Bob Klapisch

So maybe you'd drifted off into some fuzzy alternate reality, where major leaguers have no interest in performance enhancing drugs. Then you blink: Ryan Braun's testosterone levels are a chemist's dream and suddenly you're staring at baseball's darker angels again.

Or as Michael Corleone famously put it, "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."

Joe DiMaggio was barely halfway through the 1951 season when he realized he was losing the war with time. The greatest, most efficient hitter of his era suddenly was having trouble picking up the slider, a new-fangled pitch working its way through the big leagues. Even more disturbing to DiMaggio was his difficulty reacting to fastballs, which had never happened during his 13-year career.

Brian Cashman may or may not have had an ulterior motive when he recently said the Red Sox are "better" than the Yankees. That was too close to heresy to be taken at face value even the Sox wondered what the Yankee GM was up to.

An elementary exercise in reverse psychology? A shifting of the chess pieces on the eve of pitchers and catchers? Perhaps. Or maybe Cashman was being dead-cold honest, repeating what most baseball executives are saying about the balance of power in the American League. The Sox haven't just caught and passed the Bombers this winter, says one industry observer, "They're head and shoulders above everyone else" on the way to the World Series.

It's hard to find anyone who isn't predicting a Sox-Phillies World Series in 2011 -- the first time in years both leagues have, on paper, been so singularly dominated. The Phillies have what could be the greatest starting rotation in history, assuming everyone stays healthy. And the Sox . . . well, their balance is what figures to separate them from the Yankees.

In a perfect world, Omar Minaya will come home from the winter meetings with a power-hit ting left fielder and a No. 2 starter, just as Brian Cashman will find an insurance policy in case Andy Pettitte decides to retire. That's the script everyone loads up for Opening Day in a matter of 72 hours -- but don't count on a swap meet this week in Indianapolis.