4 days until pitchers and catchers report. I am so looking forward to baseball this year, in part, I think because of the addition of XMRadio to the barn. Baseball 24/7. So I'm even more psyched than last year. We MUST win again. The 2004 Red Sox are gone. No more reveling in JD's homers against the Yankees. He's one of them now.
By all accounts, Johnny Damon is a good guy. He is spoken of highly by everyone who broadcasts on XM. He was always available to the media in Boston, though he did manage to say a number of things that annoyed me. The latest was that the RS "disrespected" him by offering him only 10 million a year. But none of that matters now. He's a Yankee. He is the enemy. A traitor, even.
By all accounts ARod is a good guy, also. Fine. He's still the enemy.
At the end of this year, when there isn't a dime's worth of difference in the stats of JD and Coco Crisp, the Red Sox will look brilliant at $3 million a year and the Yankees will look foolish at $12 million a year. Of course, the Yankees have to have the best of everything, regardless of cost.
I can't wait to watch Papelbon, Dinardo, Delcarmen, Youkilis, Hansen, Pedroia, etc. I'll never forget Youk's first homer. He trotted into the dugout and the entire team ignored him. How cool it must have been to be Youk at that moment.
Play Ball!
19 comments:
Here we go. A measly $3M for BoSox, an astounding $12M for the Yanks. Attached are the stats. Note in 2001 the payrolls were almost identical. I don't know why the Sox decided to stop spending--the income is up, attendance is up.
http://www.businessofbaseball.com/data/TEAMSAL.xls
PS: How do I add a link?
TESTING -- if the HTML works, this should be a link to the Clippingers' blog.
Isn't Edgar Renteria's walkaway money going to take up all those "brilliant" Johnny Damon savings?
Argh. There is HTML code that will do this, but if I put it into a comment in code form, Blogger displays it as a link, and if I try to break it up, Blogger tells me my HTML is broken and it won't accept my comment. So, instead, here's a link to a page in Blogger Help that has the HTML for links right at the top, in green text. Put your URL in the quotation marks and replace the word TEXT with the word you want to highlight as your link.
It's easier to do this when you are writing a blog post. In that case, there's a button along the top of the post-editing box that looks like a little worm with glasses on. Highlight the text you want to make into the link, click the Worm With Spectacles button, and type your URL into the dialogue box that pops up.
Why I am explaining this to a Yankees fan, I don't know!
Scott, I think the RS spent wisely in this instance. I don't believe they have stopped spending.
I'm skeptical of those 2001 figures as they don't track very smoothly with adjacent years. I suspect a typo in one or the other.
James, certainly would take up some of it, but is a small part over four years. Renteria was a poor choice. Still, in the instance of centerfielder/lead-off hitter, I'll take the guy with youth and upside potential at 25% of the guy who is proven but peaked.
Tom, I agree with you, but I think there's a significant risk that Crisp will be a bust in Boston. Of course, I thought the same when the Sox signed Damon, so what do I know?
$13M a year for Damon by the way, not 12. Yeah Dad it's really interesting to look at one Yankee's player and how much money he makes and then see how many decent Red Sox you can fit into that. A-Rod makes 26 million doesn't he? For that much money, the Red sox get Crisp, Gonzalez, Beckett, Arroyo, Tavarez, Riske, Graffanino, Snow, Flaherty, Youkilis, and Rudy Seanez. That's 11 players expected to make significant contributions to the team next year. Three starting position players, a starting pitcher, four pitchers who should be pretty important in the bullpen, and three backups who will probably play quite often. And then of course there are the guys like Papelbon and Dinardo who will be getting paid peanuts.
Luke, you forget that the Rangers are paying roughly $9.5M/season of A-Rod's $26M salary. That Tom Hicks is one smart cookie.
Well, no. $13M for Damon is a little shy of the mark. When you factor in the luxury tax the Yankees will be paying due to their bloated payroll ($70M more than the Sox), Damon's first year will cost them nearly $18M. And let's not forget, they'll be paying him $13M three years from now, and there's no reason to think he's going to age gracefully. Just another declining All-Star for G.S. to overspend on.
