its the end of the world as we know it. since i can remember my baseball team, the one i supposedly support, have been fortunate enough to make it into the mlb playoffs. i know no other way. since 1995 the new york yankees have played post-season ball. its 2008 now and the run is over. (btw - i must give credit where its due, dugoutBugout contributor pops-fixit nailed this one when he predicted this meltdown back in june)
im not as disappointed as some might think of a staunch nyy supporter. because my relationship with this team is mets-fan like. its tenuous to say the least. i have questioned many a move and have been suspect towards the many parts they have thrown together the past few years. i can hear you thinking outloud- that im just another spoiled yankee fan. but truthfully i hated it when they signed or traded for the big-name player. i hated when they spent exuberant amounts of cheese on over-hyped, over-rated, selfish, fat, lazy, broken-down veterans. some signings and trades worked out well, which allowed them to stay competitive through the years. but for every moose, matsui, abreu, and clemens theres a boatload of names that failed miserably and have been mostly forgotten. everybody knows the k-fed of baseball, carl "the buttocks" pavano, but lest we forget jaret wright, jose contraras, javy vasquez, randy johnson, raul mondesi, rondell white, drew henson, steve karsay, aaron boone, todd zeille, ruben sierra, jeff weaver, gary sheffeild, kenny lofton, john olerud, kevin brown, jon leiber, tony womack, and kei igawa. should i go on or do you get the point. the philosophy of the old george steinbrenner regime was to scoop up whoever whatever allstar/big-name player that was available bec logically speaking the more talent you have the more wins it should translate into. this isnt bad logic considering you can buy whatever goodies you want. but for all the talent you must sacrifice things like "young player determination", chemistry, and team-first mentality. so this whole mess could be the "boss"s fault for pressuring his own management and players too much which would eventually lead to the exact failure he was trying to avoid. but i dont blame him. i love owners that love winning. and youll say every owner loves winning, but what are they willing to sacrifice. george was willing to do what it takes and i loved that. granted he said crazy things and was mostly controversial in the last 30 years, but owners like steinbrenner and cuban dont come around often.
or you can blame it on talent evaluation. more specifically the general manager -brian cashman, scouts, and higher ups in the personnel decision-making department like Mark Newman, Jean Afterman. if you took every move they have made in the last decade you can argue that they heve bombed more times than not. giambi was juicing and they ignored it. red-neck randy couldnt do the big city and they didnt see it. pavano was really a girl and he somehow still passed the physical. maybe its the doctors' fault, they didnt see his vagina. they were jerking off to jeff weaver for years, finally nabbed him by giving up ted lilly (3-way deal) and he then proceeded to hand the world series to the marlins. i dont think hes in baseball anymore. i thought i saw him on the hills, but it wasnt him. kevin brown was not the worth the paperwork. so there are obvious blunders here that i feel not only hindered the team in the short term by setting up certain expectations of certain players and having them under-perform, but also in the long term. by locking up huge contracts to one or two star players instead of using the money more intelligently and getting more value for the dollar from 3 or 4 more efficient players. by trading away young players. although no prospects sent away in deals have become stars( brandon claussen, deangelo jimenez etc) some have produced nicely at the major league level and could have been used better (willy mo pena, christian guzman, marcus thames). have you noticed since the glory days until 2007 ish, when the philosophy changed, there hasnt been a solid consistent ever day player to come from within besides wang( cano should get there). not to say that the guys they let go made them regret the trades but its more to say that the yankees neglected their farm and that was a major error in which they are now paying for dearly. it felt like they just had a triple-a team so every time someone decent came thru they can turn him into javy vazquez.
this was the yankee way for years, and it was aggressively pursued by the owner. so in this vicious cycle of the yankee world, cashman and his advisors might have had an excuse. the blame can be past around all day like a burning dookie. the fact of the matter is they have evolved, they have appreciated their mistakes and failures and have come to a realization that a new philosophy is in order. ( all new york teams are like this, including the knicks mets rangers- knicks are finally catching up too) so they finally made a conscience effort to develop within and cut payroll. and with $88 million coming off the books after this season, the plan is slowly coming to fruition. the emphasis will now be on the young arms in the organization and keeping payroll under $150 mill, then $125, then eventually to under $100 all while staying competitive. this is obviously an ambitious objective, but it can be done. done are the ludicrous moves just to appease the blood-thirsty, spoiled new york fans. which brings me to the place where the blame should have been put on the entire time. the fans.
