Barry Zito, a free agent leftie who’s on the short side of 30, would look good at the head of the rotation. Chien-Ming Wang is a number three starter who could serve as a two. Mike Mussina doesn’t get it done in the postseason, but he could still  be a number four starter. Corey Lidle, Jaret Wright and Carl Pavano should all be sent as far away as possible. Twenty-year-old flame-throwing phenom Philip Hughes is ready to move up to the big club.

That’s a lot of change, and all the players, new and old, are going to have to start dealing with a new manager in 2008 anyway after next year, which is the last on Torre’s contract.

Torre’s been a great manager, an island of calm in the once storm-tossed seas of the nation’s most famous sports franchise. The man was at the helm when the team won four World Series in five years from 1996-2000, and you can’t say he didn’t have anything to do with it.

And for a long time, I was among those who welcomed the kinder, gentler Steinbrenner who neglected to fire Torre back in 1997 for not making it to the World Series after having won it the year before and again forgot to can the Yankee skipper after the team blew the lead and lost the seventh game to Arizona in 2001.

There have been more blown games since, none so astonishing as the four-game choke in 2004 when the Red Sox were down 3-0 in the ALCS but refused to go out. Torre’s handling of Mariano Rivera in that series was a critical part of the meltdown, but even then Torre got a pass.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures A kayaker flips out, a racehorse eyes the Triple Crown and more. more photos

A mere six years without a title may seem like just a three-day weekend to someone who cheers for the home team in Cleveland or San Diego or Seattle or Tampa or the north side of Chicago, but it’s an eternity for the Yankees. This is a team that starts every season by reminding us that anything short of a title is a failed season.

Steinbrenner says that, but it’s hard to see any indication that he still believes it. In the old days, which weren’t always good, Billy Martin would have been fired 16 times in the same 11 years that Torre has occupied the manager’s office. Back then, Steinbrenner was the mad shipbuilder who had to get some perspective. Today, he seems more like a sentimental old man who’s forgotten what got him to the top.

There’s got to be a happy — and championship — middle ground between this manager-for-life and the team’s old manager-of-the-week. Keeping Torre isn’t  the way to find it.