The Yankees should trade A-Rod while he still has value.<>

<>Why? Because the Yankees don't need him as much as the potential players they could get for him in a trade.

All season long, as the Yankees took advantage of the Red Sox' injuries and sub-par performances from off-season acquisitions (Lowell, Crisp, Beckett), all baseball fans heard about was how the Yankees were fielding an all-All-Star lineup that was bashing its way to victory after victory. But we heard little about the Yanks' pitching staff, which is getting older and less effective each year.

Detroit knocked them out of the playoffs because of the adage, "Good Pitching Beats Good Hitting." So for all that offensive firepower, the Yankees still couldn't beat good pitching, and A-Rod was just one of the Yankee hitters who had a miserable postseason.

So, the Yankees could have made the postseason even without A-Rod in their lineup, but they might have advanced if their pitching staff was better.

Trading A-Rod before his career begins to fade could net the Yankees some younger pitching that could, within a few years, give New York the kind of dominant pitching staff necessary to compete for more World Series titles in the near future.