and it is understandable, but remember-while the Yankees outspend everyone, teams like the Angels outspend most. The Angels have nearly the same unfair advantage over the Rays that the Yankees have over the Angels. While it does not take a genius GM to luck into a year with an extremely high number of good type-A free agents and then sign the top 3 of them, it is probably what most fans would want their teams to do if they could. I think there is a way to fix this. By “fix” I mean avoid a salary cap. Salary cap’s just line owner’s pockets while inhibiting the innovation that comes with competing in the “open” market. Some ideas:
a)A floor on payroll that a team must have to accept luxury tax money. This would force cheepskate owners from pocketing the money without trying to put a good product on the field.
b)No protection for unsigned picks if your team’s payroll exceeds a certain limit. Thus, teams do not get extra picks in cases of players who don’t sign for reasons other than the gap between player demands and team ability.
c)Combined with (b) teams can only sign type -A FAs up to the number of #1 picks they can give in compensation. That number perhaps can span 3 or so years. So, if you want to sign CC, Tex and AJ, the Brewers, Angels and Jays get one Yankee #1 pick over the next 3 years, and the Yankees cannot sign any other type-As in that time frame.
d)A cap on spending for IFAs. It is not known by most fans that there is a huge disparity on what teams spend on international free agents, with absolutely no protection or balance for teams that can’t do so. The Angels are oone of the teams that takes most advantage of this, and have a lot if good IFAs. The Yankees too. Poor teams cannot do this. Cap IFA spending.

These things would make the game much more interesting. Unlike a salary cap, it would promote and not inhibit innovation, because teams would really have to plan where and how to spend. Even though high payroll teams could still outspend small market teams, they would be taking a bigger risk each time they do. I think this would really help the game, and I say this as a fan of a team with a high payroll.

interestingly, the Yankees dynasty of 1996-2000 was not built with nearly the payroll gap that the team has now. The Yankees were a high payroll team then, but not always the top, and when they were on top it was not by much. Now they gap over the Mets (number 2 in payroll) is 38 percent of the entire Mets payroll and about equal to the Payroll of the Rays and Marlins. It indeed shows that you cannot just spend your way to repeated success.

And yes, they Yankees have key players that are old. One of the interesting things about the Yankee success this year is that aside from one injury (Wang) essentially everything broke right. By that, I mean that Swisher and Cano had near career years (in the case of Cano it is probably what should be expected), while the older players (with the exception of Arod who still had a very strong year and was coming off of surgery in March) way overperformed expectations. Pettitte, Matsui, Damon and Jeter all looked to be either breaking down or rapidly declining at the end of 08. Rivera, Posada, and Matsui were all coming of surgery. Posada is the weirdest case-a 38 year old catcher coming off of serious shoulder surgery. I doubt there has ever been, in the history of baseball, a full time catcher whose best offensive numbers occured from 34-38. It will be interesting to see how long all of that continues.

Went to old Yankee Stadium many times when I actually lived there. Florida weather has been nice and warm and I have yet to see the new stadium, and no desire to do so. As for seeing the Yanks, love when they come to Tampa and Miami, Yanks fans vastly out number the home team. Plus, I can get free Marlins’ tickets from the company I work for!

I worship my Wal-Mart Yanks on the cheap!

My definition of a tool, one that keeps talking out his @$$!

TOOL!

but either way, it is wrong to cry about the Yankees if you are an Angels fan. The Angels are an excellent team that has an excellent developmental system. But the fact is that the Angels are a high payroll team, and a team that has a lot of non-home-grown talent. They also have a lot of IFAs (more than any team I know) which in part is due to them wisely taking advantage of their natural advantages in that market. The Red Sox had basically the same payroll as the Angels this year, and probably have higher impact recent home grown talent (Ellsbury, Pedroia, Youkilis, Lester, Papelbon, Bard, Buchholz, Lowrie) but as a Sox fan can’t complain about the Yankees, nor do I think my team is so awesomely home-grown.The Sox wanted Teixeira and lost out to the Yankees. I hate Sox fans that gripe about that-if the Sox got Teixeira it would have been by a payroll advantage that the team has over others. The Angels wanted CC and Teix too (and by the way rented Teix last year). I am sure no one here would be complaining if those 2 had just helped the Angels to the WS.

but once again all a cap will accomplish is taking money out of the player’s hands and giving it right back to the owners. But I guess that’s one of those ethical debates that really has no right answer. In my mind part of what makes baseball great is the narrative. The Yankees as the Evil Empire is a huge part of that. When teams like the Twins, Marlins, Rays, and OK, even the A’s can overcome their smaller payrolls to beat those large market teams, its exciting. Salary caps have really done nothing to help parity in the other sports. Its still the best-run organizations that are the most successful.