Yet he has remained an elite pitcher, and the Yankees hope his powers of persuasion are intact.

"When you haven't seen a guy and he's an elite pitcher, I think he has a little bit of an advantage," Lowell said.

"Pedro's one of the elite pitchers in baseball," Torre said.

Colon, 26, has been unable to place himself among the league's elite pitchers since making the All-Star team in 1998, his first full season.

"Did he ask to be paid like the elite pitchers in the game?"

With his fastball and strong secondary pitches, he has established himself as one of the elite pitchers in the game.

Even the elite team of 1996 and an elite pitcher like Cone.

Couldn't steroid use by elite pitchers explain this?

Even George Steinbrenner is anxious for the medical update on his elite pitcher.

But he outdueled one of the elite pitchers in the American League and did it with style.