resistanze
09-06-2006, 09:10 AM
Blue Jays owner Ted Rogers agrees with his general manager, J.P. Ricciardi, who doesn't think the team can make the post-season out of the American League East with a payroll of $70 million.
Rogers, the president of Canadian media titan Rogers Communications, authorized a payroll increase for next season Tuesday, but didn't specify what the 2007 number will be. Judging from a Jays' internal study that Ricciardi discussed with FOXSports.com, the increase will need to be significant — perhaps to $100 million or beyond.
Yikes.
Though the AL Central now is the best division in baseball, the price of winning in the AL East is higher. The Jays, Orioles or Devil Rays probably could reach the postseason at $70 million if they had a season in which everything clicked. But by increasing payroll, such teams seek to increase their odds; the Orioles are expected to follow the Jays' lead this off-season, leaving the Rays even further behind.
Yet, for all the talk of money, the game still comes down to decision-making. The Jays are showing progress, but they operate with lesser margin for error. To compete with the division's super-powers, they will need to spend more wisely and develop more impact players than they have in recent years.
In other words, they can't afford to get virtually nothing when they trade players such as shortstops Cesar Izturis and Felipe Lopez. They can't fail to max out with No. 1 draft picks such as shortstop Russ Adams. They can't risk signing frequently injured pitchers such as right-hander A.J. Burnett, whose renewed elbow problems this season helped crush the team's chances.
The Jays have remained under budget, Ricciardi said, despite poor investments in infielder/outfielder Eric Hinske, third baseman Corey Koskie and right-hander Josh Towers. But clearly, the team would have been better off if those players had performed the way that club officials envisioned.
Rogers is willing to overlook such missteps — the owner praised Ricciardi on Tuesday, saying the Jays are "lucky to have him." Ricciardi, earlier in the day, took pains to explain that he wasn't being critical of ownership when he spoke of the difficulty of competing with a $70 million payroll. He said he was merely trying to be realistic, not fatalistic. And Rogers, quite literally, bought in.
The Jays conducted their study, Ricciardi said, because they wanted to know where they stood in relation to their A.L. East rivals — and because they were "sick and tired" of the talk about how much money they spent last off-season. The team's payroll increase, from $45 million to $72 million, was indeed significant. But on Opening Day, the Yankees and Red Sox ranked 1-2 in payroll and the Jays 16th.
Griping about the Yankees money seems the rest of the A.L. EastBs favorite pastime. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
Nothing new there: The Yankees and Red Sox are coming off three straight postseason appearances in which neither club won fewer than 95 games nor spent less than $99.9 million. The current Yankees, who had an Opening Day payroll of $198.6 million, are on pace to win 97 games. The Red Sox, who were at $120.1 million, are on track to be the most expensive team in major-league history to miss the postseason.
Of course, the Jays aren't the only team at a competitive disadvantage: The Opening Day payrolls of the Twins and A's ranked 19th and 21st, respectively, and both teams would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. The Marlins' $14.3 million payroll ranked last in the majors, and they're competing for the NL wild card despite being in the same division as the Mets, Braves and Phillies — all top-12 payroll clubs.
The Jays' position is that the AL East is a different animal; the Angels outspent the A's by approximately $40 million, the Red Sox outspent the Jays by more, the Yankees by much more. The Jays' 72-67 record, meanwhile, would be the fifth best in the NL.
Commissioner Bud Selig, contacted Tuesday in his Milwaukee office, wasn't surprised to learn of Ricciardi's concerns. Selig said he has heard such talk before from the Blue Jays, Orioles and Devil Rays: We're playing in the wrong division. We can't compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.
"This is nothing new," Selig said. "Those three teams have complained in the past. (Red Sox G.M.) Theo Epstein said (recently) that (the Sox) can't compete with the Yankees. I guess you can say there are four teams saying how difficult it is."
Selig doesn't disagree; reducing the Yankees' spending was one of his major goals in the 2002 labor negotiations. With Major League Baseball's labor agreement set to expire on Dec. 19, everyone from Ricciardi and Epstein to Twins center fielder Torii Hunter and Tigers manager Jim Leyland is obsessing over the Yankees' riches again.
