Called it?

The current sports news is saying that the Yanks are beginning talks to trade former star pitcher Randy Johnson, possibly back to the Diamondbacks or to the Padres or Giants. This is just another step in GM Brian Cashman's purge of past-prime talent that the Yankees had collected over the past few years (Gary Sheffield, Jaret Wright).

If New York does manage to move Johnson, it's even more possible that they'd make a move for Barry Zito, says SI.com's Jon Heyman. Makes perfect sense. I'd love to see an aged pitcher moved out of New York, have young talent brought in in return for him and then top it all off with the addition of who's probably the best pitcher on the free agent market this season (Daisuke Matsuzaka not included since he's still a mystery.)

It would also be another way to counter the Red Sox's addition of Matsuzaka, something I brought up a few weeks ago. If the Yankees can swap out Randy Johnson for Barry Zito, here's what their rotation will look like: Mike Mussina, Chen-Ming Wang, Andy Pettitte, Barry Zito and Kei Igawa. I'm not including Carl Pavano since I'm just going to assume he'll be struck down by another phantom injury. That's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. On top of that, just imagine if the Yanks win the Roger Clemens sweepstakes, I'm not even sure what'll happen. Igawa will most likely go to the pen. And I consider the Yanks to be the odds-on favorite to land Clemens too.