Our Fool And His Money…

Posted by Steve Lombardi on October 13th 2009 · Comments (13)

Brian Cashman introduces his Yankees who have a message for the Angels…

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Comments on Our Fool And His Money…

butchie22

October 14th, 2009 | 12:56 am

Steve, this song comes from the movie ,”The Magic Christian” starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. The theme of the film is about how people can be bought and sold and do anything for almost any price. You can imagine what analogy that holds in reference to Cash Man ( A fool and his money,indeed).
OldYanksFan

October 14th, 2009 | 9:13 am

Dis these guys intentionally try to sound like the Beatles? Especially the drummer. His licks are pure Ringo.
Tresh Fan

October 14th, 2009 | 10:08 am

@ OldYanksFan:
With good reason. The song was written by Paul McCartney. At the time Badfinger was signed to Apple Records which was owned by the Beatles.
jessicam

October 14th, 2009 | 10:48 am

Wait, are you calling Cashman a fool? Didn’t he build a team that just won 103 games? Isn’t his job to build a team that wins more than any other team? And that’s what he just did. So why is he a fool?
butchie22

October 14th, 2009 | 11:04 am

Tresh Fan wrote:

@ OldYanksFan:
With good reason. The song was written by Paul McCartney. At the time Badfinger was signed to Apple Records which was owned by the Beatles.

McCartney actually wrote that song during his last days with the Beatles. His demo version appears on Beatles Anthology 3. Badfinger were originally called the Iveys THEN changed their name to Badfinger when they signed with apple Records. Yeah, they were even produced by Beatles engineer ,Geoff Emerick and George Harrison at one point.

@ Jessicam. Charlie Mc carthy could have put together a half decent team for 200 milliom dollars! Give Cash Man half that amount and tell me he fields a team that wins more than any other team! He did a decent job this year BUT he spent 425 million dollars to do so, Don’t lose sight of that fact. He had relatively cheap pickups like Swisher the Baseless Runner , Hairston and Hinske and did a good job with that.Charlie Cheeseburger, Mark “Porkchop ” Teixeira, and AJ “the Pie Thrower” Burnout were the top three free agents. If he was Tony Reagins of the LA Assholes of Anaheim Orange County,Pasadena Ca , does he even have the money to sign one of them? No. So he gets very little slack cut on that front.
YankCrank

October 14th, 2009 | 11:08 am

jessicam wrote:

Wait, are you calling Cashman a fool? Didn’t he build a team that just won 103 games? Isn’t his job to build a team that wins more than any other team? And that’s what he just did. So why is he a fool?

Because he didn’t do it on a budget, nor did he do it with all of his own players. He just opened up a checkbook and poof, 103 wins came.
YankCrank

October 14th, 2009 | 11:12 am

butchie22 wrote:

He did a decent job this year BUT he spent 425 million dollars to do so,

Hey butch, just for arguments sake, how is this an argument against Cash’s team building strategy?

If he spends money, he gets no credit because it’s just money. But if he doesn’t spend the money, Cashman haters would argue he’s an idiot for not maxing out the Yankee $ advantage, one which they have over every other team.

Which side do you fall on? You’d rather Cash try to win with only $100 million when the Yankees can clearly spend upwards of $200 million?
Steve Lombardi

October 14th, 2009 | 11:31 am

Just wanted to clear something up…

This post was 99.99999% a joke. I was just playing around, very late at night, when I most definitely should have been sleeping, checking out a bunch of one-hit-wonder stuff from the ’70’s on YouTube, and came across this clip playing the click on the link and see where it goes game.

Actually, I found the guy doing the intro to be funny – and I’m not even sure what he was saying – although at some point I think he used the word “snot”?

Anywho, seeing it, made me think of the Yankees – which is not too hard because I’m always thinking about the Yankees.

The guy doing the intro made me think of Cashman. Have you ever noticed Cashman being interviewed on WFAN and the like? He talks, and talks, and talks, without ever really saying anything. And, that was the connect here.

And, I thought of the Yankees because of the lyric “If you want, here it is, come and get it” – as that’s what the Yankees should be saying/thinking as the Angels come to town.

