Are the Yankees smart or dumb? Yes!

Here is what is smart about the Yankees…their Marketing Department. If there is any group that deserves a $275 million contract, it’s them. This is the group that reels in the big bucks, so that the Yankees can have a payroll of $200 million plus. They are the ones that make the endorsement deals with shoe and apparel companies, sell the stadium name rights (by the way they are selling naming rights, yet it will still be called Yankee Stadium…whoever puts money out for this, their Marketing Dept. needs to be canned), and the YES network. Overall the Yankees are worth around $1.2 billion, which clearly has a lot to do with the marketing of the Yankees.

All of that is well and good, but isn’t the point to win championships? Yes, yes, they have the most World Championships in baseball history, but lets talk about the last ten years when they became dumb. I have covered some of this in previous posts, but after they won 3 championships in 4 years, they thought the way to go was to pay huge amounts of money to the stars of the league. However, they didn’t decide to spend all that money on the most important part of the team…the pitching staff and that’s what they are doing once again. In the last 10 years they have went to signing hitters…A-Rod, Giambi, Abreu, Sheffield, Damon, etc. while forgetting to sign pitching. Instead they decided to sign Mussina, Pettite (second time around), Randy Johnson, and Clemens (at age 45!!!). They also just threw out a 3-yr. $45 million contract to Rivera, who is on the decline…still a quality closer, but not for that money. Why do the Yankees not go after solid pitching, rather than just add more hitters? Pitching wins championships, period. Red Sox, Cardinals, White Sox, Marlins, etc. all had solid starting rotations when they won their championships. When will the Yankees catch on?

Some of you are going to say why do you care so much, when you dislike the Yankees? It’s not about my dislike of the Yankees, it’s sad to see people throw money down the drain like the Yankees are doing...ok maybe I think it's hilarious.