WE HAVE BENITEZ! NOW WHAT?

There is one reason George Steinbrenner is called the "Boss." Because he is and everyone who works for him knows it. Yesterday the Yankees' owner put his stamp of approval on a trade that brought Armando Benitez from the crosstown rival Mets to the Bronx in exchange for pitcher Jason Anderson and two minor league pitchers (Anderson Garcia and Ryan Bicondoa). Anderson appeared in 22 games for the Yankees, accumulating a record of 1-0 with an ERA of 4.79. Benitez, who is best known by Yankees fans for drilling Tino Martinez in the back with a fast ball in 1998, starting a bench clearing brawl, comes to the Bombers having saved 117 out of 129 games he had save opportunities. That's 90+%, which is the best in baseball over the past 3 years.

However, it always seemed that when Benitez pitched against the Yankees in the closer role he would blow the opportunity. He always seemed to unravel against the pinstripers. Most notably in Game 1 of the 2000 Subway Series Benitez, which gave the Yankees momentum and they went on to knock out the Mets in 5 games.

Benitez, who was an all-star this year, had 21 saves and 7 blown saves (most in the majors) for the Mets as their closer. Fortunately, maybe for him and the Yankees, he won't have to worry about that role. He is being slated as Mariano Rivera's setup man. Benitez is a proud man and it's going to be interesting to see how well he handles it. Remember when Mariano went down earlier in the year and they gave the ball to Juan Acevedo and told him "you're the man." Acevedo responded with 5 saves. When Rivera came back from the disabled list Acevedo went back to being "a reliever." Acevedo's effectiveness and attitude went south and he was soon released. Will Armando accept his role or will he long for the opportunity to be a closer? Will he have a willing attitude knowing that he isn't "the man" in the Bronx. Only time will tell.

Now to the other side of the coin. The Yankees have always been known for their farm system. They have always had the ability to bring players up from the system to play on the big team. Bernie Williams, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Alfonso Soriano, Derek Jeter and Nick Johnson have for the most part performed admirably at the major league level. However, in recent years the Yankees have made numerous trades to obtain talent at the cost of their farm players. Has the "win now" mantra of George Steinbrenner finally caught up to the farm system? Are they hocking their future for the present? The answer has to be yes. The Yankees and their fans have become accustomed to seeing their team a perennial playoff team and world champion. Nonetheless, it wasn't all that long ago when the Yankees were a perennial "also-ran." From 1982 until 1995 the Yankees went home in September. The continual buying, trading and selling of players had depleted the Bombers from being a contending team. It wasn't until, with a few key acquistions (i.e. Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, Scott Brosius) along with bringing up players from their system that the Yankees transformed back into a world series championship caliber team.

Are the Yankees setting themselves up for a crash back to earth? Or can money truly buy you everything? Personally, I don't like the way things are going. I think the Bombers are headed for darker days in the near future. Roger Clemens is retiring, David Wells may or may not be back, Mike Mussina is turning 38, Andy Pettitte is a Jekyll and Hyde and do we have a 5th starter? If we keep trading our "future" pitching for "now" pitching I don't see anyplace for the Yankees to go, but down. But, then again, I've been wrong before. I have my opinion. You have yours. The only thing that is certain is "time will tell."