Jim Kaat: Some Yanks Fans Hope Team’s Spending “Backfire”
Posted by Steve L. on December 14th, 2008 · Comments (15)
Via Kaat’s Korner with a hat tip to BBTF -
The sentiment among baseball fans here in Florida is one of resentment toward the Yankees. I just recently golfed with a former network TV sports executive and a retired investment banker and both were appalled at the amount of money spent on Sabathia and Burnett, especially given the economy today. Both were embarrassed to say they were Yankees fans. They have indicated they hoped these signings would backfire on them. I don’t know if they represent the masses or not.
So, masses what do you say? Do these thoughts represent you or not?
i think those people are idiots. You can’t have it both ways…you can’t be fine with a 220 million dollar payroll, then complain when the yanks sign 2 big money pitchers (all while reducing overall payroll).
Nope. The way I see it, we got rid of 3 pretty sizable contracts in Giambi, Abreu and Mussina, and we’re just replacing them.
i definitely don’t want the moves to backfire. whether i agree with moves or not, i always want them to work out, and i always want the team to win.
you really can’t win in new york. you put two rookies in the rotation, they don’t pan out initially, you get crushed for relying on such unproven talent. you go out and get two top flight pitchers for a lot of money, and people complain about the money. guarantee if the yankees traded hughes, jackson, and melancon for peavy people would criticize them for trading the farm. if you can’t do any of these things, how are you supposed to construct a team? by having every prospect work out right away, always being able to get good free agents at reasonable costs, and gauging other teams by trading nothing for something? what am i missing?
The Yankees are terrific for baseball. I would refer Mr. Kaat and his frineds to Joel Sherman’s piece in the Post today. They should pay particular attention to behavior of the “cost-conscious” Padres.
Give me a break. No, I do not feel “guilty” about these moves. Do I think they overspent on Burnett? Probably, but the Braves were right up there in the bidding.
Do I feel guilty? Not at all.
So is this the new trend, self-hating Yankees fans?
The amount of money is obscene but let’s take a different perpective. On a list of the best available free agent pitchers available Sabathia would be number 1 and Burnett would be number 2. The Yankees needed and targeted pitching and Cashman grabbed the top two pitchers available. The parameters for the money being spent were the owner’s. It was theirs to spend and they did. I wish the economics in baseball weren’t what they are. But I can’t do anything about it. So the way I prefer to look at is, that the Yankees got exactly what they needed. What’s the problem??
No real Yankee fan would ever root for the team to fall flat on its face.
At least IMO.
appalled at the amount of money spent on Sabathia and Burnett, especially given the economy today.
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I don’t understand why everyone cites the poor economy as a reason for why the Yanks should be ashamed of their actions. Should everyone who is out shopping at Best Buy for the holidays be ashamed when they install their new HDTV’s?
I understand the economy is crap but I don’t see why the Yanks should feel like a bad economy should mean that they should reign in spending if they don’t have to. For better or worse, the system is designed in such a way that those can can, do. If the Red Sox sign Teixeira, will anyone mention the fact that New England’s economy has been in the crapper for years?
Clearly, Kaat’s point is absurd for two reasons:
1) The Yankees are not spening more; they are reallocating expenditures. The Yankees will make more money in 2009 (although not as much as hoped), so what is so wrong about spending approximately the same amount as they did in the previous season?
2) Even if you want to accept the premise that because the economic environment is so dour everyone should sign an austerity pact, do we really need to be taking lectures from a TV sports exec. and an investment banker? The former’s profession is as responsible for the inflation of sports salaries as any, while the latter’s profession has played a fundamental role in the current economic meltdown.
Of course, I am sure both of Kaat’s buddies had no problem collecting their inflated salaries, but now they have amassed the largess needed to spend your days golfing in Florida, they want to talk about economic obscenity? Are you kidding? What’s next…a thief and an arsonist complaining about the rising cost of homeowner’s insurance?
