Yankees - Free Agency Evil?

JD Sal

I'm a die-hard Phillies fan, but in the spirit of fairness, I thought I'd share an interesting analysis that my co-worker did on free agency and the Yankees. Congrats to the Yanks. Phils will definitely be back in '10!

There has been a lot of talk down here and all over the Web about how the Yankees are nothing but a bunch of high-priced free agents, NY always buys their championships, moan, moan, moan. The following stats may surprise you.

If baseball purists insist that a team should only be built from a farm system and not free agency, than you have at least as much problem with the Phillies as with the Yankees. 8 of the Yankees' playoff roster players were obtained through free agency, but 12 of the Phillies were free agents. Only 8 of the current Phillies started their careers in Philadelphia, but 14 of the Yankees (that's right, more than 50%) started their careers in New York and are still there (and no, that does not include any ex-Mets). Narrowing it down to starting pitchers and starting position players, the Yankees are evenly split with 7 free agents and 7 career Yankees. The Phillies starters consist of 4 free agents, 6 career Phillies, and another 3 obtained by trade. So how the two teams were put together is not that much different. The difference is really pronounced in the bullpen - the Phillies relievers are 4 free agents, 1 from a trade, and only 2 career Phillies. The Yankees have no free agents, 2 from trades, and 5 career Yankees in their pen.

Does spending money always lead to championships? As far as money goes, we all know the Yankees have the biggest payroll at $201.4M, but that is actually down $7.7M from 2008, and they are now doing better than last year. The Mets (2nd highest) increased their payroll $11.6M to $149.4M, but went in the tank in 2009. The Phillies are not exactly cash poor at $113.0M (7th highest), and that is actually an increase of $14.7M over 2008. So if spending money on players violates the pure spirit of baseball, why are the clubs the purists love doing it more and more? Even the Cubs (3rd highest) spent $16.5M more in 2009, and again it did them little good. 14 of the 30 teams lowered their payroll in 2009. Of the playoff teams, the Yankees (1st) , Angels (6th), Dodgers (9th), Cardinals (17th), and Red Sox (4th) all cut payroll from last year, while the Phillies (7th), Rockies (18th), and Twins (24th!) spent more. Maybe, just maybe, you want to consider that spending wisely has something to do with success, not just spending. The Yankees have struggled with a number of free agents who cost a lot, while the other teams who have won the last 8 World Series spent anywhere from a lot less (2003 Marlins) to only a little less (2004 & 2007 Red Sox). And the last time the Yankees won the World Series they did not have the highest payroll - the Red Sox did. Talent and its management clearly has more to do with success than just payroll. And the numbers in the paragraph above show that the Yankees are as good at developing talent as they are at buying it.

The bottom line is that baseball has no salary cap, so teams can spend whatever they care to afford on available players. That's the system, the Yankees work it well, the Phillies work it well, and so do several other successful teams. If you are upset with who the Yankees signed, my question is where was your general manager and owner? If you are upset that the Yankees have a cable deal and high income from ticket sales, concessions, merchandise, etc., why doesn't your team get the same financial support from your fans and owner? Quit whining, raise some cash, send out your scouts, and start working the phones. The off-season is a game, too, and just because the Yankees play that game well doesn't mean your team can't either.

Phil

P.S. Very big congratulations to the Phillies for dismantling the Dodgers. What a great team! They look scary good, powerful, confident, and united in purpose. They have to be considered the favorite to repeat no matter who they face in the Series.

xavier mcdaniel

The whole world thinks it's so easy, but the reality is that winning 11 games is difficult. Payroll doesn't guarantee a thing, it helps but it doesn't guarantee anything. Just look at the rosters of the Yankees the previous five years. Bottom line is that it's all about spending the money correctly in free agency and player development.

YourDirtisMyfood

is your username a tribute to the stern show? or the author?

Ms. Haiku

JD Sal wrote:

P.S. Very big congratulations to the Phillies for dismantling the Dodgers. What a great team! They look scary good, powerful, confident, and united in purpose. They have to be considered the favorite to repeat no matter who they face in the Series.

And that Chase Utley is quite the cutie!

JD Sal

YourDirtisMyfood wrote:

is your username a tribute to the stern show? or the author?

The author. My favorite book is Catcher In The Rye

Cliffy6745

Very well said. The Yankees have spent their money more wisely in the past year so. I have been telling people for a while that the Yanks had more "home grown" players than the Phillies but no one has wanted to hear it. All they see is Arod, Tex and CC.

