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Don't damn the Yankees
By David Schoenfield
ESPN.comSo, Mike Mussina signed with the Yankees, undoubtedly causing Bud Selig to choke on the hot dog he eats every day for lunch.
|  | | Mike Mussina signed a six-year contract worth $88.5 million. |
Of course, Yankees fans are calling and e-mailing each other with self-congratulory pats on the back for their 2001 World Championship.
As for the rest of you, here's some advice: Quit your whining.
Don't blame the system. Don't blame the deep pockets of the Yankees. Don't blame your wretched pathetic excuse of a ballclub on its inability to spend money.
Instead, look at these three contracts:
Rheal Cormier, Philadelphia Phillies: three years, $8.75 million.
Curtis Leskanic, Milwaukee Brewers: three years, $7.2 million; up to
$12.9 million if he meets all performance clauses.
Orlando Hernandez, New York Yankees, four years, $6.6 million.
Where, in this equation, does the Yankees' financial advantage come into play?
Three million bucks a year for Rheal Cormier? A guy who pitches 60 innings a year (when he's not hurt), had a 4.61 ERA a year ago and has never recorded a big-league save? And you wonder why the Phillies have had one winning season since Von Hayes roamed the Vet in 1986?
The Brewers are another of baseball's sad-sack franchises. They haven't had a winning season since 1992. Yet they can find nearly $13 million for a 33-year-old reliever with 32 career saves. Sure, Leskanic had a 2.56 ERA in 2000. He also walked 51 batters in 77 innings. That's hardly a recipe for consistent success.
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The Yankees have won three straight World Series because they've played the best baseball in
October, not because they have the league's highest payroll. ... They actually weren't that good last season, winning 87 games and finishing with
only the ninth-best record in baseball. |
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The two highest-paid Brewers in 2000 were Marquis Grissom and Jaime Navarro, who each made $5 million. Grissom was merely one of the worst everyday players in the major leagues. His .288 on-base percentage ranked last among
163 qualifiers. His .351 slugging percentage ranked 158th. Yet the Brewers, not realizing the basic economic premise of "sunk costs," continued to roll Grissom out in the lineup game after game. And for you lucky Brewers fans, he still has two years left on his contract. As for Navarro, he didn't win a single game.
And then there's El Duque, a bargain at less than $2 million a year. Teams weren't willing to pay Hernandez when he defected from Cuba, but they're willing to pour money down the drain on decaying carcasses like Navarro and Grissom. The Brewers won only 14 fewer games than the Yankees last year. What if that $10 million had been spent more intelligently?
When Mussina signed, the cries around the cubicles of ESPN.com were, "What George wants, George gets." Or, "The Yankees are just buying another great player." However, in winning four World Series in five years, the Yankees have signed just three important free agents from other teams: Kenny Rogers, Mike Stanton and David Wells.
The core of their team -- Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Andy Pettitte -- was developed from within. And of those players, only Jeter signed as a heralded prospect.
The Yankees took Jeter with the sixth pick in the 1992 draft, signing him for a $700,000 bonus. With the third pick, the Expos -- baseball's most extreme "have-not" -- could have drafted Jeter. Instead, they gave $550,000 to a college pitcher named B.J. Wallace. With the fifth pick, the Reds drafted an outfielder named Chad Mottola, because he was willing to sign for $400,000. Perhaps Jeter would have been worth the extra 300 grand?
True, the Yankees can more easily afford to keep their players. True, they can more easily eat mistakes like the $12 million they paid David Cone. At the same time, they keep producing more good players and prospects
than other teams. They can trade for Chuck Knoblauch because they drafted Eric Milton with the 20th pick in the first round. They can trade for David
Justice because they had Ricky Ledee. They can trade for Denny Neagle
because they outbid everybody else.
|  | | The deal for David Justice put the Yankees over the top ... and might have sank Cleveland. |
And hey, other teams don't have to trade their good players to the Yankees. But they do, don't they?
Meanwhile, Selig continues to whine about the sport he oversees. Conveniently ignoring increasing attendance figures and increasing industry revenue, he told the National Press Club in a speech on Nov. 28 that "we need to solve our economic problems" and that most teams and fans are without "hope and faith" before the season even starts.
Selig also said only four or five teams have a chance to win the World Series. George W. Bush would call that some sort of "fuzzy math." After all, eight teams make the playoffs every year, and if you make the playoffs, you certainly have a chance to win the World Series.
In fact, since the Yankees' streak began in 1996, six different teams have reached the World Series. Four others have made it to the ALCS or NLCS. And that doesn't include young, up-and-coming teams like the A's and White Sox, who won division titles in 2000. Or the Giants, who had baseball's best record in 2000. Or the Astros, who have won three division titles in four years. Or the Dodgers and Cubs, who lack only the ability to properly spend their vast financial resources. Or the Rangers, Diamondbacks and Devil Rays,
who all began 2000 in the top 10 in payroll. Or the Blue Jays, who have the game's highest-paid player.
The Yankees have won three consecutive World Series because they've played the best baseball and gotten some breaks in October, not because they have the league's highest payroll. In fact, if Oakland's Terrence Long catches a fairly routine fly ball in the first inning of Game 5 of the AL Division Series, the A's likely win the game and advance to the ALCS -- the A's, with baseball's 25th-lowest payroll (lower than the Phillies, Brewers or Expos).
Heck, the Yankees actually weren't that good last season, winning 87 games and finishing with only the ninth-best record in baseball. They beat out the Red Sox by a mere 2½ games. The Indians missed the playoffs by one game. Perhaps if Cleveland hadn't traded Justice to the Yankees, the Indians would have won the World Series, the Red Sox would have won the East and the Yankees would have missed the playoffs.
But they did. They helped the enemy. And to make matters worse, the Indians are now paying the fragile Ellis Burks more than they would
have been paying Justice if they had kept him.
Also, keep in mind that in the last 10 years, the Yankees have never raised the salary bar and made one of their players the highest-paid in the game. It wasn't the Yankees who made Mo Vaughn -- not even the best first baseman at the time -- the highest-paid player in 1998. It wasn't the Yankees who gave Kevin Brown $30 million more than any other team was offering. It wasn't the Yankees who gave Carlos Delgado $17 million per year before he even tested free agency. It wasn't the Yankees who paid $15 million this offseason to mediocrities Cormier and Jose Mesa, thus inflating the market for the good relievers. In fact, Mussina's contract was for less total money and less annual average salary than Brown's.
And the Brewers? Well, it would be easier to have a little more hope and faith if they could learn how to properly spend the millions they do have.
David Schoenfield is the baseball editor at ESPN.com. He roots against the Yankees.
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Mike Mussina joins the pitching staff of the New York Yankees.
New York Yankees President Randy Levine feels Mike Mussina is a worthy investment for his organization.