The Yankees actually reduced their Opening Day payroll from '05 to '06, but their absorption of outfielder Bobby Abreu's contract at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline raised the issue anew. While Selig's revenue-sharing plan is rightly considered a success, the Yankees continue to outspend their rivals by wide margins — and the opening of their new ballpark in 2009 will give them even greater financial might.
Selig, however, said he isn't going to realign the divisions to mollify the Jays, Orioles and Rays; no other team would want to play in the A.L. East. Nor is Selig going to abandon his cherished unbalanced schedule, which requires the A.L. East also-rans to play nearly one-fourth of their games against the Yankees and Red Sox.
The solution, Selig says, is to tweak the revenue-sharing formulas "as much as humanly possible" to give teams such as the Jays the best possible chance. The game's cyclical nature also should help, though Ricciardi said that the Yankees and Red Sox are eliminating potential down cycles with their mammoth payrolls.
That point is debatable; three years from now, the careers of two Yankees cornerstones — closer Mariano Rivera and catcher Jorge Posada — should be over. A third cornerstone, shortstop Derek Jeter, will be 35. The market for starting pitching gets thinner every season. At some point in the near future, it's conceivable that the Yankees will be weaker.
To which Ricciardi replied, "Are they getting poorer?"
No, and neither are the Red Sox. In fact, one American League G.M. predicts that the Red Sox will use their burgeoning farm system to blow past the Yankees before the end of the decade.
Perhaps, but what happens when right-hander Curt Schilling is gone after next season? When catcher Jason Varitek, 34, starts to decline? When Manny Ramirez, 34, and David Ortiz, 30, are no longer the game's most feared offensive combination?
Lest anyone forget, the Jays justified their off-season spending spree by pointing to the increasing vulnerability of the Yankees and Red Sox, who have finished 1-2 in the East the past eight seasons. Yet, while most of Ricciardi's additions worked out quite well, the Jays are on pace for 84 wins, only four more than a year ago. They trail the second-place Red Sox — the gasping, wheezing Red Sox - by three games.
Another payroll increase will help, enabling the Jays to improve their depth, acquire a shortstop and perhaps extend the contract of center fielder Vernon Wells. But money alone doesn't ensure a winner. The Jays need to be shrewd, or it will all go to waste.
Ken Rosenthal is FOXSports.com's senior baseball writer.
Rogers, the president of Canadian media titan Rogers Communications, authorized a payroll increase for next season Tuesday, but didn't specify what the 2007 number will be. Judging from a Jays' internal study that Ricciardi discussed with FOXSports.com, the increase will need to be significant — perhaps to $100 million or beyond.
Yikes.
Though the AL Central now is the best division in baseball, the price of winning in the AL East is higher. The Jays, Orioles or Devil Rays probably could reach the postseason at $70 million if they had a season in which everything clicked. But by increasing payroll, such teams seek to increase their odds; the Orioles are expected to follow the Jays' lead this off-season, leaving the Rays even further behind.
Yet, for all the talk of money, the game still comes down to decision-making. The Jays are showing progress, but they operate with lesser margin for error. To compete with the division's super-powers, they will need to spend more wisely and develop more impact players than they have in recent years.
In other words, they can't afford to get virtually nothing when they trade players such as shortstops Cesar Izturis and Felipe Lopez. They can't fail to max out with No. 1 draft picks such as shortstop Russ Adams. They can't risk signing frequently injured pitchers such as right-hander A.J. Burnett, whose renewed elbow problems this season helped crush the team's chances.
The Jays have remained under budget, Ricciardi said, despite poor investments in infielder/outfielder Eric Hinske, third baseman Corey Koskie and right-hander Josh Towers. But clearly, the team would have been better off if those players had performed the way that club officials envisioned.
Rogers is willing to overlook such missteps — the owner praised Ricciardi on Tuesday, saying the Jays are "lucky to have him." Ricciardi, earlier in the day, took pains to explain that he wasn't being critical of ownership when he spoke of the difficulty of competing with a $70 million payroll. He said he was merely trying to be realistic, not fatalistic. And Rogers, quite literally, bought in.
The Jays conducted their study, Ricciardi said, because they wanted to know where they stood in relation to their A.L. East rivals — and because they were "sick and tired" of the talk about how much money they spent last off-season. The team's payroll increase, from $45 million to $72 million, was indeed significant. But on Opening Day, the Yankees and Red Sox ranked 1-2 in payroll and the Jays 16th.
