"Up in the press box, a major league scout was watching Prince Fielder flick line drives into the right field seats during batting practice Tuesday, the Brewers' star first baseman making home runs look practically effortless.

"Man, I'd hate to think how many he could hit in this bandbox," the scout said. "If I'm the Yankees, he's the guy I sign, even with (Mark) Teixeira here. Put Fielder in this lineup as the DH and they might never lose."

It has to be a tempting thought for the Yankee brass, even at $25 million a year. Not only is Fielder's lefthanded swing made for the Stadium, but the free agent-to-be would add more of the star power this franchise both craves and needs to continue selling its outrageously-priced seats.

The Yanks already score plenty of runs, as they did in pounding the Brewers, 12-2, Tuesday night, but in keeping up with the newly-muscled Red Sox, another howitzer could always make a difference.

On the other hand, GM Brian Cashman probably would be leery about tying up the DH spot for several years, considering that Alex Rodriguez has six years left on his contract and surely won't be able to play third base regularly for that long.

Still, as we found out last winter, when Cashman was overruled on the signing of Rafael Soriano, selling tickets sometimes supersedes critical thinking.

And while pitching may be the priority for these Yankees, the free-agent market will have little in the way of frontline starters, with the possible exception of C.J. Wilson. Meanwhile, Cashman believes he has his own elite pitching coming in Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos, either of whom could be ready to step into the rotation in 2012."