Sox Talk

I heard from my agent that the Yankees are about to offer me a $4 million contract if I don't rip them here, so I won't. Why not take it? After all, they're operating in a financial realm that no other team - not even the Red Sox or Mets - can fathom, apparently. They can afford it, it seems.

As much of an advantage as the Red Sox have over almost all the other teams (the Mets, Angels, and possibly the Orioles are the only other teams in the top tier of financial capacity, and you have to discount the Orioles because they're owned by a douchebag), the Yankees have over them. Which puts the Yankees a full quantum jump ahead of all the rest of baseball. Just the first 16 players on their current roster are going to be making about $185 million combined next year.

Basically, the best hope for Boston (and Tampa) is to see if this year becomes like the last time the Yankees tried to assemble a team by buying all the players in sight. It resulted in 15 years of mediocrity until they started developing minor-league talent during Steinbrenner's suspension. People think of the 1977-1978 Yankees as the first teams that bought titles. Really, there were two truly high-profile free agents on those teams - Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter. Other than that the teams were mainly assembled through trades and minor-leaguers that they developed. The return to prominence they had in the 1990s was pretty much the same thing - good trades, developing talent, and a couple of hired guns to fill the holes. This Yankees team is becoming an all-star squad, and I really wonder if they can break the Curse of A-Rod. I wasn't nuts about the Red Sox trying to sign Mark Teixeira (I was happy with the lineup as-is - assuming a healthy David Ortiz at DH and a healthy Mike Lowell), but I really thought he'd wind up in Washington or Baltimore.

Also worth noting - Scott Boras is evil. I think he stays young by drinking the blood of virgin gneral managers. And I stand by that opinion regardless of whether or not any of his players sign with Boston.