And the title? I really didn’t mean anything – a “fool and his money” is another lyric from the song – and that was the driver there…
Probably should have thought of another title, but, again, it was very late at night….
Maybe I should just stop blogging so late at night? Probably makes sense….

Although I do appreciate all the historical stuff on the song, etc.
I had a Beatles 45 as a kid – think it was “Let It Be”? – and it had the green apple on the label. Of course, as a kid, I had no idea that was the name of the record company. But, I thought it was interesting to watch the apply spin around on my portable 45-player. Then again, I was probably like 12 years old at the time…
Raf

October 14th, 2009 | 12:10 pm

Steve Lombardi wrote:

Just wanted to clear something up…

This post was 99.99999% a joke.

If it means anything, I got it
Raf

October 14th, 2009 | 12:13 pm

YankCrank wrote:

Hey butch, just for arguments sake, how is this an argument against Cash’s team building strategy?

If he spends money, he gets no credit because it’s just money.

The problem is that Cashman is doing what Watson and Michael have done. Cone? Resigned as a FA. Rogers? FA. Tartabull? FA. Spike Owen, Mike Gallego, Tony Fernandez? FA’s. Wade Boggs? FA.

Shall I go on?
Evan3457

October 14th, 2009 | 1:47 pm

butchie22 wrote:

Tresh Fan wrote:
@ OldYanksFan:
With good reason. The song was written by Paul McCartney. At the time Badfinger was signed to Apple Records which was owned by the Beatles.
McCartney actually wrote that song during his last days with the Beatles. His demo version appears on Beatles Anthology 3. Badfinger were originally called the Iveys THEN changed their name to Badfinger when they signed with apple Records. Yeah, they were even produced by Beatles engineer ,Geoff Emerick and George Harrison at one point.
@ Jessicam. Charlie Mc carthy could have put together a half decent team for 200 milliom dollars! Give Cash Man half that amount and tell me he fields a team that wins more than any other team! He did a decent job this year BUT he spent 425 million dollars to do so, Don’t lose sight of that fact. He had relatively cheap pickups like Swisher the Baseless Runner , Hairston and Hinske and did a good job with that.Charlie Cheeseburger, Mark “Porkchop ” Teixeira, and AJ “the Pie Thrower” Burnout were the top three free agents. If he was Tony Reagins of the LA Assholes of Anaheim Orange County,Pasadena Ca , does he even have the money to sign one of them? No. So he gets very little slack cut on that front.

Again; the team budget has not substantially changed since 2004.
The Yanks put just about the same amount back onto the team payroll as the departures of Giambi, Mussina, Abreu and Pavano took off the payroll.

Now; you’re Brian Cashman. Your mandate is to compete, if not win it all, every season. You’ve just had $70,000,000 come off your payroll, so you have that much room under your self-imposed team payroll cap (self-imposed) because your owners have reched their limit of paying luxury tax to other teams to allow them to get players to beat your team.

Now, you didn’t make the playoffs last season, and there are several top of the line free agents available who fill the major holes your team has quite nicely indeed.

Do you:

a) Trade good young prospects for expensive players to fill those holes and fill up your payroll to its limit?
b) Do nothing substantial, hope all your young players develop, let the top free agents go to your main rivals, making then tougher to beat than ever, and sit around and wait for the ax to fall?
or c) Sign the best free agents you can get to bolster up your aging core and try to take a title or two before they decline into decreptude.

Anyone who doesn’t answer “c)” is a moron, or is lying, or both.
===============================

“Cashman just buys players.”
1) No, that’s not all he does, and 2) Well, duhhhhh.

“Cashman just buys players.”
You say this like it’s a BAD thing. The Yanks have the money. Why is this a bad thing? Would it be better to develop the entire squad from within? Yes, it would, but this ownership won’t permit that, unless you can tell them your prospects are can’t-miss, and then, they don’t miss. None of them. Because God forbid the Yankees ever allow a young player to stay in the lineup or rotation, suffer his lumps, and complete his development.

The ownership, media and fan base won’t permit it. How do I know? Phil Hughes, Ian Kennedy, and now, Joba Chamberlain.

What about Stick Michael?

