2009 MLB Season Thread

[corporatejay]

They haven't won a championship in nearly ten years. Pretty impressive as all the playoff teams were pretty good and most had big payrolls.

[Hack&Lube]

Wow Hideki Matsui. His first game ever in Yankee Stadium he hits a Grand Slam. Quite possibly his last game as a Yankee, he becomes the first Japanese born MVP world champion and has 6 RBI in game 6. Aging Japanese player with .615 batting average with three home runs and eight RBIs in one series for MVP!!!

[flip]

Wow, what an accomplishment. They spent more than $1,000,000,000 in the last 10 years on payroll and all they got was one lousy World Series.

[moon]

Originally Posted by flip

Wow, what an accomplishment. They spent more than $1,000,000,000 in the last 10 years on payroll and all they got was one lousy World Series.

Seems like a better investment than all the teams that spent about half that and didn't even get a sniff of the play-offs.

Plus I forgot how much money they had to pay to bring in guys like Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Petite, Chamberlain, Hughes, Cano, Cabrera.

They may spend a lot of money but they also do a better job of scouting than most teams as well.

Congrats to them and their fans they deserve the championship.

[NBC]

Originally Posted by moon

They may spend a lot of money but they also do a better job of scouting than most teams as well.

Scouting? Seriously? How hard is it to have a look at the morning papers and see who the individual statistical leaders are?

[metallicat]

Every guy moon mentioned has come up through the ranks in the organization. They do a fine job of developing and retaining the necessary talent to win.

[bluejays]

Check out Gay-Rod.

[moon]

Originally Posted by NBC

Scouting? Seriously? How hard is it to have a look at the morning papers and see who the individual statistical leaders are?

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.

[flames_1987]

I'm still pissed at how quickly MLB folded to keep the 2004 season going without a lockout, fixing nothing with there new CBA and still having the most disparity between teams in any major north american sport. I'm not going to hate on the Yankees at all because there not doing anything wrong by just playing in the system.

I just love following baseball moves, drafts and development more then any other sport. I'd love to see the true baseball minds have to shine if they were all on an equal playing field. There's no doubt Cashman at times has got some absolute steals from the draft but it doesn't hurt being able to add the insane amount of money he did this offseason.

[flambers]

Originally Posted by moon

They may spend a lot of money but they also do a better job of scouting than most teams as well.

Congrats to them and their fans they deserve the championship.

They are one of the few teams that can afford the Boras cleints....

Without the high priced free agents this team is very...very average.

[Pastiche]

Good win for the Yanks. I was pulling for them.

Loved the call on the Matsui homer:

"Its hit high. Its high hard. It... is... outta here!

A Thrilla from Godzilla! The Sayounara Kid has struck again!"

[valo403]

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.

You want to point me towards another team that can afford to sign the 3 biggest free agents of the off-season?

Scouting my ass. There's a core of a bunch of slightly above average players and a couple aging stars that came up through the yankee system. The actual difference makers on that team were bought.

[Pagal4321]

Texeiara, A-Roid, Damon, Matsui, Sabathia, Burnett are all members of that core too, none of them were scouted by the Yankees.

Sure it's a good mix, but signing the top 3 FA this past offseason put them over the edge. Take out one of Sabathia, Burnett and Texeiara and there's no way the Yankees are where they are today.

[mykalberta]

Good for the Phillies - the Yankees outspend them by 100 mil and have 5 players on the roster that are paid more than the Phillies top payed player.

MLB is such a joke.

[moon]

Originally Posted by valo403

You want to point me towards another team that can afford to sign the 3 biggest free agents of the off-season?

Mets, Red Sox, Cubs maybe Tigers and Angels as well if they wanted to.

Scouting my ass. There's a core of a bunch of slightly above average players and a couple aging stars that came up through the yankee system. The actual difference makers on that team were bought.

Jeter will finish in the top 5 in MVP voting this year, maybe even top 3 and consistently got on base all play-offs long. Riviera is talked about as a viable Cy Young candidate and was a monster in the play-offs. Petite won more games than CC in the World Series and shut the Phillies down last night. Posada is still one of the top hitting catchers in the league.

If that is slightly better than average then there better be a lot of teams out there looking for slightly better than average guys.

Originally Posted by Pagal4321

Texeiara, A-Roid, Damon, Matsui, Sabathia, Burnett are all members of that core too, none of them were scouted by the Yankees.

Sure it's a good mix, but signing the top 3 FA this past offseason put them over the edge. Take out one of Sabathia, Burnett and Texeiara and there's no way the Yankees are where they are today.

Take FA's off of any team and there is no way there are where they are today.

I would like to see the Phillies without Lee, Martinez, Werth, Ibanez etc.

Originally Posted by mykalberta

Good for the Phillies - the Yankees outspend them by 100 mil and have 5 players on the roster that are paid more than the Phillies top payed player.

MLB is such a joke.

Where are you getting your numbers, because they are wrong.

I guess though everyone should feel sorry for the Phillies spending the 7th most money and not once having to make a roster decision based on how much they could or couldn't spend.

[NBC]

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.

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.

[rubecube]

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.

It also helps when you can throw a bunch of cash at your developed players when they're about to hit the free agent market themselves. How many times have we seen small-market teams like Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, etc. have to trade away their star players because they can't afford to re-sign them. The Yanks have never had to do that.

[moon]

Originally Posted by NBC

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.

That is the case with every contending team in the majors leagues not named Minnesota or Florida.

I never said that they built their team up from the grassroots, just that they have good scouting to go along with the money they give out.

The Red Sox can spend just as much as the Yankees if they wanted. Now when they lost Manny and Ortiz dropped off you see that they struggled because instead of having Youkilis and Pedroira coming up through their system they had Nick Green and Jacoby Ellsbury instead.

As much money as these teams spend scouting still is important to their success.

[moon]

Originally Posted by rubecube

It also helps when you can throw a bunch of cash at your developed players when they're about to hit the free agent market themselves. How many times have we seen small-market teams like Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, etc. have to trade away their star players because they can't afford to re-sign them. The Yanks have never had to do that.

I agree but to me the Yankees really aren't competing against teams like Pittsburgh, KC etc. They certainly have an advantage over those teams but so do most teams in the league.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by moon

As much money as these teams spend scouting still is important to their success.

Yankees 2009 payroll (10 biggest contracts):

Alex Rodriguez - $33,000,000
Derek Jeter - $21,600,000
Mark Texeira - $20,625,000
AJ Burnett - $16,500,00
CC Sabathia - $15,285,714
Mariano Rivera - $15,000,000
Jorge Posada - $13,100,000
Hideki Matsui - $13,000,000
Johnny Damon - $13,000,000
Xavier Nady - $6,550,000

You're right, huge commitment to homegrown players - a whopping 30%.