if i’m right, playoffs here we come !!!

i bet this kind of talk is rampant on yankee chatrooms.

the 2010 giants show that you don’t need a good lineup, either. but if one area is weak, you have to compensate with something.

if i had to guess why they were able to do it, i’d say because they had a real manager, and a real pitching staff. but that’s just me.

because they don’t do more than a arbtrary glance at the record and didn’t bother to look at WHY they had that record.

The team has been awful because it hasn’t been on the field and in the trainers room!

We did not start our entire starting roster even ONCE last year.

Our starting roster consists of:
Reyes (out early)
Beltran (Out first half)
Wright (only uninjured major starter!)
Bay (Out second half of season)

Those 4 guys never made it into a single game together!

If Beltran is truly healthy,
If Reyes is too
If Bay is as well and hits to average
If Wright cuts down on the Ks
If Davis hits
If Thole hits too
If Pagan continues his performance
If 2B manages more than mendoza line
If Pelfrey doesn’t crumble under the Ace pressure
If Neise stays consistent
If Dickey repeats
If Mejia learns how to be a starter

There is no reaon why this team can’t win it all….

IF!

Thats why people are so down on the team because of all those Ifs.

Sandy is looking at all those IFs as well and decided to let it play while he gets the franchise in order.
If those Ifs don’t pan out then he will start making those trades to get as much as he can and let walk some who are not tradeable.

And then everyone will see what a truly BAD team looks like even when it is all healthy and on the field!
The rebuild will begin!

One way to view it is he didn’t spend enough in any one year except maybe his first. He pretty much bought himself into competition that first year but did not have enough pitching! He then added batting (Delgado) but never went and got that HOT ARM to complement his Ace. He relied on Aces who had injury issues and those issues bit him in the ass. What was the common problem with both Pedro and Johan? Getting on the field healthy!

Phillies were in a similar position, making the playoffs and not winning a WS until they realized this and went after a guy like Lee! Then with two top starters they managed to win! They have four now I think the simple law of averages will turn one or two of those 4 into Mortals!

The other side of the coin is Omar spent too much and didn’t rebuild first. And it is very valid since the only core we had was two players or three if you include Pelfrey. That is really not enough you need to have at least 3 or 4 everyday starters in your core. One or two pitchers on top of that!

Omar didn’t have that so tried to buy himself some time. And it wasn’t enough.
You can’t really say he did not develop the farm though. Davis, Thole, Neise, Gee, and Mejia when added to Reyes and Wright has the potential to be the next great CORE if Neise takes the next step and Gee and Mejia can learn to be consistent ML Pitchers.

He just ran out of time because of two injury plagued years that resulted in disaster and a desire to let some of those purchases expire to make room for the young core to replace them.

Omar believed in those kids but many here do not. I believe they could be good with proper coaching and opportunity but time will tell.

Bottomline is that you could not afford to buy a team without that young core of players to keep the rest of payroll down. And just because a guy is going to get a contract worth 200 Mil doesn’t mean he is going to make you a winner or that he is really even worth that amount!

And even when the players available ARE worth the money, There will never be enough to change the fortunes of a team that can’t compete already on it’s own.

There was only one major ace available in FA this year. I don’t think there were any really Big Bats available either, some good hitters but Werth is no where near the league of an A-Rod yet he got paid like he was!

You want to buy All Stars you can do it without hurting the Farm but it will cost money. The REALLY good guys though require a trade. Lee and Halliday were both TRADED for. But you can’t go doing that until you already developed and promoted the core you need for that to work!

You spend money to MAINTAIN a winning team but it does not work to change a losing team into a winner!

that was actually omar’s strategy from 2007-2010, but it didn’t pan out for him. i guess he spent on the wrong guys.

i know there are plenty of examples of low budget winners out there, but i’m pretty sure that the top 5 spenders are more likely to make the playoffs than the rest of the league.

Before that they built a core of homegrown talent that included 7 players that came up in their system.

It has really only been the last two years where they went out and signed big money players. The rest of their Salary is money spent on keeping guys like Howard, Rollins and the rest of those Home Grown players!

The Yankee spending ways had failed until Steinbrenner got suspended and Gene Michaels was allowed to rebuild the farm system that Steinbrenner had given away like candy to get the Free Agent All Stars he wanted.
Once he got suspended they managed to build a similar young CORE of players that included Jeter, Posada, Pettite. Williams and Rivera. It wasn’t until those guys came up that the free spending ways started working for them again!
Most of their Salary now is tied up in keeping that core (Both Jeter and Rivera were FA this year) In the last few years the Yankees have not bought a team so much as bought a pitching staff. And if you look at that staff as it was listed by Berb you see that Buying a pitching staff isn’t as effective as you might think. I also think the Phillies are going to find this out real soon as well!

Boston also rebuilt the Minors before they started spending. And while their salary is high it also is a product of keeping the guys they developed. They make a big move now and then but you can hardly call what Boston did as Checkbook GMing!

People need to get over the coincidence of Salary and performance. How much you spend does not translate to wins!
How much you WIN though does translate into how much you have to spend to keep that winning team together!

Every year some portion of your roster is going to be a free agent. If you are a winning team then other teams will try to take those players from you by offerring big money. If you want to keep that player you will have to pay him more than you wanted. Your Salary goes up and other players on the team will also want more of the profits that WINNING has brought in!

You need to look no further than the Met years with Bonilla to see that just because you paid for everyone else’s stars doesn’t mean your going to win something!

All the big spenders and winners all built from within before their current successful run!
And as a result they paid more to keep and aquire new players to stay there.

You spend money to MAINTAIN a winning team but it does not work to change a losing team into a winner!

You need that young and productive CORE to build around and we do not appear to have that unless Beltran Reyes, Wright Davis and Pelfrey can play to championship level. And neither has shown they can yet!

I keep hoping this is the year but it may be a year too late. Even if they have a good season Reyes and Beltran will probably be trade bait unless they come out of the gate running and leading the division!

But I never clicked with Dream Theater’s writing that’s why i didn’t really get into them too much.

The Cult of Personality by Living Colour – the solo is KILLER and reeks of intensity and attitude – quite possibly my favorite ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xxgRUyzgs0

Also Billy Squier’s Lonely is the Night is KICK A$$ to the ultimate! Rock at it’s funkiest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKlu3A3BBgE

Neither are mentioned and both are better than most on that list