Tag: Yankees

The numbers wouldn’t be quite so shocking — $180 million over eight years — had the Yankees not already written some big checks in recent weeks.

Mark Teixeira is reported to have signed the latest big-money deal with Hank and Hal Steinbrenner, bringing to about $425 the amount spent by the Bronx Bombers on three players this off season alone. And this doesn’t take into account the $300 million deal Alex Rodriguez signed a year ago, or the millions upon millions owed to Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera.

As ESPN points out,

Teixeira’s salary gives the Yankees, who are preparing to move into their $1.3 billion new ballpark in April, the four highest-paid players in Major League Baseball, including third baseman Alex Rodriguez, shortstop Derek Jeter and Sabathia.

Teixeira’s agreement also comes just one day after the Yankees received a $26.9 million luxury tax bill for 2008, when their streak of 13 consecutive playoff appearances ended. But with the revenue from their new stadium, where tickets are priced at up to $2,500 per game, their appetite for free agents wasn’t diminished.

It’s truly mind boggling to think how much money the franchise has tied up in a handful of players, but then these are some pretty good players.

Consider that the infield boasts four all-stars — two of whom are essentially automatic first-ballot Hall-of-Famers. They also have the games all-time greatest closer.

At the same time, this is a team with three huge questions hanging over it:

• Starting pitching after CC Sabathia includes a pitcher coming off a major injury (Wang), a pitcher with a history of injuries and only pitching well in his walk year (Burnett) and a kid or two.
• The outfield is either old (Matsui and Damon), coming off a career year (Nady) or just not worth much (Swisher and Cabrera).
• Robinson Cano has shown a troubling tendency to coast.

So, we’ll see if this spending spree has the desired effect. It has been eight years since the Yankees won the World Series and five since they made it to the series. As things stand right now, I don’t know if they even can be considered the favorite to win the pennant.

But then, I’ve never been a fan of the pinstripers.

The Yankees had a pretty good week, going 4-2 (not counting the official win from the now finished suspended game, which was added to the July 21 standings).

And yet, the team managed to drop a game in the standings to the Red Sox and pick up only one game in the wild card race.

Seems like a good reason for Yankee fans to remain optimistic with nine/10 weeks to go in the season.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Consider the power of the New York Yankees.

The team scores 45 runs in three wins in two days and manages to pick up a half game in the standings — leaving them a full half game farther back than they were before the weekend started.

That’s a remarkable feat, when you get right down to it — and as good an example as any as to why they team’s chances of catching the Red Sox remain pretty slim.

Yes, the team has shaved some games off the lead, but it has no margin for error. And if the Sox play decent ball the rest of the way — say winning 34 and losing 30 — then the Yankees will have to find a way to play 42-23 ball. That would be well above anything they’ve done so far this season. And that assumes the Sox play well below their .602 pace. If the Sox win 39 of their final 64 — a little better than .600 — the Yanks would have to go 47-18.

You get the picture.

While I do think the Yanks are a better team than they’ve shown so far, they remain an old team with mediocre arms and awful set-up relievers. If it weren’t for the sublime efforts of A-Rod, Jeter and Posada, it is difficult to even conceive of where this team might be in the standings.

I wouldn’t write them off, but I find the arrogant optimism exhibited by some Yankee fans I know to be misplaced and downright obnoxious (optimism is OK, but someone needs to remind them that this is not 1978 and Bucky Dent is not on the roster).

When the season ends, figure on Detroit to knock off Boston and California to torture Cleveland, with the Angels winning the ALCS in seven. (As for the National League, I still think the Mets are the team to beat — Mets over L.A. and Padres over Milwaukee (though don’t write off the Cubs), with the Mets and Padres going the distance.

Heart says Mets over Angels in a battle of first-wave expansion teams, but my head says that the Angels are going to go all the way. There, I said it and it hurts man.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

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Perhaps, Allen Barra is the only one who has figured out what plagues the Yankees this year. In short, they are not a very good ball club — aging on the mound where 40 percent of the rotation appears beyond its prime, another pitcher just doesn’t belong and another has no luck; barren at first and at DH; overrated and aging in the outfield; and managed by a man who has been asked to run a team that bears no resemblance to the kind of teams he does well with. In short, the Yankees need to blow things up and start over.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
The Cranbury Press Blog

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