Brian Cashman may not have secured his pitcher yet, but he solved the one missing piece in his line-up… that of Jorge Posada by trading for one of the other premier catchers in the league in Pudge Rodriguez.  Additionally, he didn’t give up a single prospect for the rental of Pudge for the remainder of the 2008 season, and relieved himself of Kyle Farnsworth.  While Farnsworth had been shaky in the past, he was pitching quite well in the past few weeks for the Yankees.  Still, Farnsworth returns to a team that badly needs relief help, and has another strong catcher, and Farnsworth can disappear from the New York scrutiny.  Yankee fans can also breathe a little easier in the 8th.  Yankees, I assume, will pay the rest of Pudge’s 2008 salary ($13 million).  Pudge isn’t the player that he was in 1999, but his ability to get runners is better than the Yankees currently have. They also will get extra draft picks when the let Pudge walk in the off-season.   For years though, pitchers have complained about how Pudge calls a game, so it will be interesting to see how that works with the Yankees, where a former catcher is the manager.  The true genius of this trade will be seen in late September, I expect.  But from where I sit, it looks like the perfect deal.  

Oh, and now maybe writers have to stop writing that the Angels hve the best line-up in the American League.