are the Yankees hurting themselves?

[Thurston Fluff]

It seems to me the Yankees are making moves that seem to force them in a cycle of ever higher spending. Every time they sign someone it means they have one less draft pick to restock an already weak farm system. That means to remain competitive they have to sign free agents and lose more draft picks. Their other option is to make trades using the few minor league players that have some worth or make one sided trades to salary dumping teams. Either way they end up in a perpetual cycle of needing to spend. If ever they stop spending at an ever higher rate they will have a huge rebuild on their hands. Apparantly that is not a Steinbrenner option. If any team can do this it's the Yankees. I do wonder if they will ahve the resources to do so and pay off the new stadium and deal with harder financial times even if they are the Yanks.

[TuesdaysWithRillo]

It partially caught up to them this year as they missed the playoffs and had too much salary on the books to make any impact moves before the deadline, but with all of those deadbeat contracts coming off the books this year, the Yankees seemed to have not learned their lesson and have started the spending all over again. So you answer your question, yes, they are hurting themselves in the long term, but in the short term that may not be so.

[GoudaBrew]

Let's say they sign Tex, Burnett, and Lowe in addition to CC. That means they'll have 5 starting pitchers - CC, Wang, Burnett, Lowe and Joba - under team control for many, many years. In addition, they'll have catcher, first base, second base, third base, and shortstop under control for just as long too. In the outfield, they have Nady and Swisher under team control for a couple of years as well with a CF prospect coming up about a year from now.

 

By making all of these signings in one year, all they lose is draft picks from THIS year. They could basically sit out free agency for a couple of years barring trades and injuries.

[zzzmanwitz]

They are still counting on older players, many of which are past their prime.

[Patrick425]

I'm very concerned about the Yankees and their future. I'm even more troubled about the Players Union and the fact that the Yankees may not be able to overpay their members in future years.

[DHonks]

Actually, I'm pretty sure that if you look it up, they usually wind up with either the normal number of picks, or more than that. For instance, each time they sign someone, they also lose someone that was offered arbitration.

[logan82]

Every time the sign somebody it is one more prospect they don't have to call up to fill a spot or is available to trade for more prospects.

[truecrew]

They hurt themselves but once every what 10 years they miss the playoffs? We have been to 1 playoff in 26 years. The sad thing is that they can spend 240 million on 2 players. Money is no object to them. They just keep spending and spending but they do keep winning except for once a decade they have a bad year about 90 wins but still a bad year

[rm121978]

As long as they don't run out of $ or a salary cap is instituted (neither of which are likely anytime soon), I don't see how they are hurting themselves. Now if they are hurting the game, that's another question...

[RyDogg66]

Remember, the Yankees won their championships in the 90s with great players...great, YOUNG, homegrown players with some decent older vets sprinkled in. I think history would show that this is how most teams win championships. As long as they rely upon really expensive players over the age of 30 or older, I think they will be just good enough to contend for playoff spots, and even make the playoffs 4 out of 5 years, but never win the whole thing...or at least not that often.

[MNBrew]

In answer to the question posed in the title of the thread...

 

I sure hope so! And wouldn't it be fun if that turned out to be the case!

[danzig6767]

Remember, the Yankees won their championships in the 90s with great players...great, YOUNG, homegrown players with some decent older vets sprinkled in. I think history would show that this is how most teams win championships. As long as they rely upon really expensive players over the age of 30 or older, I think they will be just good enough to contend for playoff spots, and even make the playoffs 4 out of 5 years, but never win the whole thing...or at least not that often.

Yea, but history has also shown that just getting to the playoffs though is 3/4 of the battle, look at some of the non-special teams who barely made the playoffs and yet ended up winning a title. I can understand why some will say that the Yankees will likely regret these long term contracts to starting pitchers, mainly on the back end of those contracts. For the Yankees though, between their new ballpark, high attendance, high prices they can charge for tickets, and their massive broadcasting rights, they bring in a ridiculous amount of revenues. Unless Sabathia suffers a bad arm injury early in that seven year deal and/or he just doesn't produce well, they'll live with him say not producing much or not at all in years 6-7 of the contract so long as he helps lead the Yanks to a World Series or two the first five years.

 

Developing a CY Young quality workhorse ace from your farm system isn't easy, so they just went out and bought one that isn't old and his 23 million dollar a year salary barely even puts a dent in their revenues. If Burnett blows out his elbow in a couple of years, it's not like most franchises where 15 million in dead money for a season or two is a back breaker. Yankee fans expect to win and be in the playoffs. They pay a lot to fill their park and watch in droves on TV to follow a winner, this fills the Yankees cash cow coffers. I just can't fault them much for these signings given that they've shown in the past that they bring in so much cash that a big contract backfiring on them is hardly crippling.

 

Odds are highly against Hughes becoming an ace this season and probably the next year also. So what should their rich ass franchise do, sit back for a year, two years, or maybe longer in hopes they can develop a great young pitcher or two all while they're sitting on piles of revenues and after shedding tons of more cash this offseason?

[Diggr14]

and here I thought the Yankees were one of three teams to lose money in 2007. Guess that enormous team value goes a long way.

 

I wonder how much the Yankees would sell on the open market right now. It's gotta be alot higher than Forbes values them.

[Baldkin]

Its this Yankee fan perpetuated myth that their early teams were all "young and homegrown" Yankees.

 

Look at the roster for the 1996 team, for example:

C Joe Girardi

 

1B Tino Martinez

2B Mariano Duncan

3B Wade Boggs

SS Derek Jeter

LF Gerald Williams

CF Bernie Williams

RF Paul O'Neill

DH Ruben Sierra

Jim Leyritz

Darryl Strawberry

Tim Raines

Cecil Fielder

----------------------

 

SP Andy Pettitte

SP Jimmy Key

SP Kenny Rogers

SP Dwight Gooden

SP David Cone

SP Ramiro Mendoza

SP Scott Kamieniecki

 

CL John Wetteland

RP Jeff Nelson

RP Mariano Rivera

RP Bob Wickman

RP Dale Polley

 

The team was barely 1/3 (if that) home grown talent. Are they hurting themselves? No, right now they are still 40 million under last years payroll. Well within their operating costs, especially considering the huge revenue bump that the new stadium will give them.