Comments on: The power of the Yankees is not what they can buy; it’s what they can eat

By: lukehart80

lukehart80 — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:58:19 +0000

i understand that there will be yankees’ fans in the world. some of them were born closer to the bronx than any other major league site, some of them have an older family-member that ‘passed down’ the team to them, some of them may have played on the yankees as a t-ball player and decided to cheer for the real team too, and some of them are just front-runners. a world without yankees’ fans sounds nice, but i know it’s not happening.

that said, i wish more of their number held the “i’m fortunate to cheer for a team with exceptional resources. i don’t feel guilty about it, but i’m lucky to cheer for so many great players and championship caliber teams, because i have nothing to do with that success myself and if dad had gone to pitt instead of st. john’s i might be cheering for the pirates” attitude, instead of the “duh, your team should just do what mine does” attitude.

By: Mr. Furious

Mr. Furious — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:54:45 +0000

Luke (sorry, it won’t let me reply directly to your reply to my reply ), I guess it depends on what you want to measure. If it’s an attempt to measure the ability of larger-market teams to spend less efficiently and remain competitive, it could work, but not if it’s used in support of the old “the Yankees would not be competitive if they had to work with a smaller resource pool” chestnut.

By: lukehart80

lukehart80 — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:50:34 +0000

yeah, i suppose so. it would be a flaw, but i’m not sure about the fatal part, if only for comparing the quality of spending within a single tier, like mid-market teams, etc.

By: furiousbrad

furiousbrad — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 17:32:34 +0000

The thing is, though, that the Yankees know full well that they can shrug off mistakes like that, which makes them more amenable to taking a flyer on guys who are high risk/high reward. That’s why a “crappy contract index” calculation would be fatally flawed.

By: ThatGuy

ThatGuy — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:50:36 +0000

But there lies the problem with baseballs economic landscape. No other team could do that. It would simply cripple them for years. They can’t simply eat contracts like that and make money.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:40:42 +0000

If I were a fan of the Yankers, I would love it too. As a Phillies fan, I have no reason to complain. Except that if the Phillies could spend like the Yankers, there would be no stories about Werth’s impending free agency and Cliff Lee likely would not have been traded.

By: yankeesfanlen

yankeesfanlen — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:37:11 +0000

So have your team do that.

By: lukehart80

lukehart80 — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:35:30 +0000

i wish i had the time to come up with some sort of ‘smart or dumb’ contract/salary formula, and to then measure what franchises have wisely spent the highest percentage of their salary dollars. the yankees’ crappy contracts are the ones i remember most, because as a yankee-hater, they’re the ones that drive me nuts. the indians have made a couple poor salary decisions the last few years, and are nearly crippled by them. the yankees can just shrug when that happens.

By: yankeesfanlen

yankeesfanlen — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:35:26 +0000

And we’re very happy that way.

By: Chris Fiorentino

Chris Fiorentino — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:32:58 +0000

Also, the fact they they ALWAYS keep their players too. Case in point…Bernie Williams was all but signed by the Red Sox and the Yankers swooped in and kept him because they could afford him. That’s why there has never been a doubt that guys like Rivera and Jeter would ever go somewhere else. Even if someone offered $100 million over 3 years, the Yankers would be able to pay $105. Does anyone on the planet think someone will be outbidding the Yankers for Cano when he becomes a free agent? LOLZ. But if Cano were on the Rays, there would articles written about how he is 2 years away from free agency. There will never be that article written since he is on the Yankers.