And of course, 3 of the 8 position starters, 4 out of 5 starting pitchers, the entire bullpen except for Rivera, and the entire bench.
And of course, it’s not just any players that they’ve taken from other teams.
Mussina was Baltimore’s best player when he was acquired. Giambi was Oakland’s best player when he was acquired. Hideki Matsui was Japan’s best player when he was acquired. Jose Contreras was Cuba’s best player when he was acquired. Jeff Weaver was Detroit’s best player when he was acquired (although he has sort of fallen into disrepute). Roger Clemens was Toronto’s best player when he was signed - although I can’t entirely blame the Yankees for that one since the Red Sox had their chance to keep him and it’s not like they did it for payroll reasons. Aaron Boone was one of Cincinnati’s best players when he was acquired.
It’s not that the Yankees sign a lot of free agents. The Red Sox do, too. It’s that the Yankees have the money to sign or trade for the best free agents that money can buy and take advantage of teams in smaller markets that can’t afford to keep them that brings out the salaried ringers looted from other clubs charge. And it’s not a false charge.
Have the Yankees developed some great players? Absolutely. Do they make pretty darn good free agent signings? Most of the time, yes. But the difference is that they can afford to sign or trade for the best every single year and it shows in the growing discrepancy between their payroll and the payrolls of their competitors every season. And when they do make a crappy signing (Sterling Hitchcock, Raul Mondesi, etc.) it doesn’t become an albatross around their neck like for other clubs because they can just go and sign another big buck replacement, rather than suffering for their lousy signings, they can just ignore them.
The Red Sox have money, c’mon. They are willing to spend it as well. Manny and Pedro came with high pricetags. Part of the difference is that the Yankees didn’t want to bring in guys like Manny (who would have been a good fit at the time) and Pedro because of non-baseball issues. See how fast Mondesi got shipped out when he became a problem. I think it was less than 24 hours.
The Yankees make good baseball decisions. They have money to make them. But Met fans, Red Sox fans, LA fans. etc, quit your complaining. You bought inferior teams. I’ll take complaints from fans of teams like Florida and Montreal. They get an actual raw deal in baseball economics.
Well, i agree with you about last night’s game. It was obvious that Pedro should have been pulled. Little should have overridden Martinez’s overblown ego and got him out of the game.
But Dusty Baker? What the fuck? How in hell is he responsible for the Cubs’ problems?
He took a team that went 67-95 last year to an 88-74 season, and its first post-season series win in 95 years. The Cubs were also five outs from going to the World Series when a combination of borderline fan interference, an awful infield error, and some great Marlins hitting won the game for Florida.
How this makes Dusty Baker the fall guy you’ll have to explain to me in a little more detail.
Baker gets the fault because he left his pitchers in too long, when it was obvious they didn’t have what it takes. It was becoming fairly obvious that Wood was getting gassed and shouldn’t have been in the game at the start of the sixth. And should have been lifted in the fifth. And then bringing in Dave Veres of all people? And he never even considered Clement.
Basically he managed like it was still the middle of the regular season.
Contrast that with McKeon who managed like the season was on the line. He threw every single person into the bullpen and didn’t take a chance and didn’t worry about tomorrow.
Baker is a great manager during the regular season, but if I need someone to manage a must-win game, he’s towards the bottom of my list. Managers don’t win games, but they can certainly lose them. And Baker is one of the best at managing to lose big games. Plus, he abuses his starters and has them throw too many pitches.
Lifelong or long time Yankee fans aren’t bad at all. It’s the bandwagon fans that are truly annoying and arrogant. It’s so easy to root for a winner, isn’t it?
Somewhere in New York there is a fan who was sitting down the right field line who is damn lucky he is not today’s Bartman. His interference cost the Yankees a run on Matsui’s double. Had Martinez been pulled right then (as he should have been), and the Red Sox relievers pitched as well as they have, Posada would not have doubled in two. He was saved from this fate by poor management on Little’s part.
I guess I’ll have to root for the Yanks, as long as Mussina loses all his starts.
Contrast also with Torre, he used 3 starters, 2 setup men, and left his closer in for the last 3 innings. Only White, Contreras and the lamentable Weaver didn’t get in the game.
I just wonder what the rotation is going to look like come the WS.
Well, kinda. Yeah. But then, if I’d wanted to root for a loser I’d never choose The Yankees. I would have rooted for a team that never fails to disappoint. Like Boston.
“Yes, we’re ready to order now. I’ll have the filet mignon and my friend will have the Crow…”
Well, they were minor leaguers when they traded for them, but they were pretty much thrown straight to the majors when they arrived in Boston. I’m not sure if that’s why they counted them.
But really, the only players that the Sox have really developed on their own are Nixon and Garciaparra.
For those whining about the high payroll, guess who else has a sky-high payroll? The Mets. Sure did them a lot of good, didn’t it? It’s not just money; it’s the decisions you make.
Maybe, but it’s also the money. Want to wonder about how many World Series titles the A’s would have won with an extra $50 million in payroll? That would have been enough to resign Giambi plus grab a few top notch free agents to plug some holes. Or are you going to tell me that the A’s are a stupid franchise.
Look, it’s no coincidence that with few exceptions, the teams that have consistently been competitive have been the ones that maintained a high payroll. And it’s no coincidence that the Yankees have had the most success along with the highest payroll since 1996 (with the exception of 1998). This season they spent $35 million more than the next closest team. Last season they spent $18.5 million more.
Or here’s another one. The payroll of just 11 of the Yankees players (Posada, Johnson, Giambi, Soriano, Jeter, Williams, Clemens, Mussina, Wells, Pettitte, Rivera) would make them the 7th highest payroll in the bigs. Toss on the salaries of Hideki Matsui and Aaron Boone and they’re in the top 5 - right around what the Rangers spent on their whole team. Top 5 in salaries and we still need to bring in a bullpen, a RF, another SP and a bench. We still need 12 players to fill out the 25 man roster and if you payed them all the mimimum salary, they’d cost about $3.5 million. That would mean that only the Mets would have a higher salary.
Do you see the problem? With half the team making the minimum salary, the Yankees still have the second highest payroll. And this has nothing to do with their success?
I’ve never understood why Yankee fans are never able to comprehend the massive advantage their payroll has given them the past few years and why people on other teams, especially small market ones, think it’s unfair.
That said, Red Sox fans whining about high payroll gets a :dubious: from me.
The Yankees do, in fact, buy the best team. Even if the players we’re talking about came up through the Yankee farm system, that means they were getting paid by the Yankees. And the Yankees have the money to scout all over the world and buy the best players from Latin America, Korea and Japan–not that I’m against international players, it’s simply that the Yankees are the only ones with the money to make it practical (Otherwise, why don’t other teams scout Asia more?)
In the end, yes, it’s the money that gets the Yankees the players they have.
Well, the decision was to outspend everyone else. This shows the Yankee payroll goin up to 180 million. Besting the Mets sky-high payroll by 61 million dollars and the Red Sox (who did not spend wisely) at a few million more.