Posted on 12/11/2019 6:52:35 AM PST by C19fan
The New York Yankees are back. Back to free-agent excess. Back to blowing away the rest of the market for free agents. Back to being at the head of baseball’s tycoon-class.
And — pay attention because this is now the most pressing part — back to skyscrapers-sized expectations.
Agreeing to a reported nine-year, $324 million contract with top free agent Gerrit Cole on Tuesday night signaled both a record free-agent deal for a pitcher (Stephen Strasburg’s record lasted a whole day) and a new reality for these Yankees.
After a couple years of uncharacteristic scrappiness, in which they won despite injuries and taped together a lineup with discarded free agents, the Yankees of old are back. That means one important thing — no excuses.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
This season, the Yanks will be paying TWO players more than the Orioles will be paying their entire roster. And it shows.
That’s the going market price for a premier starter. Where was all this complaining when the nats signed strass?
Its killing the game.
I’m a Yankee and all I get is a driveway full of snow.
High salaries are killing the game?
Take the money and run.
“Money gushing this season of Hot Stove compared to last year. “
Maybe. In last year’s free agent class, though, I don’t think there were any pitchers available who were of comparable caliber as Cole and Strasberg.
Lack of team “loyalty” is killing the game?
It could all backfire on the Yanks. He could blow out his arm three months into the season and never be right again.
It’s a game of calculated risks.
Enjoy the taxes.
High salaries that only some teams can afford are hurting the overall quality of the game.
NY, Boston, Chicago, LA all have much more generate revenue because of the TV stations they own. NESN makes the Red Sox huge amounts of revenue. They can afford players much more than Seattle, Tampa bay, Milwaukee, etc.
It is making it so smaller market teams like Pittsburg can not compete with bigger market teams.
The guy could move to metro NY, slip on the ice in his driveway this winter and damage his arm.
Crazy gamble.
A real baseball fan identified with the players in Major League Baseball for a few important reasons. The fans played the game themselves as young people, came to know it and love it and at a certain level identified with and admired those who had the skills to make it to the majors. However when these players become richer than Crassus, and leave teams and fans for the big bucks ( as is their right), the average thinking person can no longer identify or “root” for such players and the teams that try to buy championships. Not saying everyone loses interest, but many do and baseball ratings and attendance is falling.
The Pittsburgh Pirates just learned this lesson over arguably their best player, pitcher Felipe Vasquez.
Now-fired GM declines to trade him at the deadline for max value. A month later he gets picked-up on a morals charge, and seems now headed for a long prison sentence, or deportation, or both.
Anything could happen at any time. Look how much the Angels spent last season, and they were a mediocre team.
Us folks in the 'burgh just don't understand how freely money flows in the big apple.
Three years ago, I had scored some reasonably good tickets in the crow's nest behind home plate to take my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter to a Pirate game. Cole was pitching against the Mets, gave up four runs in the first inning and lost. Some Mets fans seated next to us told us that it actually cost about the same for them to drive to Pittsburgh, stay at the Marriott near PNC Park and buy game tickets here rather than attend a game in New York when all was said and done. We enjoyed talking to them almost as much as the game.
Thanks to Scott Boras.
Where does all this money come from?
I have a friend whose nephew is a bench player in MLB.
Last season he made major league minimum ($565K I believe).
I wonder what his take on this would be?
I get it, but that's not the whole story. With revenue sharing, all teams make huge amounts of money. In the MLB, 48% of local revenues are subject to revenue sharing and are distributed equally among all 30 teams, with each team receiving 3.3% of the total sum generated. As a result, in 2018, each team received $118 million from this pot. Teams also receive a share of national revenues, which were estimated to be $91 million per team, also in 2018.
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