You can blame them for sucking the fun out of the game. You can blame them for "buying" championship titles. You can even blame them for ruining baseball. These days, the average baseball fan will hate the Yankees for those very reasons (however silly that may be - I'll prove it). After all, it's the Yankees' faults that they suck, that they ruined the game of baseball...
...or is it?
First, we start with this season.
Manager Joe Girardi is still looking for his ass, since he's managed it off this year. He's been given the likes of Vernon Wells, who during April and parts of May played well, but now he couldn't hit a watermelon off of a tee if he was asked to. Adorning the line-up card as well is Lyle Overbay, who has always been known for his solid defense at first base but not so much his bat. The last time Overbay hit over .300 was 2006. The last time Overbay has gotten on base 35% of the time was 2009. Not exactly known for his offensive prowess, Overbay, much like Wells, was serviceable in the first month and a half of the season. Now, he's batting .243 with a .287 On-Base Percentage. Not exactly smacking the cover off the ball. However, we shouldn't single out these vets. They are joined by players like Jayson Nix, a journeyman utility infielder, who is trying to fill the cleats of the injured Yankee captain, Derek Jeter. This season, Nix is batting .249 with a .313 OBP, 20 RBIs and 2 home runs. He also has this unbelievable (or hyper-believable) ability to come up small in big spots. Nix is joined by rookie third basemen David Adams, solid defensive catcher (but weak offensively) Chris Stewart, an aging Ichiro Suzuki, and injury prone outfielder Travis Hafner. Someone get me Brian Cashman's number. I want answers.
Regardless of these offensive woes, there are still some bright spots. Robinson Cano is burdened with more offensive pressure while big names like Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez all recovering from injuries that pitted them on the DL. In his free agent year, Cano is batting an average average of .276. However, he's getting on base more than 35% of the time, while playing a great second base and on pace to set a career high in home runs. It's also important to note that Brett Gardner seems to have found his swing, while he remains hot in the month of June. You can couple their few offensive bright spots and sometimes timely and clutch hitting with their solid rotation lead by the grit of CC Sabathia and excellent bullpen, rounded out by that ageless, Panamanian wonder Mariano Rivera.
...So why do they suck, again?
It's June 26th and the Yankees, with all their injuries and holes in the line-up, are sitting at 42-35, and just 3.5 games back of Boston for first place in the AL East. HOWEVA, these numbers are very deceptive. With the Yankees 42-35 record, they're 14-2 against the likes of the barely two games over .500 Cleveland Indians and the 39-38 Toronto Blue Jays. Without that 14-2? 28-33 against the rest of baseball. That's right, folk - those damned Yankees are a below average team when they play games against division leaders and good teams..so rejoice Yankee haters! At the end of the day, they're really just not that good. Granted, baseball is a funny game, and they could be catapulted to 15 games over .500 in a blink of an eye. Three words: That's baseball, Suzyn.
To really put in perspective on how bad this team is offensively, they're batting a collective .239, which is good for 14th out of 15 American League teams. Their total team OBP (not counting pitchers) is .302, which is good for 12th in the AL. With 297 runs, they're good for 12th in the American League - yet they're still over .500. It's appalling, which is why I believe Girardi deserves some credit for what they've been able to accomplish this season to this point.
Mediocrity layered in a flashy wrapper and distorted numbers explains the Yankees season thus far.
But, have the Yankees ruined baseball? No, they have not. Baseball isn't ruined, but if you're going to point a finger as to why BJ Upton is making 75 million dollars, why AJ Burnett was paid 82.5 mil, why Carl Crawford is making a whopping 142 million dollars, don't blame the Yankees; blame the market.
You can't blame the Yankees for being able to shell out cash to get that big name free agent. After all, it is a business that's masked by a game. There's only a handful of teams in baseball that can even afford the services of an A-Rod, a Hamilton, a Pujols, a Gonzalez, etc. If there's anything that fans should know, it's that under the current model of buy big name players and win championships, the Yankees have won nothing, and most teams have failed. The 2012 Miami Marlins are and the 2013 LA Dodgers (to this point) are both failed projects with massive payrolls. In addition to this, the Yankees had their share of terrible, awful, beyond bad, three-month-old milk in the fridge contracts. Jaret Wright (to a lesser extent), anyone? AJ Burnett, line 2. I think the Yankees just put Carl Pavano on the DL again. Kei Igawa...really? That's beside the point, however.
As players elect for free agency more often, rather than negotiating with teams prior to or during their free agent seasons, sports agents go in for the kill. These highly persuasive, highly annoying gang of leeches suck organizations for every last penny they can spare. They play the markets so soundly that it gets to a point that teams have to negotiate at such high salaries. It's basic economical concepts. You can bet if the Yankees don't pay A-Rod 200 million plus, the Red Sox will. That's the name of the game. What people fail to realize is, that not only are you signing a player to play for your team, but you're signing a player away from the opposition. It sounds like common sense, but it's not a point of view that's looked at regularly. Here are the facts: if Aaron Boone doesn't tear his ACL playing a game of pick up basketball, the Yankees never get on the phone with the Rangers to trade for A-Rod. It's a well known fact at this point that the Red Sox were the front runners to trade for A-Rod prior to the 2004 season, and if it wasn't for the Players Association vetoing the trade, the Yankees would never punch the Rangers' digits. Period. So did the Yankees ruin baseball? Of course not. "It's nothing personal. It's just business."
