RINGOLSBY: Yankees aren't doing anything new

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 25, 2008 at 5:18 p.m.

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Before reacting to the Yankees signing free agent Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180 million contract, try taking a deep breath and counting to 10.

Yes, they signed Teixeira to the fourth-richest contract in major league history - right behind the 10-year, $275 million deal they gave Alex Rodriguez, the 10-year, $252 million deal Texas gave Rodriguez and the 10-year, $189 million deal New York gave Derek Jeter. It's just ahead of the eight-year, $161 million deal New York gave CC Sabathia.

No, it is no reason to pout and scream.

Milwaukee's Mark Attanasio, one of the new guys on the ownership block, has conjured up an age-old whine about the Yankees' offseason spending, saying it's a sign that baseball needs a salary cap. Chalk that off to sour grapes, having not even come close to re-signing Sabathia.

Bottom line is the Yankees are in a different financial stratosphere than most franchises, but they also have not done anything this offseason that signals any new era in the baseball world.

What the Yankees have done is redistribute the salaries they have lopped off their 2008 roster.

Despite the spending spree that brought them Teixeira, Sabathia and A.J. Burnett, which is in the running for the worst expenditure of the offseason; and trades that brought them left-handed reliever Damaso Marte and first baseman/outfielder Nick Swisher, and built-in raises for Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano, the Yankees' offseason efforts have added $79.05 million in payroll.

Meanwhile, the removal of Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu, Wilson Betemit, Morgan Ensberg, Kyle Farns worth, LaTroy Hawkins, Mike Mussina, Carl Pavano and Andy Pettitte from their Opening Day roster a season ago has slashed $90.22 million of payroll.

Oh, the Yankees will again have a payroll close to $200 million, the highest in baseball, but that provides no guarantees.

They went over $200 million a year ago and finished third in the American League East. Despite having the highest payroll in each of the last eight seasons, they haven't won a world championship in that stretch, made it to the World Series only twice, and in the last four years, are a combined 4-9 in playoff games.

INFIELD CHATTER

* The Yankees are looking to move two from a group of outfielders of Xavier Nady, Swisher and Hideki Matsui. The Angels, Texas, Oakland and Atlanta are considered to have interest.

* Free-agent outfielder Adam Dunn remains a favorite of Washington general manager Jim Bowden, who was in charge in Cincinnati when the Reds drafted Dunn and talked him out of playing football at Texas.

THE ROTATION

Fallout from Teixeira's signing with the Yankees:

* Left-handed closer Brian Fuentes now becomes the No. 1 target for the Angels, the one team that could give Fuentes the three-year, $30 million deal he anticipated.

* Outfielder Manny Ramirez doesn't have a legit option other than to return to the Dodgers, who now have no reason at all to raise their two-year offer.

* The Mets are the front- runners for right-hander Derek Lowe, with Boston unlikely to get involved in another serious negotiation with a client of agent Scott Boras right now.

* The Yankees aren't likely to keep their $10 million offer on the table for left-hander Andy Pet titte, who balked at taking a cut from last year's $16 million.

* Toronto now gets a third-round draft pick for the loss of Burnett to the Yankees, who lose their first-round pick to the Angels for Teixeira and second-round pick to Milwaukee for Sabathia.

OUT IN LEFT FIELD

For all the gripes about the Yankees signing Sabathia and Teixeira, at least they were the best pitcher and position player on the open market.

The signing that does damage to the system was giving Burnett a five-year, $82.5 million deal.

The oft-injured right-handers 18 victories in 2008 marked the only time in his career he has won more than 12 games.

He has made 30 starts twice - both seasons leading up to becoming a free agent.

CLOSING STATEMENT

Money might make it easier for teams to cover up poor judgment, but it doesn't guarantee success.

In the past seven years, only twice has a team with a payroll that ranked among the top 10 in baseball won a world championship - Boston in 2007 and 2004.

And the Red Sox are a team that might be among the big spenders but has built its success around homegrown talent.

In fact, in the past four years, there has been no more than five of the top 10 teams in terms of payroll who have even qualified for the postseason.