I am disgusted by the obscene and reckless spending because of the absurd contracts they gave to only two pitchers…but especially AJerk Burnett. The Yanks in all their gluttony give that tool who is one part Chuck Finley, another part Pavano and another Milton Bradley 80 mill for 5 years? That is insane. I have always been against the Yankees spending BUT AJerk’s signing is a show of ravenous spending and stupidity.Now if there was a salary cap of let’s say 150 mill, they couldn’t sign either one of these guys. THe Burnett signing got me saying to friends of mine that there now must be some sort of restraint like a salary cap, so that one team cannot gobble every premiere free agent out there.
In the past , the Yanks spent money(no where as much) but spent it very wisely. Ever since Giambi was brought in, it has become more of a superstar /all star team and I hate that. They haven’t won anything since 2000 for many different reasons and that includes lack of team cohesiveness(the 90s Yankees).
DJ, you are right no fan would want the team to fail BUT how can one be optimistic when they sign a soft bad natured asshole like Burnett. Honestly, I think he wouldn’t succeed no matter what he does here. I want the team to do well BUT Cash Man is making stupid moves left and right. It’s disgusting what he has done with this team and the money he has at it’s disposal. If Hal was smart, he would have looked at last year and gotten a winner like Gillick to GM not Brain who keeps on ruining this team. Gillick won last year with a team that had less than a 100 million payroll, whereas the Yankees didn’t make the postseason with a 200 million dollar plus payroll.
Look as it is the Yankees will spend insanely and I’m not a fan of it, but what drives me crazy is that when they are gluttonous they spend in the wrong places AND the wrong people. Look, if they sign Teix and Manram (it will be obscene but those signings will address their needs more) they will improve offensivenessly BUT AJerk will still be there! IN essence, I want to see restraint but if they are going to spend wisely not like drunken sailors.
Actually, I’m rooting for that sports executive’s former network and the investment banker’s investments to fail.
Seriously, no, I don’t want the Yanks to fail.
And I’m really sick and tired of people needing to weigh the salaries players get against the bad economic news. Babe Ruth demanded (and got) a salary of $100,000 during the Great Depression. That was equivalent to the salary of 100-200 American workers in those days. Life wasn’t so great, economically speaking, in the late 70′s and early 80′s; didn’t keep Reggie and Winfield and a host of other free agents from raking in big bucks.
And I’m really, really tired of listening to lectures of socialistic correctness coming from the well-to-do in the media, in movies, in sports in the corporate world, and among millionaires and billionaires in political office.
The plain fact of the matter is that the salaries will stop when fans refuse to buy tickets and watch games on TV, and until they do, players should make whatever they can, and teams should spend whatever revenue they think will optimize their profit and their chances to win.
Now, I wouldn’t mind an overall sports industry deep recession, get the size of the leagues down, and make the major league players a little more cognizant of reality as it is lived by the rest of us, and the owners a little more merciful concerning ticket prices and excerable PSLs.
But am I rooting for a Yankees collapse?
Why would I? I’m a Yankees fan.
THe Burnett signing got me saying to friends of mine that there now must be some sort of restraint like a salary cap, so that one team cannot gobble every premiere free agent out there.
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The “restraint” is the luxury tax.
Having said that, a salary cap won’t do anything, as teams and players will find a way around it. Always have, always will.
The luxury tax works for everyone except the one team it was really supposed to restrain. Every team except the Yankees regard the tax as a threshold to be avoided or minimize the amount of tax paid. Its possible the Yankees regard $200 or $225 as their true “max” but in the end, it hardly matters, as they could in fact fit the top two pitchers plus the top hitter comfortably within that, even with all of their other obligations.
The issue is a media creation. Baseball media speaks with one voice-the one Selig wants to hear–which is to debase the Yankees, create hatred and envy toward them. Many average fans don’t have the time or inclination to look beyond the bile spewed by the media. The only way for a Yankee fan to survive is to avoid newspapers, tv, and radio.