Seems like we’ve heard that for the past 8 years now. While the Yanks are now sporting an all-star team (again) — and I certainly wouldn’t bet against them — everyone knows there are no guarantees in baseball…

And perhaps Yankee in Chicago was only joking about “giving the Yankees the World Series trophy now”, but it’s that kind of arrogance that pisses off the rest of baseball fans (which you already know).

Revenues aren’t a static thing. Do the Yankees start with an advantage because they play in New York? Sure. But you gotta spend money to make money.

Rivera could blow a save as he did in game 7 the 01 WS or games 4 & 5 of the 04 ALCS (and lets face it, you’re up 3-0 with Duque, Moose, Lieber & Brown on tap, I’d still take those odds). Sabathia or Burnett could get hurt, like Wells did in game 5 of the 03 World Series, or be ineffective, like Wang in the 2007 ALDS.

1995 & 2004 should be lessons that nothing is guaranteed the Yanks in the postseason.

And sure, all owners get a large capital gain when they sell, but are you seriously suggesting that the Twins do not make an annual profit? I’d like to see some evidence for that.

I don’t see it as people, yankee fans, being mad about the signing, but me for example as not ascribing any kind of benevolence to the Steinbrenners or mystical “Iwannabeayankee”-itis to players.

They all took the most money on the table. I don’t know about some of you, but $12 million is a lot of scratch and it represented essentially a 5% pay increase to Teixeira. He didn’t take it out of the goodness of his heart, if he wanted to stick it to the Red Sox he would have taken less or equal money to play for the Yankees

Carl Pohlad isn’t making billions of dollars from the Twins and simply pocketing the money.

It’s simple, team A has revenues of $225 million/yr, team B has revenues of $50 million/yr.

Team A spends $200 million on player salaries and $15 million on coaches/staff/overhead, etc.

Team B spends $40 million on player salaries, coaches/staff/overhead, etc.

Both have a $10 million/yr profit. One owner is lauded and the other despised. Could Steinbrenner just field a team with a $50 payroll and make a $175 million profit, yeah, but it won’t do wonders for the product he’s selling (see previous owner CBS) or revenues. Pohlad isn’t pocketing $175 million a year and claiming the poorhouse. They all make their money on the backend when they sell the franchise.

Team owners of sports franchises are in one of the most lucrative crony businesses out there. I don’t care for any of them and I’m certainly not defending them. But the point is that the Yankees’ revenue likely exceeds any other team’s by a ridiculous amount. But you can’t say that Pohlad is a jerk for not spending his personal wealth that he earned outside of baseball on the twins so that they can have a $150 million dollar payroll. And you especially can’t attribute any kind of moral high ground to any team ownership group with regards to their finances without seeing the books and the actual numbers.

Bob Klapisch had yet another piece just recently documenting Girardi’s awkward management style last year. All that I’m saying is that Girardi’s ability to lead a veteran all-star team with many fragile egos and very high expectations will be an important subtext in 2009.

Free Agent Values: Mark Teixeira
http://tinyurl.com/6nr85q
“If Teixeira is a +5 win player, and we use the $5.5 million per win projection for off-season spending, that gives us a $27.5 million figure for 2009. Again, we’ll factor in a 10% discount off of his current value for the safety of a long term deal, and that gives us something like $24.5 million for Teixeira. Teams are more comfortable giving longer deals to hitters than pitchers, so let’s pencil him in for a 7 year, $171 million contract.”

Cots Baseball Contracts: 09:$20M, 10:$20M, 11-16:$22.5M annually

Free Agent Values: A.J. Burnett
http://tinyurl.com/5q38mv
“3.3 wins * 5.5 million per win = $18.15 million in projected 2009 value. We again factor in a 10% discount rate to make up for the fact that he’s going to get a long term deal, and that gives us an annual average value of $16.4 million. Given Burnett’s history, it’s unlikely he’ll get more than four or five years. That puts his projected contract at 4 years/$66 million or 5 years/$82 million.”

Cots Baseball Contracts: 09-13:$16.5M annually

Free Agent Values: CC Sabathia
http://tinyurl.com/9bd2xt
“5.5 million * 5.5 wins = 30.25 million. That’s what we’d expect Sabathia to be worth if he signed a one year deal, which he clearly won’t do. In exchange for the security of a long term deal, he’ll give teams a slight discount off his current value. At a 10% discount for the safety of a five to seven year deal, that would put his annual average salary at $27 million.”

Cots Baseball Contracts: 09:$14M, 10-15:$23M annually

If these studies are to be believed, the Yanks got these players at a discount..

Didn’t you hear, the Pirates and Reds wanted to bid, but didn’t have the financial resources to compete.

Seriously, there isn’t an explanation. It’s easy and lazy to blame the Yanks and their high payroll. Fact is that they didn’t have to go after Burnett. For all we know, he could’ve signed with the Braves or the O’s. Or remained with the Jays; what he got wasn’t much more than what he would’ve got had he not opted out. Teix was signed to block the Red Sox from getting him; the Yanks were set to go with some combination of Swisher and Nady @ 1b.

Fact is, they had a lot of payroll come of the books this year and next, and they’re players on the international market, and they’re in the process of rebuilding the farm (already stocked with high ceiling arms, as pointed out by Cliff a couple of weeks ago). They’re opening a new stadium, and are flush with cash.

MLB ain’t seen nothing yet.

In reality, the Yankees outbid everyone for Mike Mussina as the top starter free agent and they outbid everyone for Jason Giambi as the top first basemen. Now that both are retired the Yankees outbid everyone for the top starter free agent and the top firstbaseman. It’s just that the salaries in the top 1% of baseball have gone up in the meantime.

But speaking as a Washington-area resident (and Yankees fan), I don’t see why the Nationals didn’t outbid the Yankees. That’s really their decision, and I think they should have acquired some keystone for some position.

Any more depressing than being a St Louis Browns, or KC Athletics, or Washington Senators, or Cincy Reds fans? Remember how inept the Braves and Indians used to be? How depressing was it to follow those franchises?

Every era has poorly run teams, or teams that have no shot at contending. This is no different.

I’m suddenly optimistic about 2009 baseball.

Merry Christmas indeed!

I suspect if the tables were turned you could and you would. But if it helps you feel more righteous to deny it, then more power to you.