One player who could be a huge difference maker and traded before the July 31 deadline is Toronto’s A.J. Burnett. The righty can opt out of the final two years and $24 million left on his contract after this season and – barring injury – almost certainly will do that.

This would not necessarily be a surrender move. The Jays still feel they are contenders this year and internally see Burnett as their most attractive piece to upgrade an offense that went into the weekend next to last in the AL in scoring. The Jays control Roy Halladay, Shaun Marcum, Dustin McGowan and Jesse Litsch all through at least 2010, and their presence could make Burnett more expendable, especially if it brings a high-end hitter who is controllable for the next few years.

Burnett (5-4, 4.69 ERA) is inconsistent and injury prone, but no one doubts that when he is on, he could shut down even the best lineups, and you could imagine contenders wanting to add that to the top of the rotation.

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Hank Steinbrenner has become the go-to guy for the media because he has his father’s gene to chatter and often stray to the outrageous. But I continue to wonder, if he is really the authority figure we are building him up to be.

After all, his brother, Hal, represented the Yankees at the recent owners meetings. Perhaps even more interesting was that it was Hal, on a recent visit to Yankee Stadium, who summoned Brian Cashman, Joe Girardi and all the team’s coaches to his office to get a state of the struggling team. Hal did it quietly, which is his way. But we probably shouldn’t assume quiet means inactive or indifferent. Hal is the Steinbrenner son who oversees the team’s finances, and often times it is he who controls the money who truly has the power.

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Many executives around the game use a term such as “red flag” to describe medical issues why they shunned Joba Chamberlain, and he fell to the 41st overall pick in the 2006 draft. And now you hear the same “red flag” concerns about Chamberlain upping his workload for the rotation.

Nevertheless, Yankees GM Brian Cashman said he wondered if there was some excuse-making going on to explain why no one else took the prodigy.

“As the guy slipped in the draft, I kept asking our scouting director (Damon Oppenheimer) and trainer (Mark Littlefield) if there were medical worries,” Cashman said. “There was a knee issue (in college) and that was it. He passed our physical completely. The physical evaluation was clean. We had no concerns or reservations then or now. For us, he has only had a hamstring injury, nothing with his arm. I have no health issues to hold him back (from becoming a starter).”

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Tampa third baseman Evan Longoria entered the weekend hitting just .240 in his first 37 major league games. But he has five homers, 20 RBIs and is leaving quite an impression. An AL executive who recently watched him called Longoria, “a no doubt, impact star. I like Ryan Braun, but he struggles in the field. I like Troy Tulowitzki, but he will go into funks and strike out a lot. This guy is much better. He slows the game down on both sides of the ball. He has nice hands. He plays easy. And he is going to be a monster power guy, a legitimate 40-homer guy.”