All that glitters is not gold...

The Yankees are potentially nine innings from thinking about 2008. Nine innings and maybe just a couple of days from learning whether there will be a bidding war for their star third baseman/shortstop, or if he will just play out his contract.

Alex Rodriguez will be the pretty bauble on the free-agent market.

There is reason after regular season reason for pursuing him. A-Rod is a perennial MVP candidate and an RBI producer. This year he had better late inning production than any other time in his career.

It is not exactly a secret that Theo covets A-Rod and his production. He sees A-Rod as the successor to Manny Ramirez in the line-up behind Ortiz, and can have him bat behind Man-Ram in his final year in a Sox uniform in Mike Lowell's spot.

There is a major reason to stay as far away from this money pit as possible. It's called the post-season.

This is a man that melts in a cauldron like a wax monkey.

Since his home-run against the Red Sox in the 2004 play-offs A-Rod is more FRod (yeah, do the phonetic pronunciation for the double entendre). He is a raging 4 for 50. That's a blazing post-season average of .080.

I can't help but think that signing him away from the Yankees would essentially be the Red Sox taking the monkey of the Bronx Bommahs' collective backs (not that any of his teammates have been doing any damage - check out my last post).