Posted on 12/15/2008 6:29:53 AM PST by Publius804
YANKEES' SPENDING MAKES BASEBALL WORLD GO 'ROUND
I FEEL uncomfortable defending the Yankees. It is unpleasant to find myself on the same side as Hank Steinbrenner. It is distasteful to be making a case for why the organization with the biggest wallet uses it.
But listening to one baseball official after another complain at the Winter Meetings about the Yankees' massive spending is like listening to Cowboys officials act as if they were shocked that Pacman Jones got into more trouble or Terrell Owens can't keep his mouth shut.
These are the Yankees. This is what they do. Good economy, bad economy.
Nevertheless, let's ponder this question: What is more detrimental to baseball, that the Yankees gave a pitching-record contract to the 2007 AL Cy Young winner (CC Sabathia) and likely will have a lower payroll in 2009 than 2008, or that the Padres are working feverishly to trade the 2007 NL Cy Young winner (Jake Peavy) as yet another way to plummet their way to a $40 million payroll and irrelevance?
And, no, San Diego is not doing this to clear cap room for LeBron James in two years. It is doing this because its owner, John Moores, is going through a costly divorce. The Yankees are being criticized because they continue to try to win, and not a word is spoken that the Padres already have surrendered for at least 2009-10.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Yea Baby leave it to the Yankees. SPEND SPEND SPEND! Can’t wait till April!
Baseball sucks.
The sport most of us grew up on is a farce of what it used to be.
Steroids.
Fake Records.
Mercenary Free Agent System.
The Cleveland’s, Milwaukee’s, Pitsburgh’s, KansasCity’s etc. can never compete on a consistent basis. They have been made the minor league’s to develop talent for NY, Phil, La etc.
The Yankees are just the final nail in the coffin of a once great sport.
Long live the Yankees.
Baseball is dead.
Note: The most successful sport competitively and financiall is the NFL. Get a salary cap before baseball dies.
They can try to buy a WS but at some point they could have a bunch of guys making $20 plus million a year who are all over 30 years old and some pushing 40. Those guys break down and tie up roster spots. Burnett has a history of injuries, Sabathia is only going to get bigger, if they want Manny then they have to deal with his BS and while Texiera is a star player he hasn’t played in NY where expectations run high.
The Yankees would be a hell of a lot better off by returning to their model in the 90s where they developed great players and filled in some gaps when and where needed.
I think Sabathia will opt out after 3years - I do agree about the Burnett signing - that makes me nervous. In my opion Cashman is a WAY overrated GM - especially when it comes to pitching.
However the Yankee hating gets old especially when they dole out tens of millions of dollars to other clubs through the luxury tax & revenue sharing.
"The sport most of us grew up on is a farce of what it used to be."
Maybe your bad opinion of baseball would change if you would get monetarily involved with the very popular and lucrative collectable side of the sport.
If you are interested, I have a very valuable item for sale to start your collection:
...and if you ARE interested, I'll even throw in one of these for FREE!!:
I don’t have a problem with the money they spend. I’m sure many would like to have that luxury. The issue is that throwing money around doesn’t create a championship team. The last few years have demonstrated that. It doesn’t matter how much talent is on the roster if that talent doesn’t compliment each other.
I’m not a Yankees fan so I’m content watching them do this, but at a certain point you’d think Yankee fans would demand develepment of good players within their system instead of big pay days for star players.
I am a Red Sox fan so I am aware of the revenue sharing scam that has money from the club go to subsidizing competing franchises. Both the Sox and Yanks helped finance the Rays the past several years.
However, I criticize the Yanks for bad management decisions. Go back to the 90s and see how they dominated with home grown talent and smart FA signings. When they started to panic in 2001 and went back to signing overpriced FAs they managed to compete for a while but the core has rotted out. I would say that if they were signing guys to 3-4 year deals while their scouting and player development machine kicked into gear then it would make sense but they always manage to overpay.
Is this author an idiot?
I mostly agree, they have the resources to have a grade A development system - top scouts, coaches, executives, etc.. I think given the NY market the Yanks must find a way to balance free agency acquisitions and internally developing their own players. The Burnett deal could really, really burn them down the line.
