Tuesday, December 23, 2008

New Steinbrenners Make Old One Look Stingy

In 1999, Kevin Brown became the first $100 Million Dollar Man in the MLB.  It was widely and rightly decried as insanity.

It has become more and more common, though the Yankees have, as you might expect, a disproportionate impact there.

According to the Bottom Line on ESPN, there have 19 $100 Million Dollar Men and 7 of them have been Yankees.  That's just under 37% of all (almost by definition) these SUPER overpaid free agents going to 3% of all teams.   Of course, the new Steinbrenners, proving they can spend their daddy's money as well as he can, has signed two $100 Million Dollar Men in the last month or so--CC Sabathia and Mark Teixiera  ($180 Million!  No Trade Clause!).  

About Sabathia, I said:  "here are some things that I would have thought about before I spent 160 million dollars on him:  prior to two the last two seasons, he had never pitched 205 innings; he hadn't had 200 Strike Outs in a season.  Even taking his great run over the last two years, he has NEVER won 20 games.  

Don't get me wrong--like I said, I respect CC, a lot.  I've seen him befuddle my team of choice for for about 7 years.  But 8 years?  And about 20 million bucks a pop?  How good is CC going to be at age 32?  33?  34?"

Insanity!  And now more insanity.  As commenter Black Freighter weighed in on Teixiera back when there were a couple of teams who were only willing to pay Teixiera $160 million.   I quote:  

"Just look at the stats and see all the 1st baseman hitting 30 dingers and 100 rbi... he's one of at least 10-15. 
Here's 16 players who can easily hit that line at first base: Morneau, Pujols, Berkman, Lee, Pena, Howard, Fielder, Cabrera, Konerko, Youkilis, Giambi, Delgado, Gonzalez, Jacobs, Laroche and Votto. "

The Yankees have a ton of money; so do the Red Sox.  The difference is--the Red Sox have a General Manager who doesn't chase every single over-hyped free agent out there.

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