Says Howard Bryant
Discuss.
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Says Howard Bryant
Discuss.
on one hand, no they didn't, no amount of spending can guarantee a victory in any one game let alone enough to win a championship.
On the other hand, yes they did, and all other sports fans should be envious of a team willing an able to spend money in any manner available to them in order to improve thier team.
The Yankees most definitely purchased an increased chance at a title. Is that bad? Use what your mama gave you.
I don't really care that the Yankees payroll is $200 gazillion. What irks me are the Yankee fans that don't realize that the Yankees have this built in advantage over other teams. Or, maybe, it is the Yankee fans that are Yankee fans because they realize it...
Anyways, this has little to do with the article.
Baseball is a business. I like baseball, the sport. I put up with all the power/money struggles, city-financed stadiums and Washington Nationalsness.Quote:
Owners across the league this offseason will promote the creation of a salary cap, ostensibly for "competitive balance" -- a way to take money from the players and take down the Yankees simultaneously
It must really suck to be a fan of a team that MLB doesn't want to succeed.Quote:
Sooner or later, the game will crash into a doomsday scenario: a Twins-Rockies World Series in blizzard conditions around Election Day.
I hate the Yankees as any Red Sox fan is supposed to, but really...what do you want them to do with the money? Any successful business puts money back into the business to maintain that success.
The other model is the Boston Bruins...the owner is from Buffelo, he owns the building and the consession company. All he wants is for the team to just make the playoffs to get the extra consession sales. In the NHL most teams clinch a spot by mid-season. I doubt Jacobs could name 5 players on the team, but he knows the consession take of every game.
The way I look at it, almost every team's goal is to win the World Series (besides teams that are in the first stages of rebuilding). So each team pays players that they think will help the team win a World Series. The Yankees on the other hand have a history allure and money, that attracts a lot of good players. They have had a business model over the years that is superior to some teams and have the ability to go out and get some great players. BUT I do not believe that "they buy championships". There have been seasons where they have went out and bought the best players on the market, but came up sort of a championship. Teams with lower total salaries have been able to beat the Yankees in Championship situation (Marlins, Diamondbacks). If the Yankees had the best possible players at the time and looked to buy their way to win a championship, they shouldn't have lost those two World Series in particular. Yankees have done some great business moves, so they have deserved to win as many World Series as they have.
Yankees and New York still suck
Agreed. Jacobs sucks and I can't wait for the day he is out as owner, whenever the hell that is.Quote:
Originally Posted by acetoolguy
The obvious answer is the Yankees use their money to succeed and then use the success to generate more money. Works out pretty well for all concerned.
The real question is why the other "Big Market" Teams don't win nearly as often as the Yankees? The Mets and the Dodgers have every opportunity the Yanks do. Houston is a huge market and the Astros have no compitition. The Cubs?
The Yankees have had down periods. Most notably '65 to '76 and '82 to '95, The certainly spent money in that second period, they spent it badly. The Mets, and the other teams with cash, just spend badly most of the time.
The problem isn't the Yankees by themselves.
The financial structure that control Major League Baseball is horrible. Guaranteed contracts were the worst thing that could ever happen to a sport. If a guy making guaranteed money tells you "I quit and refuse to try unless you trade me" (see Manny Ramirez), you eat his salary or make someone else pay him.
Baseball's financial structure changed with the strike of 1994. The team that benifited from that the most is the New York Yankees. No one can deny that. From 1994 until today, the Yankees have missed the playoffs once.
No, they don't win the championship every year. But, the Yankees never rebuild. They don't have to. They have the money to avoid ever having to rebuild again. That is the financial advantage the Yankees have over everyone else in the post-strike era of baseball.
To think otherwise is to live in denial.
Pretty much the same teams make the playoffs every year. I think its bad for the sport, having said that the Yankees have put the money to use better than others. They also have way more then the other top teams, basically a couple of all stars worth. It IS an unfair advantage and that is just fact.
Like others said, its Yankee fans that don't understand they have an advantage that gets to me. Considering many of them are front runner fans to begin with, particularly Yanks fans not from the tri-state area.
