Its the 1980's all over again

[borgy]

Thanks George--- Wonder what will happen if his horse doesn't win the Derby.

Are Mr. Torre's days numbered??

Freaken back to back losses to Tampon Bay? Jeez Louise--

[SPORE]

I think cashman goes before torre.

[borgy]

I think cashman goes before torre.

There were odds in the Daily news today to who might get the axe

Kevin Brown 5-2
Brian Cashman 4-1
Mel Stottlemyre 13-2
Joe Torre 10-1
Jason Giambi 10-1
Don Mattingly 20-1
Mariano Rivera 30-1

[skiadikt]

i still think the team can turn it around but it starts with pitching. not resigning petite was the major most recent blunder. huge. the guy was born & raised a yankee and had the mental toughness these other guys have lacked. womack for cairo though smaller was another. i think the root of the problem has been a self inflicted bloating of the payroll where they've overpayed when they didn't have to particularly with their home grown players. case 1 is bernie. they could have signed him the year before his free agency for much less. instead they let him go free agent, the red sox almost signed him and george had to up the ante at the last minute. derek was willing to sign a $114M contract the year before his free agency. george didn't pull the trigger and jeter got $189M the next year. a diff of $75M. this has had the effect of them maybe not spending on the spare parts & roll players and led to this knee jerk spending on overvalued 'superstars' who were going to save the day but who have no business being in a yankee uniform (giambi, brown & even a-rod). again petite is the shining example. immediately after the '03 season andy expressed what i thought was a sincere desire to return but the yankees decided to let him try out the free agent market to get an idea of what he was worth. he signs w/houston for $30M for 3 yrs & the yankees sign brown for $30M for 2 yrs getting older at the same time. really stupid.

[Cityskier]

Their payroll is a problem, but they bring in so much more cash than any other team that it really isn't that big of a deal.

The bigger problem is that they have depleted their entire farm system to bring in big name old free agents, like Randy. Now they have a bunch of guys whose contracts they cannot move, and even worse, they have no young talent of any value to offer in trade. Even if George is willing to eat some big, bad contracts (Brown and Giambi) I think the Yanks will have a very tough time digging themselves out of this hole.

When you're getting smoked by the D-Rays you are in some legitimate trouble.

[borgy]

Their payroll is a problem, but they bring in so much more cash than any other team that it really isn't that big of a deal.

The bigger problem is that they have depleted their entire farm system to bring in big name old free agents, like Randy. Now they have a bunch of guys whose contracts they cannot move, and even worse, they have no young talent of any value to offer in trade. Even if George is willing to eat some big, bad contracts (Brown and Giambi) I think the Yanks will have a very tough time digging themselves out of this hole.

When you're getting smoked by the D-Rays you are in some legitimate trouble.

I agree--

The yankees latest championships were products of Buck Showalter and Gene Michael. They used their farm system to bring up players like Bernie, Derek, Pettite and cherry picked a few free agents to round out the team. Now that big bad George is sticking his nose back in the picture, all we get is some really great players, but who have no idea how to play together. Also the pitching is in shambles. I think George should eat some contracts and start rebuilding from the bottom up. I think he can afford it especially with $8 beers and $5 hot dogs. It's time to clean house and start all over again. JMHO GO YANKEES!!!!

[Stormchaser]

Bottom line is teams win, not players. You can have all the best players in the world, but if you don't have a team, you won't have the heart and desire that you need to win.