Posted 9:45 AM by Sean
With the addition of Cuban defector Jose Contreras ($32M over four years) to the pitching staff, and Japanese all-star Hideki Matsui ($21M over three years) to the lineup, the Yankees now have a $140 million dollar payroll for 2003. That's one-four-zero, zero-zero-zero, zero-zero-zero dollars, or well over twice the payroll of the Angels' 2002 world championship team. Actually, folks seem to disagree about the payroll - this New York Times story puts the number at $158M, and likely to grow to about $168M when they sign Clemens. The ESPN story puts the Yankees' luxury tax liability at about $7.5M.

Does Steinbrenner care about the luxury tax? It would seem not. Brian Cashman, the Yankees' GM, is quoted by ESPN as saying "The mindset is still for me to reduce payroll. Obviously, when the opportunities to sign Hideki Matsui or Jose Contreras presented themselves, it was time for us to make decisions, to move now and continue to work on cutting the payroll down the line.'' This explains Steinbrenner's physique; it's the same philosophy he applies to dieting. "The mindset is still for me to reduce fat. Obviously, when the opportunities to eat the cherry-cheese danish or the extra-crispy bucket from KFC presented themsevles, it was time for me to make decisions, to eat now and continue to work on cutting the calories down the line."

Ironically, Steinbrenner is one of the very few (if not the only) owners in the game to have the, uh, luxury of ignoring the tax, since his team has a huge built-in advantage in terms of popularity, the payoff for decades of dominance. So his TV deals are much more lucrative, his brand marketing is easier, and, as was the case with Contreras, he has a leg up on signing the most desirable free agents. The money being equal (and sometimes even if its not), free agents prefer the Yankees because they know they'll have a chance to win in New York. Occasionally, you'll find someone who offers a tepid defense of Steinbrenner along the lines of "well, he may be loathsome, but at least he spends the money necessary to improve his team." Bullshit. Steinbrenner spends money on the Yankees because he knows that a mediocre team won't cut it in New York - he's got so much money tied up in them that even a couple of seasons in which they're out of contention would collapse the whole thing like the proverbial house of cards. Admiring Steinbrenner for his willingness to spend money is like buying your local used car lot manager a beer for keeping the cars so shiny.

But the Yankees won't win forever - no team does. And when the collapse comes, complete with an apoplectic, desperate Steinbrenner, it will be epic, thunderous, and very, very entertaining.

Posted 2:03 PM by Sean
Looks like Santa left a turd in the Angels' stocking: Brad Fullmer was released last Friday. Perhaps more troubling, Stoneman is quoted as saying a couple of fairly stupid things, such as indicating that Fullmer is one of a half-dozen interchangeable guys available on the free agent market, and that he wasn't part of the "core" of the team. Now, keep in mind that the Angels might actually still sign Fullmer as a free agent, and released him primarily so that they wouldn't have to go to arbitration and risk having to pay him $5 million next year. So suppose they do managed to sign him as a free agent - makes for a nice, chummy clubhouse, huh? And who, exactly, is in this magical "core?" Do they have their own special lockers?

Anyway, apart from Fullmer, the guys mentioned in the article as possible left-handed DH for the Angels include Robert Fick, David Ortiz, Reggie Sanders, Frank Catalanotto, and Jose Cruz Jr. Let's look at what they've done against right-handers in the past three years, starting with our baseline, Fullmer:

Age-------AB-------AVG------OBP----SLG--------K----BB-----HR--------$
27--------1158----.302------.362----.546-----145---91------60------3.75M

(sorry about the crappy table formatting)

Now, everybody else on the list is also either 27 or 28, with one exception, so let's get him out of the way first:

REGGIE SANDERS
Age-----AB--------AVG----OBP------SLG------K-----BB----HR---------$
35-------964------.243----.312------.447-----254---83-----43------1.75M

Sanders would obviously be a substantial step down in every category except price, and his higher age indicates an increased propensity for further statistical decline and/or injury. He's also got a reputation as being death in the clubhouse. In other words, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO...

EVERYBODY ELSE
---------------------Age------AB-----AVG-------OBP-------SLG-----K------BB----HR-------$
Fick----------------28-------842-----.271-----.336-------.457----127----82-----32----1.15M
Ortiz---------------27-------848-----.264-----.349-------.472----173---116----38-----0.95M
Catalanotto------28-------866-----.307-----.378-------.480----103----83----24-----2.475M
Cruz Jr.-----------28------1204-----.248-----.322-------.489----297--133----67-----3.7M

Looking at the numbers, it becomes clear that Fullmer costs more than the rest of these guys because he's flat-out played better. And, while just about everyone in the AL has a decent DH already, we now have to hope that the Angels don't have to get into a bidding war to re-acquire him, and that he can ignore Stoneman's boneheaded remarks if they do get him back.

Among the other candidates, it's hard to see the Angels shelling out for Cruz when they could get Fullmer, so he's probably out. Fick is slightly worse and slightly more expensive than Ortiz, so unless Ortiz is snapped up somewhere else, Fick's out of the running. Catalanotto hits better for average than does Ortiz, but Ortiz has a decided advantage in home runs and is substantially cheaper. So I'd guess that if Fullmer doesn't come back, Ortiz would be the next-best thing.