"They Bought the Pennant "

Mike Ilitch played "poor boy" with the Tigers for a decade, spending nickels and dimes in between moronic free-agent flyers on washed-up burnouts, finally decided to spend tons of money on four guys who finally produced, the farm system kicked out a couple of golden arms, and all of a sudden he's making so much money he doesn't know what to do with it.

Spend money to make money.

 

I didn't look up Wang because it usually takes a hunk of change to bring players over from SE Asia (now you're going to tell me he was born and raised in Hoboken).

OK, the Yankees, playing with the same resources as everyone else, would get to keep him, too.

The Howard supposition was obviously not stated with any authority, begging someone who licks Selig's balls and knows the numbers backward and forward to post whether it was true or not.

 

First, he's in a major market.

Second, I doubt his TV revenue has changed much the past five years,

Third, you are right, he spent a ton of money, which with a new stadium that he gets all concession and suite sales from and his being in the 11th-largest market, he should have been doing since the minute Comerica opened.

 

I'm gonna say: Man, Id' love to see how many games Terry Ryan, with the stratospheric acumen he possesses, would win with 130 million MORE dollars.

More, though, I would like to see Cashman exposed as the putz that I am sure he is in a competition against at least a dozen more qualified GMs operating with the same pursestrings.

 

He'll be saying Go Twins! If he knows what's good for him.

 

That comparison is a bit ridiculous. The Astros' payroll was nowhere near Yankee levels. Yes, they spent to bring Kent, Beltran, Clemens and Pettitte from the outside. But Bagwell was not bought. He was a minor-leaguer in the Red Sox's system when the Astros traded reliever Larry Anderson for him.

Ensberg, Berkman and Biggio were home-grown, as were stars like Brad Lidge (hey, he was last year) and Roy Oswalt and role players like Burke and Everett.

And the catcher came from outside? Like Brad Ausmus qualifies as a big-ticket item?

The Yankees' payroll is over $100 million more than the next highest in baseball. Only one or two other teams in baseball would be able to take on a contract like Abreu's upon losing two corner outfielders with big salaries.

Hey, they play within the system. But to say there is no imbalance because jackasses like McClatchy don't do the right thing with their money is ridiculous. And there is a big difference between the owner having big money and the team bringing in big revenue.

Steinbrenner gets the kind of return on his investment no team in baseball except maybe the Mets could ever get no matter how well the organization is run. That makes a big difference when it comes time to spend on talent.

 

The Red Sox bought their World Series, and it was treated as if it was the purest event of sports in the past 25 years.

 

His TV revenue will rocket over the moon next year, as the Tigers negotiate new contracts coming off a great season. As will season ticket and luxury suite sales.

 

It should be noted that the Yankees did not sign ARod and Abreu to their current contracts. Those were both unique situations not totally related to on the field considerations.

In the case of ARod, Rangers owner Tom Hicks wanted to develop property in the Arlington area around the stadium. There were PR considerations in place. In the case of Abreu, there might have been an extra financial commitment because the Phillies were opening a new stadium.

The Yankees payroll is so high because they have been successful over the past 10 years, and players who have been there for a while benefit, which explains the contracts of Jeter, Mariano, and Posada, and because they need to make the playoffs to draw 4-million people and sell advertising on YES - hence signing Johnny Damon to strenghten the Yankees and weaken the Red Sox. If the Yankees win a World Series, signing Randy Johnson was a good move; if they, don't, it was a bad contract.

When I was in economics class, I learned there was something (I hope I can remember the right term) called the Law of Diminishing Returns. The way the professor explained it was... if you had been playing tennis on a hot day, when you drink the first beer you get a lot of satisfaction out of it... it's cold and it tastes great. The second beer, you enjoy but not as much. Anything after that, and the effect wears off and starts to be counter productive.

If you owned a store and bought a second or third store, you would benefit because your costs for administrative expenses would be lower for each store and you could get a better profit because you could buy in larger quantities. At some point, however, you would end up competing with yourself and some stores wouldn't be as profitable. At some point, you don't get a return for your money.

The point is, spending money isn't always the answer and there are limits. See Pavano, Carl.

 

Great point about A-Rod's contract. As a matter of fact, aren't the Rangers paying the Yankees to cover part of his salary? Apparently, not even the Yankees think any player is worth that much.

 

The value of TV rights is dictated mostly by the size of the market, not whether or not the team is good.

If everybody in KC is watching the Royals games, it still doesn't make the rights worth as much as they are in NY if a quarter of the people are watching the Yankees.

So dispel yourselves of the notion that a big year in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati will jump TV rights fees to anything approaching a Yankees level.

 

Yes, the Rangers paid $67-million of teh remainder of A-Rod's contract.