The Yanks make the most money so they spend the most money. They also pay about $30 million a year in luxury tax for it. I would much rather the money go into the team than the Steinbrenners pockets.

PrlJam27

Good read! I see the haters are staying clear of this thread.

jimed14

Red Sox fan who has watched my team benefit from spending more than most ... and, I'm all for payroll tightening.

And what I mean by that isn't just a hard salary maximum, but, also a minimum! There are several owners on the bottom of the scale that would rather pocket their revenue sharing money than spend it on free agents. So, if there's going to be a salary cap on top, there should be a minimum too.

But, let's not kid ourselves ... it's a lot easier to be in contention for championships when your payroll so much higher than everyone else's, you cannot say otherwise. And the separation between the haves and the have nots in baseball is a bit discouraging.

I'm not looking for NFL like parody, but, wouldn't mind a bit of tightening.

chromiam

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Very well said. The Yankees have spent their money more wisely in the past year so. I have been telling people for a while that the Yanks had more "home grown" players than the Phillies but no one has wanted to hear it. All they see is Arod, Tex and CC.

The Yanks make the most money so they spend the most money. They also pay about $30 million a year in luxury tax for it. I would much rather the money go into the team than the Steinbrenners pockets.

I don't know that you can call Matusi "home-grown" but I hear what you're saying.

Cliffy6745

jimed14 wrote:

Red Sox fan who has watched my team benefit from spending more than most ... and, I'm all for payroll tightening.

And what I mean by that isn't just a hard salary maximum, but, also a minimum! There are several owners on the bottom of the scale that would rather pocket their revenue sharing money than spend it on free agents. So, if there's going to be a salary cap on top, there should be a minimum too.

But, let's not kid ourselves ... it's a lot easier to be in contention for championships when your payroll so much higher than everyone else's, you cannot say otherwise. And the separation between the haves and the have nots in baseball is a bit discouraging.

I'm not looking for NFL like parody, but, wouldn't mind a bit of tightening.

Agreed, and I have been talking about a salary floor for a long time. There is no reason some of the owners should be getting away with what they are.

xavier mcdaniel

jimed14 wrote:

Red Sox fan who has watched my team benefit from spending more than most ... and, I'm all for payroll tightening.

And what I mean by that isn't just a hard salary maximum, but, also a minimum! There are several owners on the bottom of the scale that would rather pocket their revenue sharing money than spend it on free agents. So, if there's going to be a salary cap on top, there should be a minimum too.

But, let's not kid ourselves ... it's a lot easier to be in contention for championships when your payroll so much higher than everyone else's, you cannot say otherwise. And the separation between the haves and the have nots in baseball is a bit discouraging.

I'm not looking for NFL like parody, but, wouldn't mind a bit of tightening.

So you're saying, you'd like to see a cap similar to the NHL? I doubt it will ever happen. The MLBPA is much more powerful than other unions but if this was the time to try the owners might as well since Donald Fehr is stepping aside.

jimed14

I doubt anything will change this dramtically, but, just putting out there what I'd like to see.

What will probably happen is that they will increase the luxury tax again ... and the Yanks will keep paying as if it didn't exist, because they can.

xavier mcdaniel

jimed14 wrote:

I doubt anything will change this dramtically, but, just putting out there what I'd like to see.

What will probably happen is that they will increase the luxury tax again ... and the Yanks will keep paying as if it didn't exist, because they can.

and teams like the Royals and Pirates will keep the shared money for themselves as opposed to putting back it into the team.

ledvedderman

Exactly. They turn a bigger profit by not putting a better product on the field. Makes me sick.

pjhawks

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Very well said. The Yankees have spent their money more wisely in the past year so. I have been telling people for a while that the Yanks had more "home grown" players than the Phillies but no one has wanted to hear it. All they see is Arod, Tex and CC.

The Yanks make the most money so they spend the most money. They also pay about $30 million a year in luxury tax for it. I would much rather the money go into the team than the Steinbrenners pockets.

the problem is not that they spend money but that they vastly overpay to sign players - each of their 3 acquisitions last year were offered something like 10-20 Million more by the yankees than anyone else was offering which creates an inflated market in the long run. when you sign a guy like Texeira for $100 million (or whatever the heck he makes) that creates a market for the next 1st basemen who are free agents - so when Ryan Howard comes up in 2-3 years his market value has now been grossly over-valued because of Texeira's contract with the Yankees - this is where the Evil exists - not in them signing players to win. winning is the name of the game - but the Yankees by offering ridiculously large contracts are setting a market that few teams can match.

