Giambi speaks about testimony; Yankees' wish list

	Jason Giambi is batting .263 with 27 homers for the Yankees this season. Chuck Solomon/SI

While Barry Bonds awaits word as to whether he'll be indicted for perjury and possibly other charges (such as tax evasion), the Yankees' Jason Giambi is enjoying life again. Giambi's mind is clear, he's swinging the bat well again and, most importantly, he's out of the steroids spotlight.

Giambi and Bonds once engaged in a friendly rivalry as the Bay Area's top two power hitters. Then they experienced BALCO together. Now Bonds is alone in his predicament.

Giambi still has a soft spot for his former Bay Area rival. "I feel for him,'' Giambi said on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. "It's got to be very distracting for Barry. It's a very tough situation.''

The two sluggers' circumstances were different. Giambi had different friends, and different hangers-on. Both players behaved differently -- Giambi is as friendly as Bonds is abrasive. And while they both testified about BALCO before a grand jury, their testimony was vastly different. While Giambi admitted his involvement with steroids, Bonds contended he didn't knowingly take steroids, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's reports of the testimony.

Giambi took a lot of heat after his testimony became public, and he was briefly viewed as the face of steroids. Since then, the heat has moved to Bonds and Rafael Palmeiro.

While he can't speak directly about Bonds' situation, Giambi is sure he did the right thing by testifying truthfully.

"I had to go in there and do what I had to do," Giambi said. "I had to do what was best for me. It was tough at the beginning. Now that everything has come out and I've gone forward, it's been a lot better. I don't know anything that's going on with Barry. But for my situation, I did the best thing I could. It was the right thing to do at the time.''

Yankees zero in

The Yankees are heavily involved in trade talks to acquire either the Phillies' Bobby Abreu or the Royals' Reggie Sanders.

The Yankees badly need an outfielder, but they have two things going for them in their pursuit: 1) They can afford high-priced outfielders (the $23 million remaining on Abreu's contract apparently doesn't faze them; neither does Sanders' $5 million salary in '07); and 2) there are plenty of outfielders available.

On Friday the Royals dropped their asking price on Sanders, and talks have progressed to the point where the Royals had a scout watching the Yankees over the weekend. Kansas City apparently is no longer insisting on prized pitching prospect Phil Hughes, Jose Tabata or Melky Cabrera and appears willing to choose from New York's second-tier prospects, which include Tyler Clippard, Jeff Karstens, Stephen White, Jeff Kennard and T.J. Beam. A deal may be expanded to also send relievers to the Yankees, possibly including veteran Elmer Dessens.

Abreu remains one of the Yankees' top choices, and the team hopes he'd waive his no-trade clause since he has a condo in Manhattan -- though it may take a financial inducement. His friends say Abreu would prefer the Mets because he'd like to stay in the National League.

The Diamondbacks' Shawn Green is another option for the Yankees; two other possibilities are the Nationals' Alfonso Soriano and Jose Guillen. However, a deal for Soriano might require better prospects than the Yankees are willing to give up (they've said no on Hughes), and Guillen is batting just .215, explaining why the Yankees see him as a giveaway.