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That isn't that new. Moving him to third base and keeping Jeter at SS. This is the problem with leagues without a salary cap, teams can spend money like this. This wont happen, the Yankees will have to give up there whole team for him. Just let the Angels and Boston be better this year.

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Why would the yanks do this? Jeter is amazing. The yanks would be downgrading to get ARod.

ARod is a much better player than Jeter. He carries a similar BA, plays stellar defense like Jeter, but ARod also has a lot more power than Jeter. I'd take ARod anyday. The only thing Jeter has over Arod is a whooole lot of playoff experience.

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ARod is a much better player than Jeter. He carries a similar BA, plays stellar defense like Jeter, but ARod also has a lot more power than Jeter. I'd take ARod anyday. The only thing Jeter has over Arod is a whooole lot of playoff experience.

I'd argue that Jeter is better at d then ARod. Also don't under estimate the power of experience.

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aaron boone has screwed the red sox again. :crazy: :angry: first the hit off wakefield in game 7 and now playing pick up basketball and blowing out his knee. he really does deserve the name aaron *bleeping* boone. and yes im a red sox fan i live right across from the park

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espn said that jeter would stay at short and arod would be a 3rd baseman.... the other players in the trade are alfonzo soriano and a player to be named later

For some reason I just can't see that at all... A-Rod must waive his no trade clause, remember, so I'm sure he'll have some say in what happens, not just the Yankees. Not to mention he'd want a job for his friend...

Although, now that I think about it, it's not hard to believe. It could easily go either way.

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Looks like the Yankees screwed the Red Sox royally. This is off the NYT.

Yankees Said to Be Closing Deal to Obtain Rangers' Rodriguez

By TYLER KEPNER and MURRAY CHASS

n a trade that would join the most celebrated franchise in baseball with perhaps the best player in the game, the Yankees and the Texas Rangers have agreed in principle to a deal that would send Alex Rodriguez to New York for Alfonso Soriano.

According to several people familiar with the discussions, only financial issues remained for the trade to be completed.

The commissioner's office and the players union must approve the deal, and the Yankees and the Rangers were keeping them informed of their progress last night.

"It has reached the commissioner's office," said Sandy Alderson, Major League Baseball's executive vice president for baseball operations, who declined further comment.

Rodriguez has seven years and $179 million remaining on the 10-year, $252 million contract he signed in December 2000. Rodriguez has performed as the Rangers hoped, leading the American League in home runs in each of the past three seasons and winning the Most Valuable Player award last year. But the Rangers have finished in last place each season and are desperate to shed his contract.

On Oct. 26, about 12 hours after the Yankees lost the World Series to the Florida Marlins, Rangers officials called Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman to gauge his interest in trading for Rodriguez. Irritated by the timing and confident in his own star shortstop, Derek Jeter, Cashman passed.

The Boston Red Sox, bitter rivals of the Yankees, reached their own deal for Rodriguez in December, only to have the trade quashed when the players' union rejected the restructuring of Rodriguez's mammoth contract. But with more financial might than the Red Sox and the lesson of Boston's failed trade to guide them, the Yankees were privately confident their deal would not fail.

"It is not going that route again," said one person involved in the talks. "That's been clear from the start."

The impetus for the Yankees' deal came on Jan. 16, when third baseman Aaron Boone seriously injured a knee while playing pickup basketball, and Cashman could not find a replacement. Rodriguez, sensing an escape from what had become a gilded prison in Texas, decided he would shift from shortstop to third base if the Rangers dealt him to the Yankees.

It was no small concession from Rodriguez, who has won Gold Gloves for fielding excellence at shortstop the past two seasons. But Rodriguez has never played in the World Series, and according to one person familiar with the trade talks, he told the Rangers' owner, Tom Hicks, through an intermediary early last week that he wanted to be traded to the Yankees.

