[Myrtle]

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sublime,

In this thread you have repeatedly stated or given evidence that this is a bad deal for the Yankees in terms of value per dollar. This you have done well, however you have yet to discuss why that matters.

George clearly doesn't care about value per dollar. He's getting another high profile guy that will bring in more publicity and merchandise money. Furthermore, he's getting the best available guy on the free-agent market (correct me if I'm wrong here as I could be). He's clearly more than happy to pay through the nose in luxury tax. Will this signing prevent the Yankees from getting players they need in the future? If so I could see your point but I'm not sure that's the case.

If George doesn't care about value, and the Yankees won't be prevented from getting players they need down the road then it's still a good deal even if it is atrocious in terms of value.

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i agree with everything you said, and i think my stance on these 'deal breakdowns' gets lost in translation. i love baseball, i love watching baseball, listening to baseball, and reading about baseball. however, the on the field game doesn't interest me as much as the business behind the game. when i see a deal get signed, i immediately want to see what the potential EV is on the field, and if the team made a wise investment. i do it for every player, from johnny damon to rudy seanez. this differentiates me from most *cough* fans, as they go by their perceptions of players and what they 'think' they are worth, while i try to apply math to the situation.

so when i say, johnny damon isn't worth 13m a year compared to his counterparts some people interpret that as a bashing of the player. its not.

as for the yankees, i was convinced they were finally taking a hard stance and were going to rebuld on the fly. deals like this prevent that from happening. while some can say only the yankees can afford to do deals like this, one could also counter that they are a team that CANT afford to do a deal like this. sooner or later the piper will need to be paid. you cant continue to field teams with high priced free agents and not having any homegrown/cheap talent to replace them.

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BINGO!!!!!.......(or close to it)

What we have here is differing sets of priorities at different levels and from different points of view.

Damon – Hey, what the hell, it looks like the best I’m gonna get is 4 years, so let me go with the guys who give me the most $$. Guess what? That turns out to be the Yankees, and that also fits in nicely with my (and my wife’s) personal, celebrity lifestyle. NYC is the biggest media outlet....Michelle already has a TV show in Boston, and is looking to grow/upgrade. My (Damon’s) ‘personality’ value is at an all time high, AND the Red Sox appear to be crumbling from the top down (No more Theo, and they’re breaking up the team, piece-by-piece). Time for me to take the money and run......$3M more/yr??.....It’s a no-brainer for me & Michelle. So long Sox fans......I’ll miss ya, but y’know....life goes on.

Yankees – Geezez!! We can’t believe the Sox would actually let us sneak in and do it, but they did! We’ve got more money than God, and between the PR coupe (screw the Mets) AND the actual value on the field, this was one of the easiest decisions we’ve ever had to make. Damon is clearly a significant upgrade over what we had (Bubba Crosby??!!). Yes, we probably have overpaid for him in ‘absolute baseball terms’ when looking at the total contract life, but......you’ve gotta be kidding me! We upgraded our team, AND downgraded our chief rivals at the same time.....a very SWEET 2-fer for us, tyvm. Let us get out our calculator and see how much we will have to raise our cable rates to pay for Johnny Boy....hmmm......no problem, the fans will pay......they always do!

Red Sox – We will NOT be fiscally irresponsible and mortgage our future.....period! We have calculated what we consider the ‘fair market value’ of all of our players, and we will stick to our guns. We did last year with Pedro, and let’s see how that works out in the long run for all sides involved. We (Lucchino, Henry, et al) cannot afford the negative PR of locking ourselves into another ‘bad’ long term contract (Manny??) We have a wealth of talent down on the farm, and we will NOT trade it away (ala NY) foolishly. We will miss Damon on the field, but we are confident that we can find an adequate replacement. Good luck to Johnny in the future.

I know that any of the above ‘positions’ can be argued either way, and I don’t mean to represent them to be ‘cast-in-stone’; merely general in nature.

FWIW.....This is not new. My first Fenway game attended was in 1953. I’ve been a night game season ticket holder since 1987. I’ve watched our seat prices (loge boxes) go from $7 each to (this year) $85 each.

The “Golden Rule” has always been in effect surrounding the Yankees. For many years the KC Athletics were nothing more than a ‘farm team’ for the Yanks.......check it out.

Sure, it’s disconcerting as a Sox fan to have to attempt to compete against such a cash rich club as the Yankees, but, keerist, at least we have a shot......what about most of the other AL teams? It ain’t ‘fair’...but it is what it is.

I would submit that the biggest move (or non-move) of this past season in the continuing Sox-Yankees passion play was.......both Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein were essentially ‘free agent’ general managers. Who signed and who didn’t, and more importantly.....WHY?