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.