Yankee Aplogist?

An obvious statement would be that the New York Yankees are the most hated team in baseball. Countless times I have had conversations with friends, co-workers, and strangers about the New York Yankees. Every complaint revolves around the Yankees buying their players and they are sick of seeing money win championships instead of teams. I am not a Yankee sympathizer, in fact, they are my most hated team, but for more classical rivalry reasons. I always find myself having to defend them in the arguments with all of these people. There are a few things people need to realize about how the Yankees have been consistently successful over the last 15 years.

This year, every broadcaster has been announcing that the Yankees have the three players that have played the longest together for any franchise in any sport. That is 15 years together for Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera. This is reason alone to give credit to the Yankees success, but other teams have had some great players be around the team and not produced winning results. So, the question is “why did the Yankees find so much success?”

What people need to realize, is that the Yankees had core players that have lasted at the most key positions in baseball. Most every baseball man will tell you, the key to winning is up the middle defense. You want catcher, shortstop, center field and pitching. The Yankees had this covered with Jorge Posada being a great game caller and a potent bat, Derek Jeter with great range (for the first 10 years) and the greatest number 2 hitter in the last 15 years, and Mariano Rivera with the cut fastball that breaks lefty bats and leaves righty bats swinging at air. He is without a doubt, the greatest closer of all time. Those are 3 really big time positions to lock up for 15 years, but there is more when you add in Bernie Williams patrolling center field for 10 years of this stretch and hitting over .300 in the postseason. Andy Pettite was in the rotation for the majority of these years. Paul O’Neill stood solid in right field for the majority of those years. You can even throw in Orlando Hernandez with a 6 year run. While all these staples of the Yankee system came up and played at an extremely high level, they were able to produce more talent in the minors and take risks on high talent, questionable prospects like Robinson Cano, who looks to inherit the role of the new Yankees as this generation slows down.

So, while it’s true that the Yankees have spent a lot of money on some high class free agents, they are spending it on positions that most any team can buy players and get decent production. Corner infield and outfield are positions that can be filled fairly easily and if the Yankees out bid everyone by 100 million for Mark Teixera and the Nationals pay Adam Dunn 10% of that and get close to equal production, it’s not that big of an advantage. Plus, other teams have plenty of free agents on the corners to bid with the Yankees. Seattle tried the “buying” a championship mentality by signing Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson in the same offseason only to realize that they just spent a ton of money for two positions that can be filled a lot cheaper with comparable or better production. The Yankees are able to hide this reality with headlines of huge contracts and then all the wins on the backbone of their core position players up the middle. They have had the luxury to be able to trade minor league players in their system to help with their pitching staff because of the players on the major league roster in key positions that continued to perform. The Yankees dominant run as been due to the talent and performance of these centerpieces and their ability to stay healthy. The Red Sox have been looking for a solution at shortstop since Nomar Garciaparra and have yet to find one (not to mention the 20 years prior to Nomar.) The Twins have been looking for a consistent shortstop for 30 years (since Greg Gagne) and have yet to find one. The Yankees have supplemented these core players with headline grabbing power and pitching, but it’s only because they have had the luxury to do so based on the steady play of Jeter, Posada, Rivera, Bernie Williams, and Andy Pettite.

These Yankees are on the tail end of their careers. Yes, Jeter will play another 3-4 years probably, Posada maybe another 2 years, and we don’t know about Mariano or Andy. So, now that the Yankees are about to lose those players, they are going to be in the same boat as a lot of teams in looking for a consistent shortstop, a lock down closer, and a great game calling and offensively proficient catcher. Without these players, the Yankees spending may look more like the overspending that Seattle did years ago with Sexson and Beltre, or look like the Dodgers with Kevin Brown, or the Rockies with Mike Hampton, or the Cubs with Alfonso Soriano, or countless other massive contracts that are ignored because their teams didn’t succeed like the Yankees. Pitching and corner positions are a dime a dozen, but when a team is looking for catching, up the middle defense and a shut down closer under pressure, it’s a little bit harder to fill those. Teams, both big market and small, don’t just let those kinds of players walk on the free agent market (Joe Mauer, Hanley Ramirez, and Matt Kemp are recent examples.)

When people argue that the Yankees are buying championships, I think you have to look a little deeper than the headlines. Look in to the eyes of the beast, look deep in the abyss and see that Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada stare right back at you. The Yankees didn’t buy championships any more than numerous other clubs could have. They didn’t develop any more talent than any other club could have. They just supplemented their core, the same thing any other team would try to do if they had developed a great shortstop, catcher, center fielder and closer at exactly the same time. The Yankees will be a new team in couple years. They will cross their fingers that Joba can replace Mariano, that Jesus Montero can stay behind the plate and replace Posada, and that they can find a shortstop to last half the time, and have half the production of Jeter. The 2013 Yankees will be in the middle of their transitional phase. So, be patient Yankee haters. Their reign of terror will end soon and they will be fishing for talent in the key positions just like the rest of major league baseball.

- J Filth