River Ave. Blues notes the Yankees get criticism no matter what they do.
Back in November and early-December, when it appeared as though the Yankees were the favorite to sign Lee, the narrative was that giving a 30-something finesse pitcher a long-term deal was a terrible idea. He’ll break down, he doesn’t have enough margin for error, yadda yadda yadda. Then once the Phillies landed Lee, the story became “how could they let him get away!” Nice, easy, and convenient. It doesn’t matter that everyone was talking about what a bad idea it was just a few weeks earlier, they failed to get him and that was a mistake.
I don’t think it’s the same people, however. The Yankees have a very passionate fan base and media following them, so there’s always someone who will loudly criticize the organization. Through it all, they keep winning, however. Since the start of 1996, they’ve won 71 more games than the Braves and 102 more than the Red Sox. Even since the start of 2004, when Boston came to dominance, the Yankees are 20 games better, with the best record in baseball. They must be doing something right.
Update: The Yankees allocation of bullpen dollars as a percentage of team payroll in 2011 is higher than usual for the team, but not out of line with the league.
And what did it cost the Yankees to win 20 more games than the Red Sox? A ridiculous half-billion dollars. That’s pathetic.
Here’s the top 10 Major League payroll expenditures going back to that season (stats courtesy of “Cot’s Baseball Contracts, http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com:
1. Yankees $1.679 billion
2. Red Sox $1.145 billion
3. Mets $1,040 billion
4. Cubs $924.4 million
5. Angels $905.5 million
6. Dodgers $904.3 million
7. Phillies $844.2 million
8. Mariners $838.3 million
9. Braves $836.3 million
10. Tigers $784.4 million
The Yankees have outspent the Red Sox by 46.6% since Henry became owner, an
average of $59.3 million a year.
For the extra $534m that the Yankees have spent more than the Red Sox over the
last nine years, the Yankees have 36 more wins in the regular season and two
more victories in the playoffs. (Boston Globe)
The Yankees do well because their margin for error is so much greater than any other team.
I don’t get it. Why is that pathetic? Because their return on their dollars is too small?
We don’t know what a good return on spending at that level is, because nobody has come close to spending at that level for a comparison.
The Red Sox have out-spent the Rays by a similar margin, and haven’t exactly piled up a huge surplus of wins (even ignoring last year). That doesn’t make Henry and Epstein ‘pathetic’.
The idea that the price of a marginal win is constant, no matter how many wins the team has, strikes me as ridiculous — I’d be very interested to see an argument for it, if there is one.
“The idea that the price of a marginal win is constant, no matter how many wins the team has”
It has been well established that it is not constant.
The price of a marginal win depends on how much this win is needed to significantly increase your probability of getting to the playoffs. For a 70-80 W team, not much value in the marginal win, for a 90 W team, a lot more.
Also, important is how much revenue this win will generate (partly related to the first point). All things being equal, a larger market team like the Red Sox and Yankees, due to their enormous revenues relative to average teams, means the marginal win generates more revenue than for an average teams and they can pay more for it.
The Red Sox prefer to keep spending on FA in line with the market value, and thus maximize profits (the accumulated profits of the Red Sox and NESN allowed them to buy Liverpool at a 200 million dollar discount). The Yankees outspend the market, and the cost is lower profits for the Yankees team (but not Yes).
The Red Sox have been able to do this in part because they have made good use of the draft picks obtained by letting Dukes boys who were keys to the 2003-2004 season (the 2003 team was a better team and should have won the WS except for a Little mistake) go via FA. In addition, they sold off Dukes prospects like Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Freddy Sanchez, etc, that led to key components like Beckett, Lowell, etc that led to the 2007 WS.
They have missed the playoffs 2 of the last 5 years compared to the Yankees 1 of 5, and the Rays 2 of 3.
Now that Dukes stock of talent is depleted, the Red Sox are spending more like the Yankees to stay on top.