How do you beat the Yankees?  Remember last October, when the Yankees became World Champions again, there was outrage among non-Yankee fans about the bombers payroll.  How could any other team compete?  Well, the Angels, and the Rangers earlier in the month both showed you how.  You don’t have to have more money, you just have to draft more potential players- and you have to make a deal that will take the Yankees coveted player out of the reach of that team in The Bronx.

The Angels yesterday traded for Dan Haren, the Diamondbacks pitcher according to most media outlets going into the weekend was destined to be the next guy in pinstripes.  Anaheim made the move to try to thwart- or maybe match- the Texas Rangers who is gaining a pretty good lead in the AL West.  But the Angels also took a talented pitcher out of the Yankees reach- when the Yankees needed it most. Don’t worry too much Yankee fans- there is still Roy Oswalt, Ted Lilly and a couple of other talented guys who can eat some innings for the bombers before the deadline passes.

But there are enough teams still in pennant races needing starting pitching, and with strong prospects to trade that the Yankees might find it tougher to get the starters at the top of the heap.  They may have to take someone from a team that purely needs to dump salary- and those deals don’t happen until the last day of the trade deadline, when a team gives up hope of getting anything back.

The Yankees will be there in October.  They will still have the highest payroll in baseball.  But, for the moment at least,  it looks like they may not have the pick of every player on the market.  The question is will that help the other teams once October arrives.