Don’t forget to include Ross Mosschitto and Roger Repoz……

KEEP YOUR PLAYERS HEALTHY!

Nothing more and nothing less!

They got in trouble late in the season because they lost thier Ace and clean up hitter. Thier cleanup hitter never really got his swing back in time for the playoffs hence he got benched.

Then they lost thier captain which took all the wind out of thier sails!

Cashman shouldn’t over react to that and while it was always a goal to reduce payroll the reason was to be able to do what they have always done pay top dollar for the most recently top performing team carrier without going too far past the Luxury tax.

The guys who had at one time been cheap enough to let them do that are no longer cheap because they too are superstars.

The cap is set at $179M starting in 2014. Each teams contribution to the players health/benefit plan is listed at almost $11M for 2013 (and likely to go up in 2014 since those plans tend not to decrease), effectively putting the cap at $168M. If you are saying the Yankees pay half of ARod and half of Texiera (ARod $13.5M cap hit and Tex $11M), that means they suddenly are at $144M not counting that CC and Cano (on an extension) are going to scoop up between $45M-$50M of that. So the Yankees will have to fill our 38 postions on the 40 man for around $100M.

While this is still very doable, it is not the free spending like the Yankees are accustomed.

I’m guilty of it myself when it came to seeing the Yankee’s implode.

Yankee success doesn’t bother me so much because I don’t follow the AL except in passing. However I cannot tolerate their arrogant, entitled fans (especially the younger ones) who need a return to those losing early 70′s Horace Clark, Mike Kekich – Fritz Peterson wife swapping circus days to give them a solid dose of reality.

Is it wise from a pure baseball team first perspective. Of course not.

.

Tex
CC
A-Rod

thats it…

Trade A-Rod, pay half his salary…get some prospects…

Now u got Tex and CC left…

Tex is still performing at a decent level

is only 32…has 4 years left…after 2 more years, he is 34 on a 2 year 45 mil deal…if the yanks eat half of that…he is a 34 year year old on a 2 year 22.5 deal…and if he is still productive, he can be traded off for prospects…

that leaves them with CC as their one and only true dead weight ( no pun intended )

now in terms of actual TALENT…thats another matter altogether….

if they are smart, they are going to probably punt on Cano…move David Adams into his spot…use the prospects acquired to get a SS to replace Jeter….who they can then resign at a lower rate to be a DH….

3B they should trade A-Rod, eat the cash…and again…the prospects used will either play on the MLB team or be used to plug up current positions of need…

Gardner sorta has LF on lock…

Granderson is on his way out…( they should’ve kept Austin )

Swisher has one foot out the door…but he is easily replaceable by Mr. Angel Pagan…aka the OF Met fans love to hate

They have a top OF prospect in Mason Williams who some say is another top stud…

The fact that the Yankees have an aggressive cashflow model enables them to take chances
The fact that the Mets dont have cash flow and like to base their moves on polls and popularity ratings handicaps them from making bold moves

the yanks signed pavano to one of the most disasterous contracts in team history…

4 years, 44 mil…and only got 17 starts…missed time for everything on his body including a pair of strained buttocks…

pavano goes to Minny…does well…and guess who offers him a contract….

THE YANKEES !!!

Pavano actually TURNED THEM DOWN !!!

The equivalent of this would be Omar offering Ollie Perez another market value contract in 2012 after he had a good season somewhere else

Met fans would go APE-SH*T..

Yankee fans…ZZzzzz
not so much…

at the end of the day…they dont care about the name on the back of the jersey ( unless its jeter )…

its about if that player is going to help them win a RING or not…

We are in the post-steroid era and I think some are a bit slow to realize that. Building a baseball team reverted to the way it was in the late 70s and early 80s. Free agents are a part of the picture but not all of it.

The biggest lesson from the Yankees is how long term contracts for aging free agents is the kiss of death. So few ever work out (Jeter was perhaps the only one of 8 years or more that went well). Players are somewhere around 30 when they first hit free agency. In the steroid days, no problem since people were still at a high level at 35 or 36 (or 40). Now, declines start at 32 and 33. That is a problem is a player has 3-4 years left on a large contract.

Another lesson is the value of the minor leagues. Teams need to develop talent not only to fill their own roster but also for trade pieces. Trading is becoming an important tool in baseball again. Much of the Tiger team was built via trades. We see the Braves, Cardinals, and Giants remain competitive while replacing their aging talent with homegrown prospects.

I am one who believes the Yankees are behind the 8 ball. A great deal of their money is tied up in aging players who performance is going to fall off over the next few years. Their minor league talent is only arriving at A ball with very little help in the upper levels. As you pointed out, Harvey, Wheeler, and even Flores are three “cornerstone” type pieces. I dont see that with the Yankees. In addition, unlike the Yankees, the Mets get a lot of payroll relief in 12 months. Payroll flexibility is crucial as the Cardinals showed.

this way when the playoffs come…they are not bounced by a team that has a half-decent pitching staff

they are used to manufacturing runs

When a Yankee failure is means so little as far as satisfaction is concerned, we know how bad things have become for us.

The saving grace is that for Yankee fans, having made the post season ten of the last eleven years only to be eliminated in eight of them, being a division or wild card champion by this time must feel completely meaningless and unsatisfying. So in some strange way, that probably makes 2012 more bearable for us than for them.

We can at least laugh about this year which we couldn’t between 2006 and 2008. Can you imagine the empty feeling we would have if those things continued happening virtually year after year after year? We’d be going crazy!

“It’s signing the right players to augment your team, when you’ve developed it enough from within. ”

That is the rule both New York teams have forgotten. For the pinstripes it is buying those marquee players year after year which is fine for the regular season when they can play as individuals but when post-season comes, they need to be disciplined as a unit, not a team that could simply out-tee ball it’s opponent.

For the Mets, it’s not getting rid of the stars but to build around them. One doesn’t need to to un-build in order to re-build. Unfortunately, what Sandy Alderson has done to prevent ownership from losing the team now gives us no other choice – there is little to un-build with any more.

Enjoyed the article.

Rivera and Pettitte are not “free agents.” They’re Yankees. They play for the Yankees, or they retire. Pettitte is up in the air, and Rivera will come back. I think the Yankees would be smart to hold onto A-Rod and let him play a healthy year in 2013. I still think he has some left in the tank. He can certainly still run and play defense. His trade value now is at it’s absolute lowest. “Dumping” him would be reactionary and do nothing but leave a hole at third base. Eduardo Nuñez sucks terribly.

I think the Yankees are in fine shape. Kuroda is the biggest issue they have. They need to re-sign him. Then another middle reliever or two, which is a crap shoot, anyway, and they’re off to another 95 wins.