Acquisition a Weighty Matter?
The right-handed hitting Mondesi is listed at 5'11" and 230 pounds, but if you've seen him play since he left the Dodgers, you know he's 230 in the same way Cecil Fielder was listed at 265. Speaking of The Big Man, many pundits are already comparing the Mondesi deal to the 1996 trade for Fielder, who went .260/13/37 in 200 AB in pinstripes. The previous summer, the Yankees acquired a pre-resurrection Ruben Sierra from Oakland, and he finished the season .260/7/44 in 215 Bronx at-bats. Given Mondesi's plummet toward the Mendoza line, .260 probably sounds pretty good to Yankee brass.

Baseball Business 101
ESPN.com's own Jayson Stark really captured the reality of this trade nicely in his insta-trade-analysis: "This was more a corporate acquisition by Yankees Inc. than it was a classic baseball trade." The Yankees will only have to pay a little more than half of Mondesi's salary, and are only on the hook through 2003, by which time Juan Rivera should be ready to go full-time. Repercussions: Cliff Floyd and Brian Giles are not coming to New York ... Shane Spencer and John VanderWal have virtually no fantasy value ... Karim Garcia, it's been nice knowing you ... Marcus Thames, go ahead and pay the rent through September in your Columbus apartment.

Right Field Fire Drill Ends, Anyway
Five different players have started games in RF this season: Spencer, VanderWal, Thames, Rivera and even Enrique Wilson; Garcia has also seen action while Nick Johnson played there on and off during spring training ... Questions about Rivera's injury, which some New York papers have recently been reporting "not as serious as first believed" should now be put to rest ... Did anyone else notice that Brian Cashman and Joe Torre spent an awful lot of time during post-trade interviews praising Mondesi's defense and throwing arm? Those strengths, over-exaggerated as they are, don't exactly help his fantasy value either.

Probable Starters 7/1: Off Day 7/2: Clemens vs. CLE (Sabathia) 7/3: Wells vs. CLE (Drese) 7/4: Mussina vs. CLE (Finley) 7/5: Hernandez vs. TOR (Loaiza)

Great ... er, Good ... er, Just OK Scott to Jays
Headed north in the trade is 26-year-old AA LHP Scott Wiggins, who was 2-1/2.28 in 24 games for Norwich. Here's all you need to know: in John Sickels' pre-season minor league report for ESPN.com, he mentioned 39 players in the Yankees organization by name, and Wiggins didn't make the cut. He may turn out to be a serviceable major leaguer some day -- since he throws with his left arm, the former seventh-round draft pick will get chances for another ten years. Given that two months ago the Blue Jays were offering Mondesi or Shannon Stewart for Brandon Claussen AND Nick Johnson, Wiggins is a small price to pay.

Elliptical Information ...
The Yankees have certainly had better luck trading for bats than arms in recent mid-season deals; Sierra, Fielder and David Justice (.305/20/60 in 272 AB in 2000) significantly outperformed recent pitching pickups Denny Neagle (7-7, 5.81 in 2000) and Sterling Hitchcock (4-4, 6.49 in 2001) ... Ironically, Sierra was traded for Fielder ... In other news, Orlando Hernandez was officially tabbed to start Friday's game against Toronto, replacing Ted Lilly in the rotation ... ESPN.com's David Schoenfield speculates that the Mondesi acquisition will allow Spencer and VanderWal to play LF; don't get your hopes up. As long as Ron-DL White is healthy [giggle], he will play regularly.