Money Money Money

Seriously, what is wrong with spending so much money?

One of the most commonly overused and now exhausting topics in baseball talk is that of the Yankees not winning a World Series title since 2000. The Yankees have the highest payroll and in theory should have had won at least a handful more World Series titles since they have deposited so much into their organization. But let’s be honest with ourselves here, and put the idea of the Yankee spending spree into terms that even a Chowdahead can understand.

There is a little known magazine out there which takes products and rates them. It looks at every aspect of a product, whether it be a car, toaster, hair dryer etc. It dissects everything, and then tests each product over and over again. Let us look at a toaster for example. There is an array of what types of toaster brands you can buy. From Black & Decker to Hamilton Beach and so on these devices are tested from how well they brown bread to the longevity of their shelf life. Consumer Reports gladly tests each product. And get this, in most cases the most expensive product IS NOT the best product. Who would have thought of that?!?!

The Yankees catch a lot of heat for putting on the field some of the most highly paid players in the game if not in history. Let’s look at the Yankee infield just for fun
(I purposely excluded 2B Robinson Cano, only because he makes mere pennies compared to the other three.)

1B- Mark Teixeira- 20 million for the 09 season
SS- Derek Jeter- 20 million for the 09 season
3B- Alex Rodriguez -32 million for the 09 season

The Florida Marlins TOTAL, yes TOTAL 2008 payroll was 21 million dollars. So what does it mean when the Yankees who spend close to 200 million dollars and not win a World Series title mean? NOTHING! Why? It is an exhausted argument, and actually one that really has no answer.

If the Yankees win the 2009 World Series, which on paper they absolutely should, then all the critics and Yankee haters are just going to say the same things “they bought their players”, “the Yankees pay to much money for their players”, “it is about time with that payroll” etc. Is there really an argument? Of course they “bought” their players. Every MLB team “buys” their players. Your employer “bought” you. So what is the difference? And as far as players being overpaid, sure these guys get ludicrous amounts of money to play a game. But I guarantee you that if someone wanted to pay you millions of dollars to do something that you are good at you would not say no.

The Yankees put a lot of money up front to a lot of players for many reasons. 1. the fans. The Steinbrenners bring the players that they know the fans want to see. Since the mid-90’s just look at how many Yankee players will be in the Hall of Fame. Clemens….uh never mind on that one! More like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Randy Johnson, Andy Pettite, Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez, Don Mattingly, and future Hall of Famers like Teixeira and Sabathia. Going to a Yankee game is almost the same as watching an All-Star game. Oh yea and there is usually another team playing who has some All-Star caliber players as well. Another reason is to keep big name players out of the AL East, especially Boston. It the Yankees can spend a little more to keep a great power hitter out of their division and they also need that position, why not spend a little extra?

And what do people care how much money anybody spends? It is not YOUR money to begin with! I can understand people being pissed off, if it was THEIR money. The Yankee “brass” does not go into your house and question you buying some workout videos that are still in the shrink wrap that you never used, or all of the unused rotting vegetables in the crisper in your refrigerator.

And now the big issue, the Luxury Tax. In baseball there is no salary cap which is present in the NBA and NFL. This means that if you have the money, you can spend as much of it on whatever players you want. So why are people pissed? The Yankees are not doing anything illegal by baseball standards. Yet we live in such a liberal world that a few years ago the MLB front office imposed a new rule, the Luxury Tax. This rule is a profit sharing type scheme. It states that if a team spends over X amount of dollars a year that team must pay a certain percentage of dollars into the Luxury Tax pool. Now the concept is much more intricate and to save myself and the readers’ confusion of how all these tax rules and laws are done, I will just get to the numbers.

Since the 2003 to 2007 season the Yankees have paid nearly 121 million dollars into this rule. MLB wants to “share the wealth” and spread its money throughout the entire league. The IDEA is to help those smaller market teams like your Kansas City Royals and Colorado Rockies able to compete against the large market teams on the East and West coast. Since the inclusion of this tax how many of these teams have actually used the money that they are given for their own benefit? Most of these teams pocket this money, and do nothing to improve their playing staff. So you ask me if there should be a salary cap? You should ask the smaller market teams if they want a salary cap. Take away the salary cap, and then you take away your free handouts of millions of dollars a year.

Many teams excuse is that they use the Luxury Tax handout, because they are having trouble getting by and just functioning. Hey, if we have to loose some teams so be it. The attendance at a game the Florida Marlins hosted last year against the Washington Nationals in September (both teams would not be even close to the playoffs) did not even break 1000. This Florida Marlins team has won two World Series Championships in its less than 20 year history. But they are having trouble even breaking a 1000 in attendance? ESPN even made a complete mockery out of this last September. As they, or any fan should. If there is no interest from your own city, then why should other teams have to pull your weight around? Stop being a cancer to the rest of the league. Adding your quality players to other organizations makes for better baseball.

I have no problem with the MLB’s 30 teams dwindling down to around 24 or 26. I would not for a second miss a Marlins, or Pirates, or Nationals, or Royals etc. Those players could be used in other teams. Imagine how much better pitching staffs would be? This could really help to weed out a lot of players that in some cases do not belong in the majors, or some that have spent too many years there and need to go ahead and call it a career. Players would be constantly fighting for a starting spot. They would take better care of their bodies because they would be in better shape, and always looking over their shoulder because there are now, more guys who want their spot.

To Luxury Tax or not? To hate the Yankees or not? These are all questions that will never have an end in sight. But lucky for you this blog has and end…