It's May 19th....

^^^ Any player who says they don't want to play for the Yankees are either a liar or suck.

 

It's easy to root for a team whose total payroll ($195,229,045) is larger than the combined team payrolls of the Diamondbacks ($52,067,546), Pirates ($38,604,500), Nationals ($37,347,500), Marlins ($30,507,000), and Devil Rays ($24,124,200)... with $12.5 million to spare, too. (In case you haven't noticed, that's FIVE teams, or 16.7% of MLB). Your team's payroll is 36% greater than even the #2 payroll team, the Red Sox, and more than 8x greater than the Devil Rays. And, oh yes, the Yankees' payroll is 222% higher than the Astros, too.

Doesn't this embarrass you at all (especially given the Yanks performance all season)? It's like playing Sim City on cheat mode with unlimited funds.

 

It's September 20th and the Texans are 2-0.

That means more than the damn Yankees.

 

VesceySux I've been a Yankee fan since the 60s when my dad and our family were stationed overseas and the only American radio we had was Armed Forces radio and of course the only team they did broadcasts of was America's team, the Yankees.

 

Here's to the Yankees hopefully getting Johan Santana and/or Tori Hunter and/or Jake Peavy when they become free agents.

 

I'm not questioning your "fandom". I just want to know what you think about your team's $195 million payroll.

 

Spending that kind of money doesn't guarantee a championship (just look at the last 6 years). And people tend to over look the fact that although the Yanks spend a lot of money on their payroll, they also have the best farm system in the league and people are surprised at the number of players that are homegrown and work there way up through the system.

But yes, it's been a very frustrating season. I'm just glad they've seemingly pulled it together.

 

Well I had a feeling that this thread would rear its ugly head sometime soon. I could spend hours and hours telling you my disgust but I would rather not.

Right now, I see several problems with the Red Sox:

1) No offense which has been magnified by the absence of my namesake. No one knows when Manny is coming back and the feeling I get is that there is NO URGENCY for him to come back. This frustrates the hell out of me. I can't help but think if this was Pujols, he would have been back by now (and he did come back sooner from a pulled oblique).

2) Inconsistent starting pitching - Wakefield can't buy a win right now after going through a great stretch. Dice-K is a mess and has hit the proverbial wall (as has Okajima) and Lester always has trouble in the early innings before pitching better as the game goes on. This only leaves Beckett and Schilling (Buchholz doesn't count) as the only starters we can count on a consistent basis and Schilling hasn't gotten any run support at all lately (see #1 up above).

3) Terrible pitching by the bullpen - this has been a strength all season and now at the worst time imaginable, all the big guns are struggling. Paps who has been damn near unhittable most of the season gives up a big hit to Rodriguez on Friday and a damn grand slam to Russ Adams (who the f*ck is that?) last night. Gagne is a damn headcase who I have concluded is on the Yankees payroll as he has singlehandedly blown 4 games for the Sox (which was made worse with the Yankees winning every time against whoever they were playing when Gagne was choking out there). Okajima has been shut down; Timlin is close to being absolute garbage and Tavarez is so damn helter skelter. Delcarmen is about the only reliever right now that is pitching worth a damn.

4) Curious managerial moves by Terry Francona - there is a reason why Terry Francona has not been given a contract extension (this is his last season on his current contract). The guy is too worried about being a "friend" to the players instead of making decisions to win ballgames. He routinely leaves Schilling and Dice-K in too long which always burns him in the end. Then he panics on Friday night and brings Okajima in with a 5 run lead in the 8th. Why not go with Delcarmen or even Buchholz until the game gets closer? And what really pissed me off was the game on Tuesday night where he lets Gagne walk a run in with 2 outs and with Papelbon warming up INSISTED on leaving Gagne in. The results were disastrous and predictable if you're a Sox fan. I read an article today where Francona is still saying that he "trusts" and "believes" in Gagne. Too bad I couldn't see his face when he said that to see if he really had a straight face in saying that garbage!

5) Most of all I see no urgency whatsoever in the players or in Francona to try to win the division. It's like they are content in making the playoffs even if it is the wild card. Don't they understand that there's more to it than that? Like the homefield advantage and letting the Yankees know that they (the Yankees) are not in their heads? Apparently that is not important to this team.

