Yay baseball!!
Nothing like perpetuating a system that allows transactions which make your 6-month long season -- which struggles to keep attention -- almost completely irrelevant in many of the cities that host teams.
Way to Go!!
The upside of this is that now a lot teams can finally start trading or signing players, this frees up a lot of potential resources for the teams that were courting him. That is one of the parts of this that pisses me off the most -- how Boras basically handcuffed all the teams, rendering any trade or signing talks useless until we knew what this putz was going to do.
I'm going to be pumped to see David Price shut out the Yankees in Game 6 of the 2009 ALCS to send the Yankees home yet again.
If a non-playoff year in the Bronx brings this kind of spending, getting close and losing to the Rays will ensure that the Yankees' payroll pushes half-a-billion for 2010; I think the Yankees will just acquire the Royals, Pirates, Marlins, and Nationals.
I actually heard guys on ESPN this morning lamenting that there are 8-year-olds who haven't ever seen a Yankees' le; I'm sure there was some tongue-in-cheek, but I'm also sure that there was some this-shouldn't-happen to that observation. But the league-wide compe iveness freak in me thinks its pretty awesome that the Marlins have won more les in this millenium than the Yankees.
And another thing ... somehow Teixeira outranked Sabatthia, meaning that the Brewers get screwed out of their first-rounder in the next draft, rather than the Angels. Complete and total bull !!!!!!!!!!
Oh, and anyone that thinks the economy isn't affecting the Yankees, watch this:
The whole thing is good, but the Yankees part starts around the 6:00 mark. At those prices, even people who can afford them refuse out of principle. Maybe they will find some other rich schlub (there are certainly plenty in NYC) to take all the seats but eventually it is going to hurt them. Or at least, I sincerenly hope it hurts them.
I would have liked him but oh well. Yanks may just have enough to break the Red Sox curse and win a damn playoff series for the first time since 2004.
I'm a huge Yankees fan, but this is getting ridiculous. A billion dollar payroll while Pittsburgh can't crack 25million.
Today's move was a black eye for the sport IMO.
A team that asks the city for additional funds to help pay for its new stadium, goes out and signs 450 million in FAs?
Baseball has become increasingly irrelevant since the last few years, first with the steroids controversies, and with this idiotic non-salary-cap system. The NFL and NBA seem to have understood that parity is what keeps the popularity of a sports league widening. Baseball seems oblivious to this, and the results are ridiculous.
4 box seats for the season...$810,000
$202,500 per.
The only thing worse than the Yankees are their fans*. Baseball is almost becoming less of a sport than college football.
* wife not included in that statement
Maybe trying to buy a championship will work this year.
If anything baseball has almost as much parity as the NFL. maybe even more so than the NBA in the past few years. I mean since 2000 how many teams have won the WS? Alot..I can only think of won that has one it more than once..and that's the Red Sox.
In the NFL...since 2000 the Patriots have won it three times in that span. In the NBA...Lakers and San Antonio have both won it 3 times.
I'm a Yankee fan but I'm still skeptical about these signings. They don't really mean much unless you can produce..and the Yankees have had horrible signings the past few years. Yeah the Yankees have the highest payroll..and I'm sure they had it this past season too..but they don't win championships with it...and last year they didn't even make the playoffs.
my worst nightmare is to have been born in yankee stadium
I think this is a strong point. I think it would be different if the Yankees made these moves after just winning the World Series for the third straight time. It's been close to a decade since the Yankees won it all, 6 or so years since they've been in the World Series.
Not saying it's a good thing, but the Yankees did need to upgrade both their starting pitching and the middle of the line-up. It's just that when they make moves, they're egregious about it.
And, as a lot of the Yankees haters point out, it guarantees nothing. If so, then what's the huge deal? If people think the Yankees still can't win it with these signings and the contracts will backfire, then they shouldn't care about the signings that much.
