And they didnt have any use for him if he was/is good(full rotation). I felt that the yanks were signing him simply to prevent the Sox from acquiring him. The other recent mindblowing transaction was when they traded for Mondasi (sp) and his 13mil/yr contract with the intent of platooning him in the outfeild.
My "hatred" of the Sox is mostly just in jest. I just like giving you guys a hard time. I don't like how the Sox and their fans treat Roger Clemens. Boston fans act like he betrayed them, when in fact it was the Red Sox that turned their backs on him. Since they declared he was in the twilight of his career, he has only won 3 Cy Young awards. The way I picked my favorite teams was a little different than most. Like a lot of young kids, I started by having favorite players, not teams. I rooted for whoever had my guy. A few years back (97ish), that changed for me. I decided that I was going to stick with teams instead of following the FAs around. At the time, my favorite players in the major sports were: Charles Barkley - NBA - Houston Rockets Wade Boggs - MLB - New York Yankees Mike Alstott - NFL - Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mike Madono - NHL - Dallas Stars (inasmuch as I like hockey at all) So the way I became a Yanks fan is much the same way I became a Rox fan. Anyway, thanks for the compliment. I also think Manny is a very good poster (heck I said he was the poster that most reminded me of me when we had that thread), even if he is a fan of the Red Sux. Oh, Poodlefur. Why don't two of those players I listed belong? Is it because Soriano and Matsui didn't play minor league ball for the Yanks? They all do fit the description I gave of them, right?
If your argument was that a lot of the Yankees talent was home-grown and not due to money, and the reasoning for that belief was that the majority of their position player starters had not played for another team - the fact that they essentially bought Soriano and Matsui means they rather don't belong among that list.
Im not trying to barg into you disagreement with Poodlefur, but i would like to make a comment. While Matsui has never played for another MLB team or their respective farm systems he is still far from "home grown talent" In all practical purposes he is the same a big name free agent. He was the best player in an establised professional league and signed a large contract.
Its actually because Soriano and Matsui were signed out of Japan, SM. The thing I hate about fans is when they don't realize that the Yankees have earned everything they've gotten, from signing Lou, Mickey and Joe, to trading for Ruth. Give any other town a tradition close to that and they'd have the money and fame to do this. Fortunately there's only one or two of those type of franchises in every sport (Yankees, Lakers, etc.) that can attract FAs based on tradition alone. I believe Giambi only came here because he was a huge Yankee fan growing up, Contreras had been seen years ago wearing Yankee Tees, and Matsui had chosen where he wanted to go years ago. Its quite simple. BTW--That 8 million dollar guy 7 IP 2 H 1 BB 6 Ks tonight. He looks much more relaxed starting, he really never came in as mop up relief in Cuba...moving Weaver to the pen for the rest of the year is the only way to go.
Well, Dan Duquette was and is still an idiot. I didn't blame Clemens for being bitter because of Duquette, but the guy has long been gone. But Clemens is a master mind manipulator and he is going to milk that rivalry as long as he can. Of course, I can't speak for all Red Sox fans, but I know a lot of them despise him because he *chose* to go to the Yankees and they feel he still holds a grudge against the team despite the fact that the reason for his leaving was run out of town. The fact that this egomaniac went out with a "special" 300th win glove against his old team is all you need to know on why Sox fans utterly despise this creep. Ironically, it was Clemens AND Boggs that got me started liking the Sox and yet both became traitors (Clemens worst than Boggs, though). The Red Sox may never win a World Series in my lifetime, but seeing them deny Clemens his 300th win had to be one of the sweetest things I have EVER seen in sports. I guess the 300th win glove thing didn't turn out the way he had planned, eh?
Yea, that was impressive, Rule....too bad, it came at the expense of essentially a triple A team, so IOW, Jose is finally hitting his stride against AAA competition. Now, if he can pull numbers like that against the Sox and Jays, then that will be something. Meanwhile, Kim can't start SOON enough as the 90 year old John Burkett is utterly worthless.
You guys know that other teams are allowed to sign free agents as well don't you? Boston, Texas, LA, or Atlanta could have put up the money for a Matsui or Soriano. Texas gave A-Rod 250 million dollars. Whether those guys want to play for those other teams is a different story. No matter what rules are made (short of barring the Yankees from the world series) players will want to play for the Yankees. Its the history, the tradition, the mystique. You know why no one hates all those other high payroll teams (except NL fans hating the Braves)? They don't win. NY has a combination of money (which people recognize), a killer front ofice headed by Cashman (which people don't recognize) and excellent coaching.