Other than the Red Sox in 2004 and 2007, the only other team that had a top-10 payroll that even advanced to the World Series was Detroit, which ranked ninth in 2006 when it lost to St. Louis.

Philadelphia, which ranked 12th in payroll last season, knocked off Tampa Bay, which ranked 29th, in the World Series, a year after Colorado, which ranked 25th, lost to Boston.

MILE HIGH WATCH

The Rockies are looking to add depth to their rotation. Instead of getting caught up in a bidding war for the likes of Tim Redding, who was nontendered by Washington and suddenly has a handful of teams running up his price, they could turn their attention to a more proven commodity such as Cubs right-hander Jason Marquis.

Marquis also is the other guy in a rotation but has proven to be durable, working at least 167innings each of the past five seasons. And with the Cubs anxious to move him to ease their rotation overload, they would seem likely to eat roughly half the $9,875,000 he is guaranteed in 2009.

Marquis also has shown in limited exposure he can handle the challenges of Coors Field. He has only five career appearances at altitude but is 3-0 with a 2.51ERA at Coors Field.

The 30-year-old right-hander also is an offensive factor. He is a career .231 hitter in 29 pinch-hit appearances.

* Left-hander Franklin Morales, pitching for Caracas in his native Venezuela this winter, not only has won his past three starts, but he allowed one run in 18 2/3 innings, striking out 17 and walking four. He is 4-3 with a 2.72 ERA.

* Right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who joined Licey for the playoff push in his native Dominican Republic, allowed five runs in five innings his first three appearances, including one start. Right- hander Juan Morillo, working in relief in the Dominican, has allowed one run while striking out 10 and walking four in 10 1/3 innings his past 10 appearances.

* Outfielder Ryan Spilborghs is 8-for-44 with 13 strikeouts in his first 12 games with Obregon in the Mexican Pacific League. ... Catcher Yorvit Torrealba is hitting .299 for Magarita in his native Venezuela, including .345 in his last 10 games.

• December 25, 2008

  7:36 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  puxico1 writes:

  The bottom line is the Yankees keep the players they want to keep. Teams like the Rockies cannot, players want to go where they have a chance to win. remember Matt Hollidays comments, money is not the motivating reason by itself. Fans will finally stop spending their hard earned money for 5.00 hotdogs etc, high tickets prices for teams that will never compete on a consistent basis. The Rockies have made the playoffs twice in 16 years. The point that teams with high payrolls don't always win is stupid. The way the system is set up it's difficult to win a world series. High revenue teams make the playoffs more often and thats a fact.

• December 26, 2008

  9:58 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Yankee writes:

  The Rockies have a more sensiblbe approach.

  1. Finish last or next-to-last for decades and stock up on low round draft choices.

  2. When player develops and demands a high salary, let him go and talk about the other good low round draft choices.

  3. If player doesn't develop, let him go to Japan.

  4. Stay in the NL west and hope the players don't win 20 out of 21 in August (unlikely).

  That has been effective at covering up bad judgement while keeping the money and works as long as enough people who don't know or care about baseball keep buying tickets (and stuff).

• December 26, 2008

  10:20 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  avsfan71085 writes:

  I hope the Yankees do terrible, not likely, but I hope they do. What a joke though, we can't sign anyone in this crap economy. Yet the Yankees get Burnett, Pettite, Sabathia and Teixeira. Of course you can't forget other guys like A-rod and Jeter, what a joke. Look at this crap...

  Mark Teixeira to an eight-year, $180 million contract
  10 Year $275 million deal they gave Alex Rodriguez
  10-year $189 million deal New York gave Derek Jeter
  Eight-year $161 million deal New York gave CC Sabathia
  5 year 82.5 million for Burnett

  total - 887.5 ON FIVE PLAYERS!!!! No wonder nobody can compete, you have to have one lucky one season if your every other team.

• December 26, 2008

  1:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  arvada_mark writes:

  I realize the Yanks are about as popular as W. is right now, but I have to admire their fighting spirit. They have placed winning above all else, including money. It makes me jealous. Where I won't pay to see the Rox play (I feel the front office won't commit to winning), I'd fork out double what I've paid in the past to see the Yanks play on a regular basis. They field half of an All*Star team.

