The age old excuse used by Red Sox fans in that the Yankees buy their players with exorbitant amounts of money no longer applies.
With the offseason acquisitions of top free agents Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez, the Red Sox are now not so different than the Yankees. Crawford was signed to a huge deal of 7 years and $142 million. On April 15, Gonzalez was signed months after being traded to the Red Sox in December of 2010 in order to avoid paying the MLB's luxury tax. His deal was even bigger than Crawford's at a 7 year extension worth $154 million. Next season they'll have to pay the luxury tax. I know I'm a little late, but this has bothered me and other Yankees fans for a while.
Also, in 2011 the Red Sox have the third highest payroll being behind the Phillies and the Yankees up top. The thing is that Boston has been up towards the top of the list for a while, yet for the longest time, all I've heard is that the Yankees buy their players, which is why they win all the time. In 2010 the Red Sox were at #2, in 2009 they're 4th, in 2008 they're at 4th again, in 2007 they're 2nd. As far back as 2000, the Red Sox had the seventh highest, but every year after they were in the top 4 being at the 2 spot 6 times in the past 10 years.
It's funny how that's overlooked.
However, as shown notably by the Yankees and the Mets, money doesn't buy championships. Besides, most of the Yankees now 28 World Series titles came before they were known for paying the most for a player with only 5 coming in the past two decades, but with New York City being larger than life the goal is championship or bust. To be honest, the Yankees is a franchise that has been there and done that and all that matters now is championships. They expect to win it every year.
No comments:
Post a Comment