In the Red Sox deal, Hicks had agreed to take on baseball's second-highest-paid player, Manny Ramirez, in return. This deal will save the Rangers much more money. Soriano will make $5.4 million this year and cannot be a free agent until after the 2006 season. Texas will also receive a pitcher, probably a minor leaguer, in the deal, officials said.

The Yankees are not expected to assume all of Rodriguez's contract; one official said the team was in contact with Hicks last night, presumably to discuss how much the Rangers would pay. Rodriguez also may agree to minor restructuring, possibly by deferring money. He is scheduled to make $21 million this year, $25 million in 2005 and 2006 and $27 million in each of the four years after that.

"Discussions about players are difficult and sensitive," Rangers General Manager John Hart said in a statement. "From the Rangers' standpoint, any deal would have to meet a lot of conditions and requirements in order to be accomplished."

In a statement issued through the Yankees' media relations department last night, Cashman said: "Without going into specifics, I can acknowledge that trade discussions are taking place with the Texas Rangers. In fairness to all parties involved, I cannot comment further at this time."

The Yankees have virtually overhauled their team from last season. Their starting rotation will be mostly new after the free-agent defections of the veterans Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte and David Wells. The lineup will include the newcomers Gary Sheffield, a seven-time All-Star who signed a three-year, $39 million contract, and another outfielder, the five-time All-Star Kenny Lofton. "The more guys they get over there, I just see that place imploding," said an official of another team. "Their payroll could probably go to $300 million, and the owner wouldn't care."

After three years without a championship, the Yankees' principal owner, George Steinbrenner, has assumed greater control of personnel moves, authorizing a payroll that could top $180 million. The Red Sox, who said they pushed themselves to their financial limits in the failed Rodriguez pursuit, pointed to Steinbrenner's resources in reacting to the deal last night.

"Our reaction is, `Ah, the benefits of seemingly limitless pockets,' " said Charles Steinberg, the team's executive vice president for public affairs. "The challenge with us was trying to make the money work out. But perhaps that's not an issue with the New York ballclub."

For the Yankees, the deal fills one hole but creates another at second base, where Enrique Wilson and Miguel Cairo would presumably be the leading candidates to start. In dealing Soriano, the Yankees are giving up a two-time All-Star who in 2002 became the first second baseman in major league history to hit 30 homers and steal 30 bases in the same season. He repeated the feat last year.

But Soriano is a free swinger who can be exploited by better pitchers, and he played miserably in the postseason, striking out prodigiously and being benched for Game 5 of the World Series. The Yankees flirted with the idea of shifting him to the outfield, and signed Lofton to take over his role as leadoff man.

Adding Rodriguez will give the Yankees enormous thunder in the middle of their lineup. Sheffield, Jason Giambi and Rodriguez combined for 127 homers last season. Rodriguez is also a charismatic figure who presumably would renew his friendship with Jeter. The two had been close early in their careers, and though the relationship was strained in 2001 after Rodriguez criticized Jeter in a magazine interview, the two filmed a commercial together this off-season.

Soon, Rodriguez will defer to Jeter on the field, moving a few steps to his right and hoping that by playing third base in the Bronx, he will win his first World Series ring and Jeter will win his fifth.

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Not so sure about this move. Yes the Yanks get Rodriguez, but I think this hurts team chemistry long term. Think of the egos in the clubhouse. You have Jeter, Giambi, Rodriguez in one room and that is not accounting for the Lofton / Williams problem they have to deal with. I would not want to be in Joe Torrie's shoes when it comes to cooling egos in the Yankee clubhouse.

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Not so sure about this move. Yes the Yanks get Rodriguez, but I think this hurts team chemistry long term. Think of the egos in the clubhouse. You have Jeter, Giambi, Rodriguez in one room and that is not accounting for the Lofton / Williams problem they have to deal with. I would not want to be in Joe Torrie's shoes when it comes to cooling egos in the Yankee clubhouse.

I don't think you have to worry about Jeter at all. Besides him, history has shown that people shape up when they come to the Yanks. George demands team play and doesn't settle for anything less.

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