Griping about the Yankees money seems the rest of the A.L. EastBs favorite pastime. (Jim McIsaac / Getty Images)
Nothing new there: The Yankees and Red Sox are coming off three straight postseason appearances in which neither club won fewer than 95 games nor spent less than $99.9 million. The current Yankees, who had an Opening Day payroll of $198.6 million, are on pace to win 97 games. The Red Sox, who were at $120.1 million, are on track to be the most expensive team in major-league history to miss the postseason.
Of course, the Jays aren't the only team at a competitive disadvantage: The Opening Day payrolls of the Twins and A's ranked 19th and 21st, respectively, and both teams would be in the playoffs if the season ended today. The Marlins' $14.3 million payroll ranked last in the majors, and they're competing for the NL wild card despite being in the same division as the Mets, Braves and Phillies — all top-12 payroll clubs.
The Jays' position is that the AL East is a different animal; the Angels outspent the A's by approximately $40 million, the Red Sox outspent the Jays by more, the Yankees by much more. The Jays' 72-67 record, meanwhile, would be the fifth best in the NL.
Commissioner Bud Selig, contacted Tuesday in his Milwaukee office, wasn't surprised to learn of Ricciardi's concerns. Selig said he has heard such talk before from the Blue Jays, Orioles and Devil Rays: We're playing in the wrong division. We can't compete with the Yankees and Red Sox.
"This is nothing new," Selig said. "Those three teams have complained in the past. (Red Sox G.M.) Theo Epstein said (recently) that (the Sox) can't compete with the Yankees. I guess you can say there are four teams saying how difficult it is."
Selig doesn't disagree; reducing the Yankees' spending was one of his major goals in the 2002 labor negotiations. With Major League Baseball's labor agreement set to expire on Dec. 19, everyone from Ricciardi and Epstein to Twins center fielder Torii Hunter and Tigers manager Jim Leyland is obsessing over the Yankees' riches again.
The Yankees actually reduced their Opening Day payroll from '05 to '06, but their absorption of outfielder Bobby Abreu's contract at the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline raised the issue anew. While Selig's revenue-sharing plan is rightly considered a success, the Yankees continue to outspend their rivals by wide margins — and the opening of their new ballpark in 2009 will give them even greater financial might.
Selig, however, said he isn't going to realign the divisions to mollify the Jays, Orioles and Rays; no other team would want to play in the A.L. East. Nor is Selig going to abandon his cherished unbalanced schedule, which requires the A.L. East also-rans to play nearly one-fourth of their games against the Yankees and Red Sox.
The solution, Selig says, is to tweak the revenue-sharing formulas "as much as humanly possible" to give teams such as the Jays the best possible chance. The game's cyclical nature also should help, though Ricciardi said that the Yankees and Red Sox are eliminating potential down cycles with their mammoth payrolls.
That point is debatable; three years from now, the careers of two Yankees cornerstones — closer Mariano Rivera and catcher Jorge Posada — should be over. A third cornerstone, shortstop Derek Jeter, will be 35. The market for starting pitching gets thinner every season. At some point in the near future, it's conceivable that the Yankees will be weaker.
To which Ricciardi replied, "Are they getting poorer?"
No, and neither are the Red Sox. In fact, one American League G.M. predicts that the Red Sox will use their burgeoning farm system to blow past the Yankees before the end of the decade.
Perhaps, but what happens when right-hander Curt Schilling is gone after next season? When catcher Jason Varitek, 34, starts to decline? When Manny Ramirez, 34, and David Ortiz, 30, are no longer the game's most feared offensive combination?
Lest anyone forget, the Jays justified their off-season spending spree by pointing to the increasing vulnerability of the Yankees and Red Sox, who have finished 1-2 in the East the past eight seasons. Yet, while most of Ricciardi's additions worked out quite well, the Jays are on pace for 84 wins, only four more than a year ago. They trail the second-place Red Sox — the gasping, wheezing Red Sox - by three games.
Another payroll increase will help, enabling the Jays to improve their depth, acquire a shortstop and perhaps extend the contract of center fielder Vernon Wells. But money alone doesn't ensure a winner. The Jays need to be shrewd, or it will all go to waste.
Ken Rosenthal is FOXSports.com's senior baseball writer.