I think it helps the Yankees a great deal. Starting pitching is upgraded, even if they don't produce what the Yankees expect. It's still better than their starting pitching last year. And, even if Teixeira is average by his standards offensively, at least he replaces what Giambi or Abreu would have given while upgraded defense at first base.
The Yankees still are poor defensively in the outfield, and their middle relief and set up pitching is somewhat suspect. So, it doesn't make them the clear cut team to beat.
It's exactly my point..it's like these small market teams cry about the Yankees payroll and how much they spend on free agents. When was the last time they won it all? 9 years ago?
On the other hand what other teams have won the World Series in that span? They don't have the payroll the Yankees have but they are all major market teams save for a few...Arizona, Florida and arguably St. Louis.
It has nothing to do with the market size of your team...nor payroll. It's about talent and chemistry. the Red Sox have the second highest payroll in the league...but when they win championships and sign players nobody says . If the Red Sox would have gotten Teixera...everybody would be lauding them. With tremendous zeal.
They have proven to be human in short (best of 5/7) series. But to some extent, those losses have covered up the problem.
The Yanks have only lost the division three times since '95 - so over the course of 162 game seasons, even the Bosox haven't been able to outdo them very often. Once the sample size becomes large enough - that payroll gives them an almost impossible advantage.
Inaccurate as of now.
Pavano, Mussina, Abreu, Giambi, and Pet te made approx $77 million last season.
Sabathia, Burnett, and Teixeira are scheduled to make about $63 million next year if their annual is an average of their contract divided by years, lower than that $63 if it starts off with a lower salary and gets bigger annually.
So, if they don't sign another free agent, they did cut some of their payroll. Even if the re-sign Pet te for say $10 million (as rumored), that's still technically cutting "some" payroll.
It's not just about how much the Yankees win the WS ... it's about how other teams can compete for free agents. What if one of those FAs that the Yanks overpaid was all that another team needed to compete -- the final ingredient? But they can't pay the type of money the Yanks are throwing at them?
Whether they win or not, the Yankees make it impossible for other teams to make a fair run at available guys. Which means the only way they can compete is through drafting and trades. The draft is unpredictable as touted players fall from grace and never make it to the bigs, and trade activity has been fairly minimal the last few years as teams hold on to their prospets -- often because they know they can't replace those prospects in free agency.
So the question is ... Why should the Yankees be able to block the rest of the league from an entire source of talent? Yeah, the Red Sox can somewhat compete with them in money whipping, but who else can?
Depends on whose projections you look at. As of right now, they're about $25 million under last year's total, but that only includes their 16 players currently under contract. They could easily go well over that number filling out their roster.
Impossible advantage to do what? Win the division. That hardly matters. Your sample of 13 years and how many times did they win the championship? 4? 4 years of winning the le in 13 years...and none in the past 9.
I've said it before..signing players especially in baseball is for the most part irrelevant. It's not basketball or football where one player can change the entire team. Even the arguably "best" player in baseball (A-Rod) couldn't help the Rangers or Mariners. They were still horrible teams.
Doesn't matter if you're a fan of a team located elsewhere. But if you're an Oriole, Bluejay, or Dray fan - it's a to have to deal with those 2 monster payrolls year in and year out.
The Devil Rays not only had to have things click early last year, but also had to catch the Yankees in a semi-rebuilding year at the same time. It's very conceivable that they could have the third best team in baseball this year and be on the outside looking in come playoff time.
What baseball needs is a Scott Boras child pornography scandal.
Then the problem is with the system. Not the fact that the Yankees spend millions more than other teams. If the Rays have the third best team in baseball and they aren't able to get in the playoffs, then as with college football, the problem is with the playoff system the way it's set up.
The fact that the Yankees spend so much is irrelevent at that point.
It's not irrelevant. Teams like the Devil Rays, Orioles, and Blue Jays have to fill the majority of their holes internally AND hope to catch the Yanks or Red Sox in a down year in order to have a hope at a postseason.
It's impossible to compete with those payrolls year in and year out. You have to everything right and hope that they're down at the same time.
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