Agreed, the Red Sox have done an excellent job of balancing the two - free agents and internal development. Like I said in an earlier post - I think Cashman is an overrated GM.
Cashman has to walk a fine line in NY. The standard is to be the champion, or else. When the fans see overpayed players shuttling in and out with no WS it gets old. He has really tried to hold on to his young players and try to build from within but it takes time and when you keep losing your high draft picks for signing Type A free agents you miss out.
The Sox have made a few mistakes of their own along the way. The SS position has been a real weakness for Theo and he has done a bad job on the pen and bench. They paid way too much for JD Drew but he might turn out to be plus for the last 3 years. On the plus side the player development machine has been getting better and better and they are trying to stay away from burdensome long-term deals which has me thinking that they won’t take Texiera. He’s peak now but 7 years from now he’s going to be 36 years old pulling in $24 million a year.
Pittsburg and KC do fantastic jobs of drafting and developing talent.
It’s a charade of a sport.
Good organizations are not rewarded. Now in the NFL, the Giants can be looked to as an organization that did it right. The Jets are on the uptick also. They both do it on a level playing field.
The Yankees winning a WS has been cheapened...It’s kind of like the US declaring war on Trinidad and Tobaggo. Yayyyy, we won. That’s quite an achievement lol.
Before long, the federal government is going to call the NY Yankess and ask for a bail out loan from them to save the USA, since the Yankees seem to have more money than Fort Knox has gold!!!
I have no problem with the Yankees spending. Clearly you cannot buy championships ... and with the starting rotation they had last year, they could use the help.
AJ Burnett’s overrated ... and Sabathia isn’t as good as that contract makes him seem. That being said, I’m glad CC Sabathia’s out of the NL Central.
SnakeDoc
My fear is Burnett spends half his time on the DL.
“Pittsburg and KC do fantastic jobs of drafting and developing talent.”
I can assure you that Pittsburgh does not do a good job of drafting and developing talent. You have to work hard to spend 16 consecutive seasons under the .500 mark. This year, we’ll own that consecutive losing season record!
Take a look at what the Pirates got in return for Jason Bay. Keep in mind that the guy still has another year on his contract! We traded Xavier Nady to the Yankess for 3 pitchers, all of which project to be long relief at best, and a future headcase (Tabata).
Our draft picks have been downright horrible. We drafted ahead of Baltimore in 2007 and nabbed a future left handed relief pitcher instead of Matt Weiters (he’s almost certain to be a star catcher someday). All of that pitching we drafted this past decade has turned out to be a total bust. I still have hopes for Maholm and Gorzelanny), but by the time they figure it out, they’ll be pitching for the Yankees or Mets.
Overall, Pirates management has been a complete disgrace. Quite frankly, even if we had the money, I doubt a free agent with any kind of talent would come here regardless of price. We’re so bad, the team in the movie “Major League” looks good! In that movie, the fans only had to suffer through 8 consecutive losing seasons.
If MLB is going to institute any kind of cap, it’d be best if it were modeled after the NHL’s system. There has to be some kind MINIMUM salary cap put in place. While teams like the Marlins and Rays dump a lot of cash into their systems to develop winning teams, teams like the Pirates seem to burn all of that wealth redistribution on things like new scoreboards and bobblehead nights.
It pains me to say it, but I wish the Pirates would have moved 10 years ago. Taxpayers gave the Pirates $200M to stay in this city. I think we’ve cracked the 70 win mark only once since PNC Park opened. This city would go nuts if they’d just break .500 one of these years. They cannot cry poor either...Minnesota, Cleveland, Florida, Tampa, and Oakland have all found ways to win. The Pirates seem to like rolling in sub-mediocrity with no end to that in sight!
LeBron James is playing baseball for San Diego?
Stop going to the ballpark. That’s easy because the new stadiums in NY will cost a fortune to attend.
Stop watching baseball on cable or satTV. Call your provider and cancel your local baseball network and don’t buy MLB Pass.
Stop watching baseball on commercial TV. Boycott products on TV that advertise baseball games.
Start grassroots activism will stop tax payer money financing new stadiums without owner contribution.
Support little leagues. Support minor leagues. Support college baseball.
Do these things and you will regain power over this monster.
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