You do realize that when the Yankees were winning World Series regularly in the late 90s/early 2000s, they were doing it with mostly home grown players....they have usually failed when trying to buy their championships.
Funny, even in say in 1996 for example, they still enjoyed a payroll asymmetry which gave them nearly double the payroll of 50% of the other teams in baseball.
http://www.baseballchronology.com/Baseball/Years/1996/Payroll.asp
Regardless of which type of players ultimately allegedly contributed the most to their wins in that era, is it right that they are allowed such an advantage?
Further, speaking of homegrown talent. Teams like the Yankees, in addition to being able to simply spend through any player acquisition mistakes they make (an inefficiency most teams do not enjoy), the Yanks do not have to worry about losing superior players who merit a pay increase. Say a team wanted to snatch a young Mariano Rivera away from the Yanks. Easy, outbid them. That doesn’t even happen, because the vast majority of teams can’t even come close to going toe-to toe with the fiscal firewpower the Yankeees are allowed to use, so they don’t even try.
From a strictly competitive baseball standpoint, do you think the Padres really wanted to let the ascending A. Gonzalez go to the Red Sox?
Here in St. Louis, whenver we have a top quality player approaching free agency we have to look over our shoulder at whether this particular player is a need for the Yankees or Red Sox. Albert Pujols being the current case in point.