Johnny Damon is a Yankee

[BCoop]

There may be only three teams with over 100 million dollar payrolls, but there are certainly more than a few that could afford to pay for them. It's hard to slight an owner that is willing to put in an extra $50-$100 million of his own profits back into his team. I would be willing to bet that if the Tigers were to make one or two playoff pushes, their sales could easily put them over the top int terms of salary. It happened with Cleveland this year; their team had stagnated over the past few years and ticket sales flew down. They had a payroll at almost 100 mil. in the late 90's and early 2000's, but had to sell off big names such as Jim Thome and Bartolo Colon. This year, however, this team of practically "nobodies" almost knocked out the White Sox for a playoff spot, and their ticket sales went way up again. They could definitely go out and buy some talent now, but their GM and President have certain philosophy that is unique to their team and rely mostly on farm talent, and wants to keep their payroll below $40 million.

Some aspects are out of the league's control as well. The Marlins are having their second fire sale because they cannot sell enough tickets. They have a great farm system and can build great teams, but being stuck in such an undesirable stadium has stymied their chances for a big time payroll. Location is a problem as well. Honestly, what were the Devil Rays thinking when they decidd to locate in Tampa? Wouldn't Dallas, or Phoenix, or (pre-katrina) New Orleans have been much better locations? You can't choose a town with less than 300,000 people in a county of less than 2.5 million and expect them to fill up your stadium 81 times a year, unless you're paying them to watch the Rays.

To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of moneyball either. Its nice to have lots of big names, but the players that came up in the farm system; Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and now, Robinson Cano, are always special, and always have a special place in NY. Alfonso Soriano would be on that list but he couldn't play postseason baseball and was a pain in the ass to coach, so he was traded. I would have loved for the Yankees to get Joey Gallaway from the Rays, he is an insane CF, a decent hitter, and probably the fastest guy in the MLB.

THe problem is this; although Brian Cashman wanted to lower the payroll for this season (and he did, by dumping Womack and not resigning a slew of free agents), Georgie and the NY fans look at the Yankees and expect a championship every year. It's going to take big time problems (such as the ones that Boston is going through now) in order to get the Yanks to revamp their system and run it like a normal baseball team. The other problem is that the Yankees farm talent can turn out to be so damn good sometimes. Last year, Bernie, Mo, and Jeter made about 45 mil. alone.

[roadrunner]

I wonder what how Yankee fans would feel if another team offered Jeter so much money he could not refuse. So it's hard for a Yankee fan to understand what it feels like to repeatedly have the player that is the face of the team rip from it. I actually applaud smaller markets who don't make the insane contracts as 9 times out of 10 it will hurt them more in the long run. Having one team spend 1.7 times more than the next team and 5.6 times more than the last place team is just wrong no matter what the argument. Yes it is their money and they can spend it but it is bad for the game and if this trend continues will cause a lot of damage to MLB. NY is the only team that can afford to pay Bernie 1.5 million (with incentives for another 1.5 million) to be a role player.

[BCoop]

About Johnny, I'm really disappointed that we got him now. I don't know what happened in Boston, but the team of "idiots" is gone. Damon was quoted as saying

"We know George Steinbrenner's reputation. He always wants to have the best players, and I think he showed that tonight."

"A good leadoff man is tough to find, and I think that New York just found the best leadoff hitter in the game."

"Hopefully now they (the Red Sox)can go off and get one of the center fielders they've been courting for the past month or so."

What kind of ego trip is this guy on now?