Nothing sucks more than seeing the Yankees win the division after the Red Sox had been in first pretty much the whole f*cking season! My wife couldn't understand why I was so depressed and despondent and I explained to I her that this is equivalent to being engaged and your engagement lasting 9 months. Then with 2 weeks left before your wedding, something terribly wrong happens and all of the sudden, your engagement is over and you're not married. It's like those 8 and a half months of bliss don't matter now - it's freaking hollow because all that matters is the end result. So, yes I will be very pissed about getting the wild card because the point is it should have never happened.

Yet I have resigned myself that is what is going to happen - the Red Sox get the wild card and then lose in 3 straight in the ALDS. And what was such a great and promising season is nothing more than hollowness and all those great moments before September are null and void in my mind.

 

As a fan, I am happy that my team is trying to win. Wouldn't the LAstros have been better if they had the same team they have now, but added Beltran and Pettite? Should everyone be a fan of the Clippers because Sterling imposes salary restrictions that put them at a competitive disadvantage? Is anyone really happy that Les refuses to go over the luxury tax to improve the Rockets?

 

The difference between the #1 payroll team in the NBA (Knicks) and the #30 payroll team (Bobcats) was $44,960,511 in 2006-07. The difference between the #1 payroll team in the NFL (Colts) and the #32 payroll team (Raiders) last year was $59,367,601. The difference between the #1 payroll team in MLB and the #30 payroll team this year is $171,104,845. Put another way, the size of the Yanks payroll ($195,229,045) is a mere $1.2 million short of covering both the Astros ($87,759,500) AND Texans ($108,675,881), which consists of 53 additional freaking salaries. The Yankees have led the league in payroll for 9 straight years and 12 out of the last 15 years. But hey, whatever it takes to win, right?

I mean, c'mon, as a fan of baseball, you seriously have ZERO problem with this??

 

I don't mind the Yankees winning every season, because it creates a powerful villain and seeing a loathed team win a championship is better than seeing a team no one cares about.

 

MLB is all about $$$ they know that baseball is dwindling in a lot of markets. The NFL has already overtaken them and they probably fear that if they add a salary cap the NBA will move past them as well. They know that the Yankees and Red Sox are the big time cash cows for the league and them being good is very important to them. If they added a salary cap they aren't assured anymore that boston and ny will be good and they will take a hit.

The NBA decided to rule in favor of fairness and because of that NY, BOS, LA are not guarantees anymore, they will take a hit in ratings/revenue.

 

It's not NBC, but TNT beats the hell out of ABC.

 

Wow...

 

VesceySux, I do not understand why any baseball fan has a problem with the yankees payroll. You guys contradict yourselves all the time.

At one point you are quick to point out all the financial advantages the Yankees have in comparison to the rest of the league and all of sportsdom, and then next thing you know you are ragging on the yanks not having won a title in this century!

Storm Surge is right, this all about the benjamins, after all what it all boils down to is that MLB is a BUSINESS just like all the other Leagues. In the best interest of the business, MLB has done nothing to curb the Yankees ravenous appetite for talent.

It does not hurt the league for the Yanks to be the way they are (its not like they keep on winning WS after WS, right?) It provides a great marketing tool for MLB to the entire US to draw fans in!
People may have no idea about what A-Rod or Clemens have actually done in their careers, but they WILL go to the games when the big names are in town and increase revenue and popularity for baseball as a whole!

It is true, the Bronx Bombers are the hottest team in the AL right now, but their is debate as to which team is the BEST. Unless the Yankees are totally dominating the league right now, there is no reason to be so up in arms!!!

 

I really don't. In fact, I would suggest the real problem is not what the Yankees spend, but what teams like the D-Rays and Royals spend. Does anyone really want to go see teams like that? Thinking about a recently publicized Marlins game, the answer appears to be no. You don't have to spend like the Yankees to be competitive in baseball, but spending like the D-Rays isn't going to get it done either.

The Yankees payroll is also inflated by the fact that all MLB salaries are guaranteed, unlike the NFL. Do you think they would be spending 50 million clams on Giambi, Pavano, Igawa, and Damon if they could cut them? Hell no. In fact, some of their most productive players are also their least expensive. Cano, Wang, and Cabrera combine to make less than Mientkiewicz.