Stone Is God

xavier mcdaniel wrote:

jimed14 wrote:

I doubt anything will change this dramtically, but, just putting out there what I'd like to see.

What will probably happen is that they will increase the luxury tax again ... and the Yanks will keep paying as if it didn't exist, because they can.

and teams like the Royals and Pirates will keep the shared money for themselves as opposed to putting back it into the team.

Yep. The Pirates also rolled that into a new stadium as well.

xavier mcdaniel

pjhawks wrote:

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Very well said. The Yankees have spent their money more wisely in the past year so. I have been telling people for a while that the Yanks had more "home grown" players than the Phillies but no one has wanted to hear it. All they see is Arod, Tex and CC.

The Yanks make the most money so they spend the most money. They also pay about $30 million a year in luxury tax for it. I would much rather the money go into the team than the Steinbrenners pockets.

the problem is not that they spend money but that they vastly overpay to sign players - each of their 3 acquisitions last year were offered something like 10-20 Million more by the yankees than anyone else was offering which creates an inflated market in the long run. when you sign a guy like Texeira for $100 million (or whatever the heck he makes) that creates a market for the next 1st basemen who are free agents - so when Ryan Howard comes up in 2-3 years his market value has now been grossly over-valued because of Texeira's contract with the Yankees - this is where the Evil exists - not in them signing players to win. winning is the name of the game - but the Yankees by offering ridiculously large contracts are setting a market that few teams can match.

of course it's ridiculous, but what are the players supposed to do, turn it down?

pjhawks

xavier mcdaniel wrote:

pjhawks wrote:

Cliffy6745 wrote:

Very well said. The Yankees have spent their money more wisely in the past year so. I have been telling people for a while that the Yanks had more "home grown" players than the Phillies but no one has wanted to hear it. All they see is Arod, Tex and CC.

The Yanks make the most money so they spend the most money. They also pay about $30 million a year in luxury tax for it. I would much rather the money go into the team than the Steinbrenners pockets.

the problem is not that they spend money but that they vastly overpay to sign players - each of their 3 acquisitions last year were offered something like 10-20 Million more by the yankees than anyone else was offering which creates an inflated market in the long run. when you sign a guy like Texeira for $100 million (or whatever the heck he makes) that creates a market for the next 1st basemen who are free agents - so when Ryan Howard comes up in 2-3 years his market value has now been grossly over-valued because of Texeira's contract with the Yankees - this is where the Evil exists - not in them signing players to win. winning is the name of the game - but the Yankees by offering ridiculously large contracts are setting a market that few teams can match.

of course it's ridiculous, but what are the players supposed to do, turn it down?

no the players should definitely take it - i am just pointing out how the Yankess inflate the market that's all. Not sure what the solution is to that though.

xavier mcdaniel

me neither, it's not like there's any rules against it. half the time when they do it, it turns out wrong.

SVRDhand13

Your friend didn't convince me of anything. Sure the Yankees, who are the highest paid team, don't win the World Series all the time, and other high spending teams like the Mets, don't even get close. But let's face it- their are only a few teams out there who can get the best free agents available any given year. This past off season the Yankees were able to get the 3 best free agents! No other team had any chance of doing this.

This is not fair to all the other teams in the league, and more importantly, to the game of baseball. Whenever I see that the Yankees have so many World Championships I'm not really impressed at all. Big deal, they buy the best players who have no other choice but to go where the most money is. No one is going to give up cash to go to the Pirates, Royals, Orioles, Padres, etc. I'm MUCH more impressed with teams like the Marlins who can win on talent and scouting, without the big bucks.

If the Yankees got one of the big free agents this offseason I would not really care right now. But they were practically guaranteed to get two of the 3 and unfortunately got all 3 after begging New Yorkers for more money. Their 27th world championship cost them about half a billion. Oh, and expect Lackey to be on his way to the Evil Empire. I'll stick to football, like most Americans do now anyway.

JD Sal

pjhawks wrote:

o the players should definitely take it - i am just pointing out how the Yankess inflate the market that's all. Not sure what the solution is to that though.

The Yankees (and other teams) do inflate the market and in doing so they jeopardize the long term sustainability of the sport.

Eventually, the profit margin shrinks and teams will no longer be able to afford the overpriced free agents. Sadly, we'll probably only reach a salary cap situation when fans become unwilling to support these ridiculous contracts via the increased costs of ticket / concession / merchandise sales.

SVRDhand13

And to those who say well the Yankees aren't breaking any rules... I agree. But the commish and the owners should (but obviously won't) change the rules to bring some validity back to it. Oh and by the way the winning pitcher from last night was caught taking 'roids, just wanted to remind people of that too.

