Two Plus Two Newer Archives - **Trading Deadline Thread **

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**Trading Deadline Thread **

Abreu and Lidle headed to Bronx?

There are still dollar signs to sort out, no-trade clauses to be waived and prospects to be settled on. But it sure looks as if Abreu is moving his act to the Bronx sometime in the next day and a half. And all indications Saturday night were that pitcher Cory Lidle is going to ride that Metroliner along with him. The Phillies and Yankees spent many waking hours Friday and Saturday trotting a thousand different trade options out there. But in the end, the one that seemed to work best for everyone was the option that is going to relocate Abreu and Lidle 100 miles to the north, for a package of three or four of the Yankees' best prospects not named Phillip Hughes or Jose Tabata. The two teams were said to be whittling a list of eight or nine names to a group they could settle on. But while that whittling process wasn't over late Saturday, it was believed that two names the Phillies had targeted were the Yankees' highly regarded No. 1 pick a year ago, shortstop C.J. Wilson, and 6-foot-5 power arm Steven White. That was a price the Yankees could easily live with, however, especially since they're going to owe Abreu close to $37 million over the next 2½ years. The Yankees were the one team in the Abreu hunt that always believed that, in the end, the Phillies' best option would be to clear every dollar in his contract off their debt sheet. So while other teams listened to Abreu's money demands and turned in other directions, the Yankees waited the Phillies out. Finally, on Friday, the Phillies lowered their talent requests -- and the deliberations began. The Phillies tried dangling Abreu alone and didn't feel they were getting enough back. They tried packaging him with pitcher Jon Lieber, who is owed another $10 million through 2007 himself. But the Yankees felt taking on another chunk of cash that large entitled them to offer even less than they would for Abreu alone. So the Phillies substituted Lidle for Lieber, and that apparently made the puzzle pieces fit. No matter how happy the Phillies may be to lop Abreu's money off their I.O.U. list, they also knew they couldn't march up to the podium after trading a player like this and say, "We just saved $20 million on our car insurance." They had to get real players back who could allow them to save face and restock their system. And including their best available starting pitcher was the move that made that happen. So by late Saturday night, there seemed to be only one significant question left: When would they all be stepping to that podium?

God I hope this is true