Congratulations to the New York Yankees who won their 27th World Series Championship earlier tonight by beating the Philadelphia Phillies in six games.It seems only appropriate they won as greed and excess seem to be a popular theme right now in many areas.
What other team in Major League Baseball best personifies this as much as the Bronx Bombers?
With a payroll of over $200 million dollars this season, the Yankees did what many other teams in the league couldn't do...buy a title.
To try and put this into perspective, the top three payed players on the Yankees combined made more than the entire Florida Marlins team this season. The Marlins payroll at the start of the season was just under $37-million. Heck, my Blue Jays were only around $80-million. How could they possibly compete? Sure, money doesn't guarantee a championship but it greatly improves the odds of winning.
It might sound like I'm bashing the Yankees and I admit, I'm not a fan but that isn't my point. They didn't break any league rules and that is what bothers me even more.
The fact that rules don't exist to even the playing field and make the league more competitive is a travesty. Of course a player making $33-million is another disgusting problem with the league.
Teams in smaller markets will never be able to compete because they won't have the financial resources available to lure top veteran players looking for high dollar contracts. And with free agency, the Yankees can out-bid pretty much any other team to get the players they want. It's like poker. One player has a large chip count and he can bully other players out of the pot by betting high and scaring them off. The 2009 Yankees are sipping champagne as World Champions primarily because the team spent over $420 million to sign baseball’s top three available free agents in Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett last winter.
Then add in the fact they spent nearly $300 million to secure Alex Rodriguez following the 2007 season as well as more big contracts for superstars including Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera.
Until Major League Baseball does something to control this kind of spending, the Yanks will always have an advantage.
I agree Bundy. Being a Phillies fan, that very point is driven home every time I saw another free agent signing coming up to bat. Their top 10 players are signed for $1 billion. I don't blame the Yankees though, until the league puts a salary cap like the NBA, nothing will change. The Phillies aren't exactly penny pinching either at $110 million per, but I agree, change is needed.
ReplyDeleteIt's Ken (the bitter Sox fan) from the Bistro...
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to add another fun fact: Out of the 74 free agents from the 2008-2009 MLB season, Yankees spent a total of $441M on FOUR players while the rest of the league spent $500M on the remaining 70 players!!!
I don't think we'll ever see a cap in MLB as long as there are teams like the Cubs and Mets (#2 and #3 in the league with payroll of $150M and $135M respectively) failing to make the playoffs. Hate to say it, but with that kind of money and a weaker division (relatively speaking when compared to the AL East), that's just inexcusable!