Here's the thing people forget about a salary cap vis-a-vis the Yankees. They can't spend their largesse on payroll, so where will they put it? They'll scout out the best scouts and player development people and make them offers they would be foolish to refuse. They can make their scouting department really big, so that they don't have to cover as much territory individually and can thus focus in on the guys they've targeted with laser-like precision. They can hire the best minor league coaches, create the best system, giving their developing studs the best nutrition, training etc their money can buy. Nutrition is so grossly undervalued by big league teams trying to develop players. The crappy per diem forces the players to eat crappy food and that can't help their development. Then they can pour a bunch more into international scouting and signings. They're not going away: salary cap or not. It's up to the other teams to get creative and figure out how to allot their finances more efficiently. Salary Cap or not the teams with less money than the Yankees have to stop crippling themselves with poorly thought out free agent/extension decisions: see Matthews Jr., Gary, Pierre, Juan, Ryan, B.J., Thomas, Frank, Wells, Vernon etc etc. This is where other teams are shooting themselves in the foot. Instead of bitching and kvetching about everything the Yankees are doing, other teams would be better off busting their tails to reduce/eliminate the waste and make more efficient decisions. All that being said: obnoxious Yankee fans still suck. :p ;) :)
This is the thing Yankees fans don't understand. They never have to rebuild. I'm also tired of hearing Yankees fans scream about Homegrown talent. Being the Yankees you never have to worry about your young players leaving after arbitration is up. You can afford to pay them whatever they want. Nobody can ever match what you can pay them. You never have to choose which ones to keep and which ones to let go. You'll never see the Yankees trade off one of their good home grown players for prospects because their due for free agency and they can't afford to keep them. Young teams like the Marlins, Brewers, Rays, etc. With good young talent have to start making tough decisions on their homegrown talent as they are approaching FA and big pay raises.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobToxin
These instances are so few and far in between that they can really be ignored in the grand scope of things. Every points to Manny Ramirez, but they fail to account for the fact that when he supposedly "quit on his team", he was still hitting the cover off the ball for them and playing basically every day.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobToxin
I said this when that whole thing was happening - if Manny Ramirez pre-trade 2008 is what a player looks like when he's quitting on his team, I want every player on my team to quit.
And we have a winner.Quote:
Originally Posted by actionjackson
Yes, the Yankees money advantage is an advantage. It is not an unbeatable advantage, though, and there are multitudes of examples of teams with money failing (even repeatedly) and teams without money being successful (repeatedly).
Having a smart front office is also an advantage over other teams. Should we install some sort of "intelligence cap"? Some teams have advantages over others. It's a fact of life. The Yankees are in an enviable position with their history and market. They make the best of it. Shame on them, I guess, for doing all they can to win.
My real problem with the way this is structured is: If you have an advantage over the competition and use that advantage to emerge victorious, then how much should you bask in your accolades?Quote:
Originally Posted by HoustonGM
Or, let me put it another way....
If Michael Phelps went down to the Charlotte YMCA and raced all the swimmers there and won, should he brag? Should his fans?
For all their advantages, they've still only one once in the last 10 years. I think they're allowed to bask in their victory - just like any other team.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobToxin
Again, there's advantages besides just monetary ones. Should the Red Sox not bask in their two World Series titles this decade because of their advantage of having an excellent front office?
I don't think that's at all a valid analogy. The Yankees are still a team of MLB players playing against every other MLB team.Quote:
Originally Posted by RobToxin
I'm not saying that there aren't douchey Yankee fans that brag too much...but every team has that. All throughout this decade, the Yankees were continually bragged AGAINST for not winning with their huge payroll. Seems kinda hypocritical to make fun of the Yankees for years of not winning despite a huge payroll while then turning around and whining about their unfair advantage after they do win (not directed at you).
I do give the organization credit. In alot of ways they have earned many of their advantages just by being the Yankees. Yankee merchandise outsells all others. Television wants the Yankees so will pay money for them.
It just sucks that some teams will spend years prepping a player, teaching him the game and fine tuning his skills and then some other team who has the capital to basically triple what this guy's best offer can realistically be from the team that taught him the game gets all the benefits of this guy's newly developed skills.
That has being going on for too long and some way to put a halt to that type of poaching is something I would like for MLB to consider.
It won't happen but it would be nice if it did.