re: Yankees Close To Acquiring Alfonso Soriano

Yes and no....
The Yankees are an old team without a lot of viable replacements. The top of the rotation has two 40 year olds and CC who is on the wrong side of 30. The line up just isn't good and even the best player (Cano) is over 30.

The farm system a year ago was Top 5 but then some players didn't perform, others got injured, and now that farm system is in low teens/twenties. If some of those former highly ranked prospects bounce back it could bridge the gap. I doubt Yankees collapse like the Mets but I could see them missing playoffs more often over next 5 years till they get younger.

Strength of Yankees over past 15-18 years is they brought up Jeter, Posada, Mo. And Pettite to a team that already had some talent and then signed some veterans (Brosius, Tino, etc) for the positions they didn't have someone in minors for. They also locked up their young stars to expensive contracts.

The Yankees current line up isn't talented enough for a serious WS run and is just treading water hoping the stars return to lift them again.