Finding the right pieces.(Second Half Preview)

For big-league general managers, completing the roster puzzle that would vault their teams into the postseason is a daunting task. On some teams, the key ingredient might be the impact of a recently acquired player or one still to be obtained by the July 31 trading deadline. On others, it could be the emergence of a player already on the club. Among the intriguing possible "fits":

Jose Contreras, RHP, Yankees

No one knows how much leaving his wife and two daughters behind in Cuba hurt the performance of Contreras. No one knows how much reuniting with his family will help him.

A cynic would suggest Contreras is out of excuses. But if Contreras becomes the pitcher the Yankees envisioned when they signed him to a four-year, $32 million contract in 2003, Team Steinbrenner might be impossible to beat.

The rotation, the Yankees' foundation in recent years, is now their biggest question. Javier Vazquez is the only Yankees starter who has avoided physical or performance issues, and people named Jorge DePaula, Brad Halsey, Tanyon Sturtze, Donovan Osborne and Alex Graman have started games for the Yankees this season.

Contreras, 32, could provide stability as an effective middle-of-the-rotation starter. A scout who saw him earlier in the season described him as "gutless ... looking to fail." But in his first start after his wife and two daughters defected from Cuba and joined him at Yankee Stadium, Contreras pitched six scoreless innings against the Mets and struck out a career-high 10 batters.

"Obviously, it relieves a burden that he had been carrying mentally," Yankees general manager Brian Cashman says. "He had a very sad heart. He was half a person without his family. Now he's whole again. How it affects him professionally, I can't tell you. I have no idea."