Quote:
Originally Posted by moon
Yes scouting.
That is why it has been so long since they have won, they dropped off in their scouting ability.
When they won in the late 90's they had a great core of guys that they brought up through the organization and now, as shown in my post, they still have the core of their team that came up through their system.
Sure they add the big names but so do a lot of teams. Having solid players that you develop makes a big difference.
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You make it sound like the Yankees build their teams starting at the grassroots level as opposed to buying their teams via the Free Agent market. When you look at the make-up of their current squad as well as previous permutations, it is blindingly obvious that they rely primarily on big money contracts handed out to the previous season's top performers.
The reason they haven't won much in the past decade has sweet FA to do with scouting as you say and more to do with handing out huge contracts to players not even remotely worth the money, and having said players drastically under-perform. They essentially spend their way out of problems - they have for years. This go-round they were fortunate that their big money guys actually came through, unlike Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano and the Big Unit before them.
As for having a great core of home-grown talent that helped them to titles in the 90s - outside of Jeter, Williams, Riveria, Pettite and Posada, EVERYTHING else was store-bought. Knoblauch, O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Wade Boggs, Clemens, Strawberry, Cone, Boomer Wells, Boone, Brosius, Soriano, Girardi, Mike Stanton, Mariano Duncan, Tim Raines, Ruben Sierra, Doc Gooden, Wetteland, Cecil Fielder, Jimmy Key and the list goes on.
As always in Yankee-land money wins the day.