Saturday, April 23, 2005
Lately I've been watching the reruns of the previous night's Mets game while on the treadmill at the gym. This'll stop once I start running outside, but for now I've actually seen more baseball for this time of year than is usual for me, and I've been enjoying it. It doesn't hurt that the Mets have been kinda fun to watch right now. Martinez has been a particular pleasure: although the bullpen has let him down, and he hasn't gotten consistent support from the lineup, he has been pitching like a Cy Young contender. It's April, of course, but from what I've seen to this point these Mets seem capable of improving over the season, and might be playoff contenders (if their bullpen situation stabilizes). Randolph has been exactly the sort of steady hand on the tiller you always knew he would be, the hitters are hitting and the starters are pitching smart.
I haven't seen a Yankee game yet, but they seem to be playing just about the way I'd have guessed, and it gives me no joy to say it. A good post at The Sports Economist seems to nail it: "[T]he Yankees run of success since 1996 has a lot more to do with sound and well-coordinated personnel decisions than financial superiority. From 1979-1994, the Yankees enjoyed a financial advantage that translated into mediocrity. They used their deep pockets to pusue free agents, who, for the most part, were big names beyond their best years such as Jack Clark, Danny Tartabull, Jesse Barfield, Wade Boggs, Jimmy Key, Andy Hawkins, Tim Leary, Jim Abbott, and Steve Howe They developed few of their own prospects. Team performance turned around when Bob Watson and Gene Michaels built the team around young (and cheap) players such as Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada, while using their free agent war chest to plug-in holes with solid but non-spectacular veterans such as Brosius, Knoblauch, Martinez, and Nelson.
***
"For all of the media hoopla in the last two years over the Yankee signings, the decisions from the Yankees' brass have begun to resemble those of the 1980s and early 1990s. Jeter, entering his 10th full season, and Posada, who is in his mid thirties, are the "young blood" in the lineup. The only prospect developed in recent seasons, Alfonso Soriano, now plays in Texas. Two of the starting pitchers are over 40. Rivera turns 36 while Mussina and Williams turn 37 this year. Jason Giambi is a deflated shadow of his steroid-enhanced self. If Mussina, Johnson, and someone else pitch very well all season, they may make some noise. If not, the ALCS collapse last year may have forshadowed gloomier days for Yankee fans."
I haven't seen a Yankee game yet, but they seem to be playing just about the way I'd have guessed, and it gives me no joy to say it. A good post at The Sports Economist seems to nail it: "[T]he Yankees run of success since 1996 has a lot more to do with sound and well-coordinated personnel decisions than financial superiority. From 1979-1994, the Yankees enjoyed a financial advantage that translated into mediocrity. They used their deep pockets to pusue free agents, who, for the most part, were big names beyond their best years such as Jack Clark, Danny Tartabull, Jesse Barfield, Wade Boggs, Jimmy Key, Andy Hawkins, Tim Leary, Jim Abbott, and Steve Howe They developed few of their own prospects. Team performance turned around when Bob Watson and Gene Michaels built the team around young (and cheap) players such as Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada, while using their free agent war chest to plug-in holes with solid but non-spectacular veterans such as Brosius, Knoblauch, Martinez, and Nelson.
***
"For all of the media hoopla in the last two years over the Yankee signings, the decisions from the Yankees' brass have begun to resemble those of the 1980s and early 1990s. Jeter, entering his 10th full season, and Posada, who is in his mid thirties, are the "young blood" in the lineup. The only prospect developed in recent seasons, Alfonso Soriano, now plays in Texas. Two of the starting pitchers are over 40. Rivera turns 36 while Mussina and Williams turn 37 this year. Jason Giambi is a deflated shadow of his steroid-enhanced self. If Mussina, Johnson, and someone else pitch very well all season, they may make some noise. If not, the ALCS collapse last year may have forshadowed gloomier days for Yankee fans."