  I also kind of like Marquis (for a middle of the road pitcher anyway). He's mentally tough (like B-Fuent)...something all of our guys could use a heavy dose of. I can't believe the Cubs were paying him nearly $10mil though. Half of that is still probably too much for a guy that probably shouldn't even make our rotation (injuries would probably afford him the chance, however), but the front office has to be desperate for pitching after taking such a lowball offer for our best player. I'd still take him over Greg Smith any day.
  "Smith's mildly impressive 2008 season was a stone fluke. His 111/82 K/BB is poor, and he got away with it largely because the A's played ridiculous defense behind him, allowing just a .258 batting average on Smith's balls in play. ...Smith doesn't have impressive stuff, and he wasn't exactly blowing people away in the Southern League. You can get away with that if you throw nothing but strikes, but walking four men per nine innings and not getting strikeouts is going to get you killed." Joe Sheehan, Baseball Prospectus (SI.com-11/13/2008). This guy is none too impressed with Street either.

  Since I won't be buying a Rox jersey this year, I think I'll get me a Fuentes Angels jersey (I hope he signs there). I'll gladly support Mr. Moreno's ball club.

• December 26, 2008

  3:01 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  jersey writes:

  Ringo you are right about one thing in this being nothing new. I was still living back in NJ when Steinbrenner signed an over the hill washed up Don Sutton of the Braves to a whopping (for the time) 200G's a year. It snowballed from there with the big bucks given to Reggie Jackson coming over from Baltimore and the rest. He definitely raised the bar higher than was neccesary which allienated a number of owners whom many still harbor animosity towards him to this day. A Scribe once asked the Phillies outfielder, whose name escapes me at the moment, if he thought he was worth 800G's a year and he said "Hell no but if they want to pay it I'll gladly take it"! The rest is history.

• December 26, 2008

  5:09 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  GeeTee writes:

  Can't blame the players for taking the $$. The Yankees are still a 3rd-place team for 2009 in the AL East.

• December 27, 2008

  8:25 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ColoradoSportsFaninTexas writes:

  Agree with Puxico1 and Yankee...

  Although huge payrolls are not a guarantee for World Series success, they do allow for a team which CONSISTENTLY challenges for division titles. Although the Yankees finished 3in the East, at least it went down to the final weeks of the season, which is more than the Rockies had accomplished. For now, I would be happy if the Rockies even get a sniff of a division title....

  It took a "perfect storm" of circumstances for the Rockies to get into the playoffs a few years ago, but unless the Rockies manage to increase their payroll and bring in some bonafide star players, than it will be the same old cycle which Yankee refers too...

  It doesnt bother me that the Yankees have such a huge payroll...It just shows me that their ownership is more interested in producing a winner, and that is much more than I can say for the Monforts....

  The irony of all this is that I wouldnt be surprised if Matt Holliday will be wearing Yankee pinstripes either late this year, or the following year, and bashing the ball all over the place....

  The bottom line is this. I think the Monforts are one of the worst ownership groups in baseball, and should have sold to Stan Kroenke when he wanted to buy them a few years back....But since they decided to hold on to the team, it just means that Rockies fans will get more of the same year in and year out, as Yankee so accurately points out....

• December 27, 2008

  5:42 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dabumster writes:

  The argument that nobody should complain about the Yankees because they are actually cutting payroll from last year even with all the signings is assuming that a $200 million payroll was okay to begin with..which is isn't.

• December 29, 2008

  4:57 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  wharfratg writes:

  I can't think of a single reason why MLB shouldn't have a salary cap. Get with the program, baseball. There's a reason why the NFL is flourishing, and it starts with the fact that the league is balanced enough that we can watch teams other than the Patriots and Jets play on Sunday night football. If I wanted to watch the haves vs. have-nots, I'd go watch the Globetrotters vs. Generals.
  A $200 million payroll for any baseball team is a joke.

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