Great strategy, eh? Base the future of the Yankees on the most recent starts of Nova, Eovaldi and Pineda

In the early days of TV, when Barney Fife and Corporal Agarn reigned as lovable icons of the police/military power structure, one typical American vision was the Zenith that miraculously healed itself when the repairman - (they made house calls back then) - came to the front door.  The vertical hold suddenly corrected itself, and the picture looked crystal clear... as long as Mr. Fixit stood over it. Then, when he was gone, it went back on the fritz.

Today, the Yankees are an old, blown picture tube. As our owners ponders a full-blown sell-off - the first of this millennium, and, frankly, the first since the 1960s, when Elston Howard went for Pete Magrini and Ron "Klimmer" Klimkowski. (Fun fact: The most Ellie ever was paid - in 1966 - was $75,000. Adjusted for inflation, it would be worth $560,000 today.) - suddenly, the picture looks fine. I'm Dickens, He's Finster is no longer bleeding into My Mother the Car.

Trouble is, anybody who has watched the Yankees in recent years knows the reality of Ivan Nova, Mike Pineda, Nathan Eovaldi and CC Sabathia: They pitch well for a few starts, then turn into Camp Runamuck. For every solid performance, there will come an ensuing market correction. The tube is shot. Disney's Wonderful World of Color won't last.

I'm just saying what we all know: Any brief winning stretch will be followed by a bunch of clunkers. In the long run, the Yankees will either take a bold move into the future - that is, trade off a pile of veterans - or we will languish at .500 for the rest of eternity, or until somebody makes a reboot of The Double Life of Henry Phyfe.  

Right now, I get the feeling the Yankees will do a modified sell-off: Aroldis Chapman will go, but nobody else. There are many reasons to trade El Chapo:

1. He's a free agent next winter, and Food Stamps Hal will never offer a long-term deal. (He throws so hard that it's probably a bad idea anyway.)

2. We really don't need three closers.

3. Several teams are hot on him, suggesting a bidding war.

4. We traded two solid prospects for him, and we need to get more than simply a draft pick next June.

Listen: I always root for the Yankees to win. I cannot do otherwise. Therefore, I hope we sweep Baltimore. Also, I want to showcase our players for teams that would take them. But Hal Steinbrenner needs to man-up and understand that quality starts are an illusion. Ivan Nova can look like Sandy Koufax one day, Sandy Duncan the next. I hope we trade him. Beltran is a great player. I hope we trade him. Tex has been a solid Yankee. I hope we trade him. Gardner is my favorite Yankee. I hope we trade him. A-Rod? CC? Miller? Need I say it?

Right now, the only thing that matters in the Yankiverse is who we get at the trade deadline, and whether they will do in the future what this team is incapable of doing in 2016: Winning a World Series. Until that happens, my tube stays off.