ever since the yankees started winning it sort of was expected, and it was hard to imagine the team not winning. as time wore on the fans did indeed get spoiled and all of a sudden wouldnt accept a sub .500 year for rebuilding purposes. like they forgot about the late 80s and early 90s.
so essentially the 96-00' run brainwashed the city into thinking it can easily happen every year. "yeah, why not? we have this guy and that guy". meanwhile in reality the few glory years the team experienced was an aberration and the dynasty a rare occurrence not seen since the early 70s A's and 60s yanks. winning a championship takes everything from chemistry to determination and even luck. so to think, or worse, to expect your team to win it, or even challenge, year in and year out is outrageous and only forced management into a state of appeasement which led to most of the bad moves. i always asked friends why teams like the knicks and yankees dont just go with what they have, why not bring up the kid from triple-a, or why not keep the draft pick instead of trading it for a 450 lb gorilla who has a heart problem? why not draft well or develop within? "lets see what happens" i would say, then i would get shot a look like i was a red sox fan. but it ate at me, if all these moves, if signing jerome james, were only hurting the team, why keep making the same mistake? then i realized that new york fans want everything, and want it fast. a cardinals fan for example would understand the term "rebuilding process". this term does not compute with new york fans. so now it came crashing down. it has come full circle. both teams have led the league in payroll for years and with nothing to show for it. they have both recently started re-evaluating decisions and recalibrating team-wide performance. but for years it was just expensive misery. so what was the point, new york?
jimmy sports
| MLB drafts, 1997-2005 (stats through Sept. 9) |
| POSITION PLAYERS | PITCHERS |
| Team | # of players | At-bats | Team | # of players | Innings pitched |
| Rockies | 24 | 24,186 | White Sox | 30 | 7,637 |
| Diamondbacks | 23 | 19,272 | Giants | 29 | 5,937.1 |
| Athletics | 22 | 16,434 | Athletics | 28 | 9,686 |
| Rays | 21 | 19,987 | Braves | 28 | 3,513 |
| Angels | 20 | 11,873 | Cubs | 25 | 6,460 |
| Tigers | 20 | 10,154 | Royals | 24 | 4,173.2 |
| Cardinals | 19 | 25,096 | Cardinals | 24 | 2,124.2 |
| Rangers | 19 | 19,330 | Nationals | 23 | 3,200.2 |
| Astros | 19 | 14,600 | Blue Jays | 22 | 4,287.2 |
| Royals | 19 | 10,560 | Padres | 22 | 3,471.1 |
| Cubs | 19 | 10,214 | Pirates | 21 | 4,904 |
| Giants | 19 | 4,455 | Diamondbacks | 21 | 4,439.1 |
| Pirates | 18 | 7,533 | Rockies | 20 | 4,003 |
| Blue Jays | 17 | 27,427 | Red Sox | 20 | 3,849.2 |
| Nationals | 16 | 13,410 | Twins | 20 | 3,009 |
| Mets | 16 | 11,469 | Yankees | 20 | 1,852.2 |
| Padres | 16 | 9,419 | Phillies | 19 | 5,152.2 |
| Dodgers | 16 | 8,610 | Rays | 19 | 4,744.2 |
| Red Sox | 15 | 16,296 | Orioles | 19 | 2,968 |
| Braves | 15 | 11,183 | Mets | 18 | 2,892 |
| Reds | 15 | 10,886 | Rangers | 18 | 2,850.2 |
| Brewers | 15 | 10,219 | Angels | 17 | 3,815 |
| White Sox | 15 | 8,335 | Brewers | 17 | 2,575.1 |
| Marlins | 15 | 6,845 | Marlins | 16 | 3,810.2 |
| Orioles | 14 | 13,502 | Astros | 16 | 3,000.1 |
| Phillies | 13 | 17,970 | Tigers | 15 | 3,609.1 |
| Twins | 13 | 10,776 | Mariners | 15 | 2,375 |
| Mariners | 13 | 3,268 | Indians | 14 | 4,049.1 |
| Indians | 11 | 7,009 | Reds | 14 | 1,906.1 |
Yankees
courtesy espn
| 10 | 886 | Dodgers | 14 | 1,867.1
|