Good point. They are a highly profitable team even with their spending habits. However they are located in the largest city in the US and have a rich tradition. This gives them a huge competative advantage over the rest of the leage. They have payroll of 150mil v. the Sox 100mil. How can can the sox regularly compete with them if the Yanks can spend so much more. btw, i an not in anyway a redsox fan and do respect that you are a yankees fan that actuallly lives around NYC.
It's slightly different giving a massive contract to a guy who's one of the best players in the game, to giving a large contract to someone who's never played major league ball before. The Yankees can afford to do that and have it flop, because it's a drop in the bucket to them, where as other teams might be more hesitant to make that deal, fearful of having it backfire. Re : Cashman. Yes, the Yankees do have a good front office. Yes they do actually pay attention to the minor league system, unlike some other teams(*cough*Dodgers*cough*), and they've produced some very good position players and pitchers - but no more than a team like the Royals - for example. The difference between the Yankees and the Royals is that the Royals can't afford to keep their talent . . . and the Royals spend what money they have left rather foolishly at times. Re : History. Yes, the Yankees history does play a massive part in them being so rich. Being one, if not the most succesful teams in sports history is quite a draw. How did they get so good though? Consider - up until the 1920's the Yankees were a pretty below average franchise, then harry frazee needed money and he sold the Red Sox to the Yankees. Oh, not literally mind you. But he sold them a dynasty, pre-assembled. Consider : The Yankees went to three World Series in a row, from 1921-23, winning the first of their truckload of championships in 1923, finally overcoming the New York Giants. No Pennant can be won without pitching - This is where Frazee really took the axe to his club. Babe Ruth - converted to an outfielder, of course. Waite Hoyt - Hall of Fame Pitcher. Pitched in something like 35 innings in '21 and '22 series losses - only allowed one earned run. Also, later in the decade - The Best Pitcher on The Greatest Baseball Team of All Time. The 1927 Yankee team. Joe Bush - Not a superstar by any means, but pitched better than average, and pitched a ton of innings. Stalwart in the Yankees Rotation, pitched in three games in the Yankees first World Series Championship. Sam Jones - Above Average Pitcher, another stalwart in the rotation, pitched a bunch of innings, with a better than average era. Carl Mays - Belligerent *******, killed a guy with a spitball, but he was a great pitcher for the Yanks. Mays began to wind down, of course, after carrying the yankees staff for a few years, so Frazee sold the yankees another pitcher . . . Herb Pennock - The second Hall of Fame Pitcher on this list(might've been the third, had Mays not killed Chapman). So there it is. An entire frickin' rotation, including TWO hall of fame pitchers, a possible third, and the Greatest Hitter Of All Time. If that weren't enough, Frazee also threw in some nice position players. Catcher : Wally Schang - Wally didn't hit for any power, but he hit for a decent average, and drew a respectable number of walks. He was a starter for the Yankees, giving them a .400OBP from a lineup spot production doesn't often come from. Shortstop : Everett Scott - uhm, prototypical shortstop. No pop to the bat, but entrenched himself at short for nearly a decade in Boston before being sold to the Yankees. Yes, the Yankees have great history - and they have built an incredible dynasty, but they have built it the same now as they did then. By filling in as much of a lineup as they could from internal resources, and then just buying the rest. It is a dynasty built on the bedrock of money, and lots of it. Smart use of money, mind you, which seperates the Yankees from other pretenders - but it is still the application of money to fill lineup holes and keep their star players in town. The money is the lynchpin of their success - the one defining thing they have done better than anyone else. They've spent more, and they've spent more wiser. The Yankees win. They win because they spend. It's not evil, - it's just unfair to the rest of MLB - and you can't pretend the enormous advantage isn't there.
I agree that their money is a tremendous advantage over a Kansas City or an Oakland. I disagree that it is a huge advantage over a Boston, Texas, or especially Atlanta and Anaheim. Atlanta is owned by Time/Warner (or Ted Turner, same diff) and Anaheim until very recently by the Mouse. Both have incredible television revenue (of course) so they could easily spend what the Yankees do. Anaheim was nowhere until last season, when they came from the WC to win the WS. Atlanta is perennially good but rarely championship caliber. At most, I would say their spending (especially during their string of 4 championships in 5 years) was unfair to maybe half of the teams in major leage baseball. I also think that those teams will never spend the money even with a salary cap, so that doesn't really matter. If there was an 80-90 million dollar cap instituted, who would realistically fall off and who would realistically rise up?
