount to more than a handful of wins over the course of the season.

Look at it this way: If you had a team of 9 Sorianos in your lineup, how many games do you think they would win? 120? 130? The only time they would lose is when the other team had a great pitching performance. So how many more games would they win with a team of 9 A. Rods? They'd still lose all the games when the opposing pitcher was outstanding. How many times would they need that extra run that A. Rod will provide now and then that Soriano wouldn't?

As I keep saying, how far the Yanks go this year will all come down to pitching. If 3 out of the 4 of Brown, Vasquez, Contreras, and Lieber are OK, the Yanks will be fine. A. Rod won't make much difference. If the starting pitching falls apart, A. Rod won't make much difference either.

You're a Yankee fan, right? Wouldn't you have liked it better if they traded Soriano for Mark Prior, or Zito or Hudson, or Bret Halladay?