The excellent Peter Abraham notes a new wrinkle in the roster rules, essentially a mid-playoff disabled list.

There’s a new rule that allows teams to replace an injured player in the middle of a playoff series.

There are a few catches, however.

A pitcher can only be replaced by a pitcher and a position player by a position player. Also, any player replaced cannot play in the next series.

The Yankees have four options, Chris Britton, Ian Kennedy, Edwar Ramirez and Ron Villone. For this series Villone might be the way to go. Abraham favors Ramirez — who strikes out a lot of people but gives up scorching line drives when batters actually make contact — but he throws too much batting practice. For the Boston series, Kennedy’s got to be the choice. And if Clemens can make it back for the Rockies, that’s fine too.

Update: The Yankees pulled the trigger and have replaced Rocket with Ron Villone. Kennedy remains a candidate to go against the Sox in the ALCS, a prospect over which headline writers in NYC and Beantown must salivating.