The salary of a player isn't dictated by a team. You might be shaking your head in disagreement, and disapproval, but again, it's nothing but business. Supply and demand. A player of A-Rod's stature, or Pujols' stature, or Hamilton, Fielder, etc., don't come along very often. If you aren't actively grooming farm talent to become those players, then you will be scouring the free agent market looking for them, and you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be other teams that will want them, too. There are some teams, however unfortunate, are essentially major league farm clubs. If you look at a small market team like the Tampa Bay Rays, who groom their young talent (predominantly pitching) to a point where they are bona fide stars on the Major League level, then when those players hit free agency, the Rays are left with their pockets turned inside out because these players wind up elsewhere. Again, it's unfortunate, but this is the nature of the game. The Rays, somewhat miraculously, continue to win on such a limited payroll (and budget) with a plethora of young, inexperienced, misfits.
Why would you want to blame the Yankees for doing what they feel is best for their fans, their organization? Certainly, your team does the same thing.
A lot of people seem to forget how the Yankees entered the 1996 World Series the underdogs to the defending champion Atlanta Braves. It was a team built with the youth of an up-and-coming star in Derek Jeter, the future three time All Star starting pitcher Andy Pettitte and a little-known relief pitcher by the name of Mariano Rivera (he went on to have a successful career as a spokesperson for Acura). While future Yankee backstop Jorge Posada wasn't a pivotal part on the 1996 World Series team, he would go on to join Jeter, Pettitte and Rivera in 1998 for their second championship, and his first. The "Core Four" as they are so affectionately and passionately known by the Yankee faithful went on to be the cornerstones for four World Series titles (while Jeter, Pettitte and Rivera each have one more ring from that 1996 Series), including one Subway Series win against the gritty bunch from Queens. The Core Four were homegrown talent (something that the Yankees sorely need now), and not free agent signings. The Yankees made a big acquisition by trading for Tino Martinez, the heir apparent to the great Don Mattingly at first base.
However, this isn't a history lesson. The World Series titles that followed are all well documented and can be found by reading a book or Wikipedia. The fact of the matter is this; the Yankees 90s dynasty was formed by key acquisitions and youth, NOT buying players. So the Yankee haters that claim they buy their championships should probably check the facts.
They were mocked and ridiculed by the media when they signed Scott Brosius, who hit just .203 in 1997 with the Oakland Athletics. They were disrespected when they went down 0-2 against Atlanta in 1996. When, in 1998, they played to an 114-48 regular season record and they went on to sweep the San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Series, no one questioned their payroll. Between the years of 2001 and 2009, the Yankees had the highest payroll in baseball, but just one World Series ring to show for it. So, the people that hate on the Yankees for buying players to win championships need to relax, because it obviously doesn't work. Admittedly, in 2009 they did have the highest payroll in baseball and they did win the World Series. However, if it wasn't for smart acquisitions like CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira during that offseason, they more than likely wouldn't have won a championship. It's debatable. Highly debatable.
Yes. It's hard explaining to people I'm a Yankee fan because these days the there's a certain...stench that's attached to it. It's almost as painful as explaining to someone you're a member of the Westboro Baptist Church.
These days, the common "Yankee fan" will always fall back on the argument of "27". These "Yankee fans" fail to realize that no one gives a damn about who won the World Series in 1937. These "Yankee fans" fail to realize that buying players left and right to ridiculous long term contracts isn't an effective business strategy to win championships. These "Yankee fans" fail to realize that you NEED to use money to develop young talent, to scout, to research, rather than waiting for other teams to develop those players and swoop in with blank checks, which is what the Yankees have been doing this past decade. It's unfortunate to think that the Yankees farm system, which was once top five in all of baseball and rich with talent, is now completely decimated because of a lack of proper development in the minors. The truth is, the Yankees just haven't been a smart organization in the last 12 to 13 years, regardless of their one World Series victory in 2009. It's EMBARASSING that the Yankees haven't been able to develop a serviceable utility infielder to plug their holes this season. What's the point of trading for Vernon Wells when you have a guy like Zoilo Almonte, a Yankees top 10 outfield prospect, waiting in the wings? What's the point of keeping Joba on the roster when there are younger, more serviceable relief pitchers in your minor league system? What's the point of trading away a sure thing in outfield prospect Austin Jackson for a feast-or-famine player in Curtis Granderson?
Of course, these things aren't apparent to the average "Yankee fan" because the average "Yankee fan" sees Ichiro hitting a walk off home run, or Alex Rodriguez hitting a 3 run bomb in a meaningless game in May in a rout against the Houston Astros. These things aren't apparent to the average "Yankee fan" because they see a 42-35 record and they're deceived by that. The average "Yankee fan" will slap on a "got rings?" t-shirt and shout "TWENTY SEVEN!!" whenever their knowledge of the team they so...lukewarmly support is questioned. If you're one of these people, you should really be careful what you say. No one cares that the Yankees won the 1928 World Series. They care about the here and now, and while you're busy Googling what years they did win World Series titles, the San Francisco Giants (with the 5th highest payroll in baseball) are going to continue to be the consummate team and win World Series after World Series. Or how a team like the St. Louis Cardinals can be contenders every year; because they develop and groom young talent.
So, while it's easy to say the Yankees suck (which they do), they don't at the same time. Historically, they are a successful franchise but the glory days of the 90s dynasty team full of grinders like O'Neill and Brosius seem a far cry to what we're witnessing today. Maybe one day we'll see a return to those days but...I'm not going to hold my breath.
