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Saturday, June 15, 2019

A Thought Experiment, Third Time's a Charm!

Okay, so what's it all mean?

Sure, that super team I just imagined is pretty unlikely.  There are few if any management teams who would ever be so perceptive or so ruthless.

Once the Yanks had acquired, say, a Scherzer and a Sale, it's highly unlikely that they would have shelled out for a Verlander, as well.  After picking up a Yelich, they probably would not have bothered to go after J.D. Martinez, too.

But that's not the point.

Even with, say, 3 of these 5 players, the Yanks would have easily steamrolled their way to a ring in 2017 and 2018, and been sitting pretty again this season, injuries or no injuries.  And in that case their payroll would have been maybe $20-$40 million lower.

Let's take a gander at the figures.

My dream team Yankees would cost just under $242 mill—not counting whatever MLB cartel penalties would be tacked on.

But the Cash and Hal Yanks—Cash and No-Cash?—slipping quickly backwards cost...$225 mill, according to Spotrac.  (The website also puts the Yanks' "adjusted" payroll at $210 mill—whatever that means—plus $19 mill in tax, making for a total of $229 million.)

In other words, close to the best possible team the Yanks could have come up with would have cost maybe $13-$17 million more than the fumbling, floundering team with little future that we have now.

Of course, the Dream Team Yankees' romp to the world championship in 2017 and 2018 would've made up that $13-$17 million many times over, in ticket sales, added broadcast money, foreign rights, paraphernalia, etc.

So what does that tell us?

That Hal Steinbrenner is not just cheap.  He's a dope.

Had he hired some good help and set them to aggressively building a great team the way so many Yankees owners and executives have done for most of the last century, he would have made much more money.  He could have outdone his father hands down.

But he wasn't willing to risk it.  Instead he kept small men around him to make himself feel big.

He'll go on making money because it's almost impossible not to in major-league baseball these days. But in the years ahead, as the seats get emptier and emptier and the ratings drop lower and lower, we can only hope he'll see how much more money he could have made.  






11 comments:

Oasisdave said...

This whole thing is about to go down the poop shute. Voit's already swinging for the fences every at bat. Once Stanton comes back that mentality will only grow. Starting pitching is bleak and instead of spending what amount to a few pennies for Hal if we want to improve we now have to trade talented youth away. We'll, it's not like I've said anything that already hasn't been preached here before. Such a shame that things COULD be so good with just a relatively few smart decisions. But Cooperstown and and Food Stamps just don't have it in them.

tentigers said...

Accurate article. George may have "overkilled" when he spent to win championships, but Hal does just the opposite. Paying out for players to WIN the world series at all costs, just doesn't register with him. He does as little spending as he can get away with (before we put his head on a spike), and perpetrating his "savy spending" fraud. The worst thing the Yankees could have done this year was playing so far over their heads, that Hal thinks himself a genius. Now the bill is due or the season is a waste. GET THE PITCHING YOU NEED DICKHEAD! Now we have to empty our farm system to overpay for, most likely, rent-a-pitchers. WE BETTER GET SOMEONE like Strohman and another young ace-type or this season is the mirage it has been up till now. Pay the fking piper!

JM said...

In a world where numbers seem to be everything (said in my best movie trailer voice), these numbers show that "savvy spending" would have produced quite a hell of a team. Sure, it's all in retrospect and who knows if the players in question would even have wanted to play here, but it puts the lie to the stupid narrative that management keeps trying to trot out.

Maybe the best investment Hal can make is to hire the now-unemployed Sarah Sanders. She could be the public mouthpiece for Hal and Cash, and deny every lame move (that never happened!) and defend every non-spending decision (those are actually fake numbers!), to bolster the transparently hapless (at this point, if only we were Happless), money-grubbing strategies of the Evil (but thrifty!) Empire.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Well, this is what I'm saying—and like most of us here, I've been saying it for years now.

It's NOT a second-guess—you didn't have to be a genius to see this coming (NOT that I'm NOT saying y'all are geniuses!).

The kicker is that if Hal had wanted to be serious about building a great team from the ground up, we would've gone for that, too. But he never would bring in the front office team adept at spotting talent, developing it (and keeping it from getting hurt!) that that would have entailed.

Instead, almost the minute any front office talent raises his head, he's off to join another team—such as whatshisname that Jeter snatched away from us.

One can only conclude that this is to help Hal keep thinking he's a big, big man. The pygmies dart about, telling him he's doing the right thing, conning the press corps and spinning their stories.

It will all break down someday, and likely someday soon. But by that time Hal will likely be spending most of his time in England, building his Global Sports Empire.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And unfortunately, the narrative for this season is already written:

'The Yanks had a real contender going into it but, gosh darnit all, the injuries, you know. As it was, Cashie did a great job getting the Yankees in it at all. Wait 'til next year!'

And next year, of course, it will be something else. Another lat strain, another oblique pull, another TJ operation.

Again, the truth will eventually out like those oozing, black, sulfurous puddles in the basement that reveal you built you luxury condo tower over the site of an old toxic waste dump. But until then...

Ken of Brooklyn said...

EXCELLENT thought experiment Hoss, a home run> smack dab>right on the money!!!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Toxic waste dump? Say it aint so!

Calling Troma pictures and the Toxic Avenger! That's the Sarah I want as the Yankees spokesbabe!

Carl J. Weitz said...

Horace.. Gary Denbo.

But he was hardly the first guy who bolted the Yankees or was fired only to be replaced by incompetent yes men in their Bloated Front Office.

Just look at the current SF Giants: recently won 3 WS in 5 years because they hired Brian Sabaen, Dick Tidrow, Dave Righetti, Fran Weld along with some other junior-level ex Yankee executives.

Many other examples but here is one more: Syd Thrift. He left the Yankees and quickly made the Pirates champs three successive years, 1990-1992.

Hal should have his last name forcibly changed to Hal Thrift.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Thanks, Ken. And thanks for that, Carl Weitz.

Executives fleeing was a constant problem under the Mad King. Rosen, Bergesh, Tal Smith, Tallis, and especially Pat Gillick...these were all big losses. George's failure to control his temper became a huge liability.

But at least he was honestly trying to win.

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