The big news yesterday is that the New York Yankees have given themselves and early Christmas gift by signing switch-hitting first baseman Mark Teixiera to a massive 8 year, $180 million deal. This move, as reported throughout the sports world, now gives the Yankees the four highest-paid players in the entire league. Tex, along with recent signing CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter hold the four largest contracts in Major League Baseball.
So here's the question: is this bad for the sport? In about 2001, the Yankess began to shift from a semi-big spending team that had just won four titles in five years, largely with homegrown players like Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Mariano Rivera, to a super-big spending club. The result: just two World Series appearances since then, with losses to the big-spending Arizona Diamondbacks (who promptly blew up their own roster to save money) and the small-market Florida Marlins (who blew up their roster of the next several years, despite it not being an expensive group).
Despite the Yankees signing every big name free agent under the sun, the success just hasn't been there. One explanation is that the Yanks teams that were winning didn't have all of the ego issues that we see today, Because they had some lower paid role players, the group functioned more as a team than as a collection of stars. Meanwhile, teams like the Red Sox, although they spend a lot, still have quality players coming up through their systems and spending a lot of time learning their place within the organization. Thus when they reach the Big League, they are ready to contribute in whatever way the team sees fit.
The Yankees have had minimal success with their prospects. Pitcher Chein Ming Wang has been very good, but guys like Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera have been only decent, not stars. Others, like Nick Johnson and Drew Henson, never panned out at the pro level. The jury is still out on pitcher Phil Hughes, among other recent Yankee call-ups. So while the Yankees had all-stars at most positions, they lacked depth on the bench and in the rotation, and haven't good role-player guys, i.e. bench players that can make an impact both in the game and in the lockerroom.
So should the other teams around the league and their fans be outraged at the money the Yankees are throwing around? Well as the Rays last year and the Rockies in 2007 and the Marlins back in 2002 have all proven, a well-run organization with strong player development can still reach the promised land. And while they may not always win, they can be plenty competitive with the likes of the Yankees and Red Sox. Until their players leave for the big money, that is.
No post tomorrow. Merry Christmas and I will be back on Friday. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the blog, please post below or I can be reached at chrisf884@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
Well what up buddy just wanted to drop a line and say hi. I liked your report here about the yanks. But something to consider is the idea of team chemistry. That perhaps one of the issue of having that many stars is the lack of cohesion in the club house. Obviously, this was the Man-Ran issue in Boston. So maybe the team just lacks leadership, but i will totally agree with you that the lack of a solid pitching staff is what is killing the yank and they need more that just CC
Post a Comment