How The Yankees Blew It

How is that the team with the highest payroll in baseball is not going to make the playoffs? The answer is simple mismanagement from the top down. In the past the Yankees became a good team by developing top talent in their farm system and adding expensive free agents to fill in the gaps. As George neared the end of his tenure he forgot about the farm system and traded most of the talent away for big name players. With an All-Star at every base they played well enough to make the playoffs but they did not have the team cohesiveness to go all the way, call it the curse of A-Rod.

When Theo adapted some of the moneyball theories to Boston, the Red Sox became the best and most emulated team in baseball. They combined a strong farm system with the seeking out of undervalued free agents like David Ortiz.

After 2 World Series Championships in Boston and none in New York, the Yankees tried to play catch up. Hank is now at the helm and is trying to take some of the lessons the Sox had learned and apply them to the Yankees. Unfortunately for Hank, he is behind the curve and has bungled his new approach to team building. The Yankees had a chance to make their team better for the season but they made some early mistakes. They gave Posada and Rivera huge contracts in their declining years; Rivera pitched well but is showing signs of fading in the most important part of the season, while Posada has spent half of the season on the DL. The biggest mistake they made was overvaluing their young pitching. They could have had Santana for what now looks like a steal but they were trying to keep Hughes and Kennedy. In the early season they had a chance to trade Matsui to the Giants but they did not make the deal and now Matsui sits on the DL like Posada. For some reason they waited until too long to make trades for players like Pudge an Nady.

So now the Yankees are going to miss the playoffs and Hank says they are going to be the team to beat next year. The 2 best pitchers on the Yankees this season were Pettitte and Mussina. Are the Yankees going to shell out big money to keep some of their oldest players? Pettitte cost the Yankees $16 million this season and Moose will want a long term deal. Yesterday Peter Gammons said the Yankees were going to go after C.C. Sabathia in the off season but it will be a year too late because the Yankees will not have enough good pitching if they let Mussina and Pettitte go. Now that Hank was burned on the Santana deal he will overreach and go back to trying to buy a team. Cashman has tried to put some stability into the long term goals of the Yankees but it will be hard for him to achieve his goals with Hank breathing down his neck.

Let the good times roll.