OK Yankees, This Is Getting Ridiculous

[Tom Crean's Tanning Bed]

$180 million for Teixeira.  $423.5 million in new contracts this off-season.  The four highest paid players in baseball. 

More power to them, but seriously, this is starting to become beyond ridiculous.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3790141

[chonefigs]

Let's not forget the fact that they made this type of move a few years ago signing the likes of A Rod, Giambi, the Unit, Pavano, etc. etc.... What has spending money like it's going out of style gotten them??? A few Red Sox World Championships.  They've had the best teams on paper in the past 8 years and it's gotten them squat.

[TallTitan34]

Let's not forget the fact that they made this type of move a few years ago signing the likes of A Rod, Giambi, the Unit, Pavano, etc. etc.... What has spending money like it's going out of style gotten them??? A few Red Sox World Championships.  They've had the best teams on paper in the past 8 years and it's gotten them squat.

+1  They may make it to the playoffs but they won't win a championship.  When they won their World Series in the 90's they had homegrown talent Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, etc.  Ever since they went crazy on the free agent signings they haven't won crap.

[LON]

And CC had the nuts to say that expectations in Milwaukee would have been higher than they will in NY...

[wadesworld]

"According to Forbes magazine, 16 of the 30 major-league teams are worth less than what the Yankees paid for Teixeira, Sabathia and Burnett."

[AlumKCof93]

Starting to get ridiculous?  It was ridiculous years ago. its just more blatant this year.

While NY and the NY media love this, its terrible for baseball.  Not for Yankees fans, but why even bother being a fan in Toronto, Baltimore, or Tampa.  Why spend $40/ticket to see a game for a team that has to overcome such great odds to even make a run?  MLB needs both a salary cap and a salary floor.

The biggest question about all of the Yankees spending is if the Yanks have so much money, why did the taxpayers have to spend so much for the new stadium. If I was in NY and not a baseball fan, I'd be furious.

[77ncaachamps]

Let them spend. With those Yankee fans and corporate big wigs paying for the more expensive seats at the new ballpark, the Yankees "can" afford to pay them but really NEED to pay the big names to open up the new stadium.

The Yankee fan base will wisen up some time...

[chcsportsfan]

Its also really not that ridiculous when you realize they added ~ 63 million to their payroll this year....they are losing ~ 80 million from last season...giambi, pavano, petitte and like 2 other guys...honestly, why shouldnt they spend...if people are going to pay so much to go to a yankees game the least the organization can do is show they are trying to win by signing the best available players...granted sometimes these huge deals do not work out, ie pavano...but it shows they are trying, not like i could say for the cubs for a long time until recently...

[LON]

Its also really not that ridiculous when you realize they added ~ 63 million to their payroll this year....they are losing ~ 80 million from last season...giambi, pavano, petitte and like 2 other guys...honestly, why shouldnt they spend...if people are going to pay so much to go to a yankees game the least the organization can do is show they are trying to win by signing the best available players...granted sometimes these huge deals do not work out, ie pavano...but it shows they are trying, not like i could say for the cubs for a long time until recently...

Well, there is trying and then there is extending your middle finger to the rest of the league...

[77ncaachamps]

Well, there is trying and then there is extending your middle finger to the rest of the league...

How is it a middle finger?

Isn't there revenue sharing in MLB?

[wadesworld]

Its also really not that ridiculous when you realize they added ~ 63 million to their payroll this year....they are losing ~ 80 million from last season...giambi, pavano, petitte and like 2 other guys...honestly, why shouldnt they spend...if people are going to pay so much to go to a yankees game the least the organization can do is show they are trying to win by signing the best available players...granted sometimes these huge deals do not work out, ie pavano...but it shows they are trying, not like i could say for the cubs for a long time until recently...

Sabathia + Burnett + Texiera < Giambi + Pavano + Petitte + 2 others?  Doubtful.

And it definitely is sticking your middle finger up to the rest of the league.  The Yankees asked the Brewers to pay part of Mike Cameron's contract if the trade for Melky Cabrera had happened, this after they gave CC $61 million more than the Brewers offered.  Middle finger.

[muwarrior87]

Sabathia + Burnett + Texiera < Giambi + Pavano + Petitte + 2 others?  Doubtful.

And it definitely is sticking your middle finger up to the rest of the league.  The Yankees asked the Brewers to pay part of Mike Cameron's contract if the trade for Melky Cabrera had happened, this after they gave CC $61 million more than the Brewers offered.  Middle finger.

yes, actually it is less. Giambi was over 20 last year, Pavano was 11, Petitte was 10, and I think it was the others, not two, around 13-17 million. Which is around 80 million and that is more than 63

[reinko]

They shed Bobby Abreu's contract for like 18 mil or so.

[ecompt]

What they're doing is trying to drive everyone else in baseball out of business. They set the market for players, and no one can compete with them. Selig begged the owners not to overspend this winter due to the economy and people being laid off, so what do the Yankees do? Not only spend $430 million but then turn around and ask the government to pay for the rest of their $1.3 billion stadium. The Yankees have not paid one nickel towards the cost of the stadium -- every penny came from taxpayers. They are the reason people hate New Yorkers.

[reinko]

Not exactly true ecompt.  True they are asking for a 350 million tax free bond, but the Yanks put up an initial 800 mill of their own money.

Baseball prospectus has a good breakdown.

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=4732

[ecompt]

The public has already paid $900 million through municipal bonds (New York Post, June 27, 2008); now the Yankees are asking for another $360 million. Since teams building new stadiums can take their costs out of their revenue-sharing bill, the Yankeres are getting their new stadium for free. Their financing of the stadium and the ways Bloomberg bent the real-estate laws to give them more tax exemptions are still being investigated by Congress.