Raf, Tampa has a gaggle of good young players in their system and Price will be pitching next year. With the core they have they will be competitive.
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They said the same thing about the Indians too…

The mission statement of the Yankees is to win the World Series every year. Not only do they outspend the next highest team (the Tigers) by 80 mill ,but they have spent a bit over a 1.3 billion to do so. When was the last time that they won it all? 8 years ago and spend a gazilion dollars.BTW, Joel you like Yes right? Watch the highlights from the 80s and see how many Yankee faithful were attendance when Mattingly was around. They were drawing more flies to the Stadium than people. My point? If the team sucks, then you will see all the frontrunners out and YES ratings decline etc so on. Mate, the Dummkopfen are the people who actually think that this town can’t become a Mets town again BECAUSE if they start making the playoffs every year and the Yanks flop then SNY and New Shea (Shitti Field) will eclipse the Yanks in success.

As for Tampa? Sternberg is a former Wall Street guy who know the value of money. He is spending whatever he can to make them competitive under ecomonic constraints. Raf, Tampa has a gaggle of good young players in their system and Price will be pitching next year. With the core they have they will be competitive.

The Yankee business model compared to the Rays is laughable at best.

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Yeah, as the Yanks sell out a brand new $1.5 billion stadium with the nation’s #1 RSN and the Rays struggle to draw 20,000 in a piece of shit facility 10 miles from nowhere, I’ll gladly bet on the Rays “business model” in the long term!

Who’s the Dummkopf?

You spend money to win, build the brand, and make more money.

Tampa will be and is a force in the division.
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They said that about the Mets in 86…

Once I was, I mentioned this before about Boston, that they have tons of money coming off BUT they should use that money to sign Beckett longterm and for any emeregency salary dumps. Theo has made his share of mistakes BUT the good have outweighed the bad because of the success of the last few years.

To Joel and the Dummkopfs that think that this game of the 218 mill payroll works…Sod Off Mates! Tampa will be and is a force in the division. Andrew Friedman with a confluence of trades, free agent signings and 3 first rounders has (right now) a better team than Boston (but not the Angels). The Yankee business model compared to the Rays is laughable at best. Can you imagine shitty little Tampa going all the way to the Big Game against the Cubbies? And in the process breaking those despicable Cubbies fans hearts? I would love that to death, as much as I love Sweet Lou.

This “behind the Red Sox” or “behind the Rays” stuff is a joke. The Yanks are on their way to 90 wins and the 4th best record in the AL with a team that severely underachieved offensively and was absolutely decimated by injuries.

These are the friggin’ New York Yankees! $250 million or bust. They can well afford it. Sabathia and Sheets or Burnett. Add those two to Wang, Joba, and Pettitte (I think Moose will retire).

Transition? Rebuild? Bullshit.

See you next October.

OldYanksFan makes a very good point. Or as Hardball Times put it this past Sunday,

“What’s scary is how much salary room the Red Sox have to spend this winter with very few holes to address. It’s hard to see them faltering from the top five for some time to come.”

And the list of young developed talent missed Lester, who looks more and more like a young Andy Pettitte except that he won’t be called upon to pitch and win a Game 2, he’ll be pitching Games 1, 4 and 7 in the future.

Unquestionably a team like the Yankees should develop from within while spending money on the right free agents. But there’s another management decision that is equally important and that, IMHO, the team has not handled correctly:

What to do with aging stars.

The Yanks are in to Posada and Mo and A-Rod for too many years (OK, there’s a chance that Mo will never decline – but only a chance) and are likely to sign the Captain for too many years soon as well. We’ve already seen with Posada and Matsui and Damon how aging players can wreck a season by getting hurt or declining precipitously.

In addition to making good draft decisions and (usually but hardly always) good free agent decisions, Theo has been smart about dealing with aging stars. And that is likely to continue after this season, as he is more likely to use his bargaining chits to get a replacement for Tek than to overpay, in dollars or years, for our Captain.

Yes Raf, but those kids came up more then a decade ago. They are now longer kids or cheap. In the last 2-3 years we have done well, but we are still behind a bit.

I hate that the Sox got there before we did
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How so? Jeter, Rivera & Posada are still there. If you want to ignore his 3 year sabbatical with the ‘Stros, Pettitte is there too.

Another vote for BOTH… which ain’t that hard to do when you are the richest and most stories franchise in sports.

There are 2 sets of numbers that need to be in play. Payroll and replacing players.

If you get an average of 12 productive years from a players, then every team must develop 2 players a year to maintain a 25 man rooster. If team A develops 4 and team B develops none… well obviously Team A has a more cost effective team, more trade chips, and a better shot at the next young superstar. Unfortunately, from 1996 on, the Yanks have looked more like team B.

In terms of payroll… lets say the Yanks want to maintain a payroll of $200m… or an average of $8m/player. So to pay ARod $27m, we need 2+ cost controlled kids to pay for ARod. Jeter at $20m, 1.5 kids. Posada at $13m, another kid. Mo… another kid. If we don’t have cheap, quality youth on the team, somewhere, we will have holes. Even at $250m, the same logic applies. If you don’t have cheap quality kids, then you have cheap crappy players on the bench, in the BP and at the end of the rotation.

For every 2 kids the Yankees develop, they get get one stud, $24m FA. Obviously the kids we keep start getting more expensive, but you get the idea.

Like the Yanks of the past, and as Detroit and the Mets are trying to do, you may be able to simply buy a few years of success. But it can’t be maintained without kids.

The Sox however, are truly dangerous. They have bought talent, but also have Youk, Pedroia, Papelbom, Lowrie, Masterson, Ellsbury and Buchholz… and more coming. Whether the kids are studs or just averagish, the still have great value in filling holes, providing trade chips and maintaining payroll frexibility.

I hate that the Sox got there before we did, but we are on the way. And I believe Cashman feels this way too.

And how many PSs and WSs have the Mets had in the last 30 years? They still play baseball in NY, right?