The 11M spent on Rent's trade is money that won't be spent on the shortstop position this season. The net equation:
(11M)-(10M due to ER in 2006)-(~12M we would have paid for JD)+(3M due to AGon)+(3M for Coco) = Sox save 5M , get younger in CF, gain defensive ability, and lose some offense. I'll take it.
The one thing I can't figure out is why the Yankees have done nothing substantial to improve their pitching this offseason. Do they expect RJ to be better? Wright and Pavano to be healthy? Small and Chacon to continue to perform well above their means? 'Cause chances are, none of those things are going to happen. I just don't get it.
Can't wait for the season!
Oh, in reference to the Sox not spending their money. A big part of it is maintaining payroll flexibility. The money is there, and if we need a SS, a 3B, or a CF (god forbid) at the trading deadline, we'll be able to throw cash around and/or take the contracts of the Miguel Tejadas, Troy Glausses, and Carlos Beltrans. The Yankees can too, I suppose, but only due to their embarrassingly large bankroll, not their wise spending.
Tom - I agree that the 2001 figure seemed somewhat skewed, but I confirmed it with other sources. Something must have happened in 2001.
Scott, a 3 or 5 year rolling average may be more appropriate here.
Judi, I don't think I said it's all about money. I did say that I thought the Boston money was more wisely spent than the New York money in this particular instance. But as James wisely points out, it's a bit of a crap shoot. Which is why they play the games.
Good luck with that coach. Nothing worse than a smokin', cursin' female, ya ask me. Not that anybody would. But if they did, that's what I'd tell 'em.
Caleb, I was listening to Kennedy and Dibble on XM and they felt that the pickups of Farnsworth and Dotel were going to give the Yankees superior strength in the bullpen.
James, What do I know, too. I think that's the fun of it.
Their bullpen will probably be better, but it depends on Dotel coming back successfully from major surgery, and Farnsworth is no sure thing.
As you say, this is why they play the games.
Caleb Renteria is due 24 million over the next 3 years, how much of it are we paying? 11 over the next 3 years right? I'm just checking, beacuse of that is the case then really next year we're only paying him 3.67 million or so, which means with your net equation next year we save a little over 12 million, not 5. Also I didn't know about the 9.5 million that the Rangers were paying Slappy McBluelips, I was just going by the numbers on www.baseball-reference.com. Either way, Jeter gets paid 19.6 million, Mussina is aging and getting paid 19 million. Even A-Rod still gets 16.5 mil. and RJ gets 16 mil. I mean, sure, Manny is getting 22 million, but that's basically it and his contract was signed by Dan Duquette at a time when the market was bloating some contracts like that. Not to mention that he's the only one with a contract like that on the Red Sox. Schilling gets 14.5. The next two highest paid players from last year are now gone(Damon and Renteria), leaving Varitek the next highest at 8 million. It really boggles my mind. I mean, the Yankees must be smart right? They couldn't have gotten where they are today without being smart. But then how do the Sox get the same caliber players at a fraction of the cost? Sometimes you can argue that by signing big name players, you're attracting more people to the ballpark, but not in this case. If the Yankees or Red Sox signed a chimpanzee to play for their team they'd still get a ton of fans and high ratings.
Mussina is the same age Schilling was when the Sox committed $52M to him over four years. (I think I'm adding the numbers up right, although the adjustments in his contract from the WS win are a little opaque.)
I think a lot of the Yankees vs. Sox salary differential comes down to timing and luck. The Yanks last year had A-Rod, Giambi, Jeter, Kevin Brown (shiver), and Mussina, all of whom signed long-term pretty much at the very top of the market. The Sox have Manny, didn't lock up Nomar (whew!), lucked into Ortiz, and paid lots to Pedro and Schilling on shorter-term deals. If salaries kept going up, which seemed likely before the '02 labor deal, I think the Sox would be in a tougher spot right now, but it's worked out rather well for them.
I don't know what we're yelling about.
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