Well, what about him. It’s a lot easier to “stick with the plan” when your starting from rock bottom, and when the Boss is suspended.

This Yankee team cannot start over and build from scratch because the interested parties (Ownership, media, and fans) won’t allow it, and because the team’s current strategic position doesn’t at all call for it.

And that won’t change unless this team collapses out of contention.

At which point, Cashman will be fired, and someone else will pick up the broken pieces.
Raf

October 14th, 2009 | 2:41 pm

Evan3457 wrote:

It’s a lot easier to “stick with the plan” when your starting from rock bottom, and when the Boss is suspended.

And even so, they were still players in the FA market. Tartabull, Key, Owen, Gallego, Boggs, Tony Fernandez, etc were all signed on his watch. They were in on Bonds but were scared off by the price, they were in on Maddux but he went to the Braves instead, they were in on Cone, but couldn’t get their act together.

The “plan” was always the same no matter who the GM was.
butchie22

October 15th, 2009 | 11:06 am

YankCrank wrote:

butchie22 wrote:
He did a decent job this year BUT he spent 425 million dollars to do so,
Hey butch, just for arguments sake, how is this an argument against Cash’s team building strategy?
If he spends money, he gets no credit because it’s just money. But if he doesn’t spend the money, Cashman haters would argue he’s an idiot for not maxing out the Yankee $ advantage, one which they have over every other team.
Which side do you fall on? You’d rather Cash try to win with only $100 million when the Yankees can clearly spend upwards of $200 million?

Crank, I’m on the side of Cash Man building a team from within with a budget commensurate with the other teams maxing out at 150 million (at the most). By my own admission, he’s made the type of deals that a middle market team would make like Swisher,Hairston and Hinske and he did a nice job on that. Yes, folks Butch gave Brian a compliment…it happens. On the other hand, to plug in the holes he had last year he basically bought the three top players in the free agent market. Unlike most of the other teams, he can pretty much get what he wants and hide his mistakes very easily(Igawa being tone of the most glaring examples in baseball history,who can afford to keep a 50 million dollar investment in the minors).

@ Evan, let me break it down to you thusly. When Stick, Watson and when George was out of baseball, the Yanks built something special AND they weren’t the highest payroll team, THAT was the Baltimore Os. The point I’m trying to make is that the Yanks have a comparative advantage,they never had before: revenues streams that are quite large relative to other teams. Why is the team spending so much money (especially with Cash Man at the helm misspending it) ridiculously obscene? The Yanks are not the Globetrotters and the rest of the teams the Washington Generals, understand? It doesn’t work that way. They are really spending 340 million now not 200 million with the luxury tax, so that’s beyond obscene, that’s absurd in my opinion. At your point regarding declining into decrepitude, whose fault is that? Cash should have been pushing the youth movement from the beginning. I had remarked back in 2002 that there wasn’t an heir apparent to MO yet(who knew he would be so durable). and I remember that dolt , the Money Man ,Randy Levine part of Yankees Inc who claimed that if they lost a play ,they’d just go on the free agent market and get one! Insanity,if you ask me. also, I never referred to any rebuilding, but rather wiser spending at a lower level. I think that another GM could have shepharded the Yankees from 98 in a better fashion and Cash Man has done an OK job BUT ok is not enough with all the resources and money available to him.

In regards to Cash Man, I was surprised to hear someone use my Cash Man line about Seattle and Philly with reference to the Yankee GM on the FAN . It would be interesting to see the Yankee GM actually helm another team where he couldn’t even make a trade like the Swisher one! where he has his hands tied behind his back. That would be the most amusing thing to me….. BUT Cash Man has tried to develop younger players as of late and at varying degrees of success(relative to other teams). So for the last few years, he’s attempted some sort of youth movement and he’s seen some kids come through. So he’s tried to change the culture a little bit BUT went back to old ways with singing the so-called Top Three in the off season.

@ Raf, your example was off base. Toronto spent the most money in the early 90s in terms of payroll NOT the Yankees. Do you want me to mention the core of the Yankees that was developed during those Stick/Bob Watson years: Jeter, Williams, Passedballsada, Pettitte and Mo were developed by the organization during that time and are still playing. Wade Boggs is off doing hair plug commercials now!