Greetings, RAB faithful, from San Francisco. I’m on vacation for the next week so I’ll be posting less frequently than usual. But Joe and Mike will have the same great content they always have.

I wanted to chime in briefly on this A-Rod flurry of news. Since the All Star Break, we’ve heard a report say the Yanks were willing to negotiate with A-Rod now; a report saying that Scott Boras, A-Rod’s agent, expects the future Hall of Famer to be earning $30 million annually real soon; and a report today saying that the Yanks won’t bid against other teams for A-Rod’s services.

The three of us have been notably silent on these developments over the last few days for the simple fact that they are not really newsworthy. The Yanks’ initial stance was overblown according to subsequent reports. No team would ever engage in intense A-Rod style contract negotiations while attempting to overcome a sloppy start and 10-game deficit. And the Yanks wouldn’t negotiate with A-Rod during the season while ignoring Mariano Rivera‘s and Jorge Posada‘s current contract situations.

Today’s news is another meaningless piece of unsourced journalism. The Daily News, in an effort to one-up the Post, found some anonymous source in the Yankee organization who said the team won’t bid for A-Rod’s services. Who knows if it’s true? To speculate on that would be pointless, but as MLBTradeRumors notes, if A-Rod opts out, that’s probably going to be the end of his run in pinstripes.

What we do know is that Scott Boras will use all of his leverage — an opt-out clause (you can think Tom Hicks for that one), A-Rod’s 31 HR and 87 RBI in 86 games — to secure a mega-deal for his biggest client. It could be an extension; it could be a whole new contract. But something will happen. That’s it. That’s the story. None of the rest of this carries any weight at all.

Now back to our march to the playoffs…

From the Worldwide Leader:

The Yankees have changed their traditional stance and are now willing to negotiate during the season with their star third baseman on a contract extension, MLB sources told ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney.

The key sticking point for the Yankees in the prospective negotiations is that Rodriguez agree not to opt out of his current contract after this season and agree to add any extension to the current contract, which expires after the 2010 season.

So lemme get this straight . . . A-Rod gets in-season contract talks, but these two guys don’t? Wow, how times have changed in Da Bronx.

The guess here is that he ends up inking a monster extension, like a 6-yr/$200M kind of monster.

Update by Ben: I wanted to make a few points here. I doubt the Yanks have said nothing about this to Rivera or Posada. Those two will re-sign with the Yanks too.

As for A-Rod, I’m thinking more along the lines of five years at $150 million or six years at $180 mil. Now, while I know many people expect A-Rod to head west, the truth is that the Angels and Giants just can’t afford that kind of deal. $30 million would be a whopping one-third of the Giants total payroll or slightly less than 30 percent of the Angels’ total payroll. I just don’t see that happening.

My guess, as like Mike, is that A-Rod negotiates with the Yanks, stays and wins one or two rings in the Bronx as Hughes and Chamberlain join a rotation with Wang. A new ballpark will see the Yanks’ finances improve even more, and they can afford this move.