Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Babes in Arms


The New York press corp is falling all over themselves to talk about the "new" exciting Yankees. They talk about how the home grown talent of the Yankees has infused the clubhouse with a new energy. Isn't it just amazing how winning produces chemistry. Of course it's all crap. The Yankees are missing Matsui and Sheffield from their lineup at this point. That's about 50 home runs and 230 rbi's. At some point that will take a toll and the press will change their tune.

I love the way the press jumps on the bandwagon when things are going well. They can't help but talk about how the Yankees haven't gone into the market and traded prospects for some expensive replacement. The press is actually trying to portray the Yankees as underdogs. The problem is that as soon as these players stop producing, they will be screaming for the Yankees to trade for Alfonso Soriano. Yankee players have been getting hurt at an alarming rate this year, but with a $200 million payroll, they should be able to weather almost any storm. It's not a miracle that they are playing well. They should play well. The only person on the team that's irreplaceable is Rivera. They should be able to play around any other combination of injuries.

The combined salary of the Yankees first five hitters (Damon, Jeter, Giambi, Arod and Posada) is $84 million dollars. If Johnson or Mussina are on the mound that pushes the total to over $100 million dollars, which is a higher payroll than all but a couple of teams in the majors. I think a team with $100 million worth of talent on the field should be able to compete with any team in the majors. On any given day the Yankees field a handful of probable hall of famers. I don't think that there's another team in baseball that can say that.

So there is no reason to applaud the recent play of the Yankees as something special. They are doing what they are supposed to do, injuries notwithstanding. They start the game with one hall of famer (Randy Johnson) and close it with another (Mariano Rivera) and in between the ball is hit and caught by few other cooperstown bound players (Arod, Jeter, Sheffield (maybe)). I'm just as thrilled as any other Yankee fan that the team is in first place, but I'm not about to jump up and down about it. First of all it's June and secondly, they are doing what the team is paid to do, what they are supposed to do. Win.

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home