CROJAM95

SVRDhand13 wrote:

And to those who say well the Yankees aren't breaking any rules... I agree. But the commish and the owners should (but obviously won't) change the rules to bring some validity back to it. Oh and by the way the winning pitcher from last night was caught taking 'roids, just wanted to remind people of that too.

Ask Daniel Snyder how outspending everyone has worked out? I know its a different sport, that dude cant buy a clue.

People forget that the Yankees have had some great talent come from the farm system over the years. This year Melky did a great job, Gardner is a great change of pace guy, Joba will get better, Hughes will emerge as our future closer, Austin Jackson is a name to watch out for. Cervelli looks pretty good, Ramiro Pena is a good utility player.

Its also about chemistry. Swish looked horrible last year, this year he produced numbers as well as his intangibles in having fun.

Dont be fooled other teams...If your owners can OWN a team, they can spend a few bucks. Most are greedy or incompetent or a combination of both.

Heatherj43

Yep! I think a salary cap and minimum should be in place. But, I also think in baseball things should be standardized, i.e., size of field, which way home plate faces, dome or no dome, etc. I can't htink of all the things that drive me crazy, but when I am watching a game and there are huge discrepencies, I notice them at that time.
The Yankees being able to spend so much money does help them.

rival.

cap it all you want. the best will still want to play for the yankees and the city of new york.

igotid88

SVRDhand13 wrote:

And to those who say well the Yankees aren't breaking any rules... I agree. But the commish and the owners should (but obviously won't) change the rules to bring some validity back to it. Oh and by the way the winning pitcher from last night was caught taking 'roids, just wanted to remind people of that too.

hgh

igotid88

CROJAM95 wrote:

SVRDhand13 wrote:

And to those who say well the Yankees aren't breaking any rules... I agree. But the commish and the owners should (but obviously won't) change the rules to bring some validity back to it. Oh and by the way the winning pitcher from last night was caught taking 'roids, just wanted to remind people of that too.

Ask Daniel Snyder how outspending everyone has worked out? I know its a different sport, that dude cant buy a clue.

People forget that the Yankees have had some great talent come from the farm system over the years. This year Melky did a great job, Gardner is a great change of pace guy, Joba will get better, Hughes will emerge as our future closer, Austin Jackson is a name to watch out for. Cervelli looks pretty good, Ramiro Pena is a good utility player.

Its also about chemistry. Swish looked horrible last year, this year he produced numbers as well as his intangibles in having fun.

Dont be fooled other teams...If your owners can OWN a team, they can spend a few bucks. Most are greedy or incompetent or a combination of both.

Hughes is a starter.

CROJAM95

Heatherj43 wrote:

Yep! I think a salary cap and minimum should be in place. But, I also think in baseball things should be standardized, i.e., size of field, which way home plate faces, dome or no dome, etc. I can't htink of all the things that drive me crazy, but when I am watching a game and there are huge discrepencies, I notice them at that time.
The Yankees being able to spend so much money does help them.

Standard fields?? Like those ugly ass cookie cutter stadiums the vet, shea, 3 rivers,Cincy's ole stadium and countless others. Boston's green Monster, Short porch in Yankee stadium and countless others make the game interesting

CROJAM95

I dont think you can say outright that Hughes is a starter, or a closer/reliever like i said before. I just think it is nice knowing or seeing that it is possible to find that replacement when Mo finally calls it quits in house. He had a rough postseason as did much of our middle relief, it will only make him better. Hell Rivera was once a starter.

Heatherj43

CROJAM95 wrote:

Heatherj43 wrote:

Yep! I think a salary cap and minimum should be in place. But, I also think in baseball things should be standardized, i.e., size of field, which way home plate faces, dome or no dome, etc. I can't htink of all the things that drive me crazy, but when I am watching a game and there are huge discrepencies, I notice them at that time.
The Yankees being able to spend so much money does help them.

Standard fields?? Like those ugly ass cookie cutter stadiums the vet, shea, 3 rivers,Cincy's ole stadium and countless others. Boston's green Monster, Short porch in Yankee stadium and countless others make the game interesting

Yeah! I like it when we are all palying the same game. The bottom line is the Wins and Losses. The lack of standardization affects those numbers.

fife

singularity wrote:

cap it all you want. the best will still want to play for the yankees and the city of new york.

thats right! its like in hockey most players want to play in a city that loves their team. say what you want but if yoru a baseball player you want to play in the biggest market and the yankees are teh biggest market.