"We should start with this proviso: Just about every personnel expert I respect thinks the Yankees did very well in shipping Jesus Montero and Hector Noesi to the Mariners for Michael Pineda and Jose Campos.

In fact, quite a few of the executives thought it was an overwhelming triumph for the Yankees, namely because they view Pineda as an ace in training and Montero as a special bat, but one unqualified to play a position.

Yet, after all of these conversations, I still have big doubts if the Yankees made the right decision. They acted from the accepted trading playbook: If you can obtain an ace-type, you must do it. The No. 1 starter continues to be viewed as the Holy Grail of the sport.

But what might be lost is that great hitters are becoming as rare to find. Maybe it is about fewer illegal performance enhancers in the game or, perhaps, we have ushered in an era of better pitching. The result is that offensive numbers are down across the board. For example, slugging percentage dropped below .400 sport-wide in 2011 for the first time since 1992. Consider that just 28 players who qualified for the batting title last year reached at least a .500 slugging percentage compared with 47 five years ago."