Keeping Score – Numbers Show This Yankees Team Has Not Been Star-Driven – NYTimes.com
Posted by Neil Paine on September 17, 2010
Keeping Score: Star-Driven? Not This Yankees Team
In this week's Keeping Score column, I take a look at the surprising reasons behind the Yankees' success this season.
September 17th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Good job, Neil.
There are a number of highly-paid players on the Yanks who have sucked this year. I fear Jeter wants 4/5 years of high eight figures, and while I believe that last year's Jeter is probably closer to the real Jeter at age 36 than this year's Jeter, I'm not almost $20 million a year certain in my belief. Burnett is robbing the Yanks, A-Rod will be robbing them for years to come, Posada has been a bit of a bandit due to health issues, and Jeter seems to be moving into his robbery phase. Argh.
September 17th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Yeah, I love Jeter but he's only worth $2M per plus how ever many jerseys he sells.
September 17th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Well CC Sabathia should be on the Brewers but the Yankees just buy any player they want. Boston could easily be ahead of NY if they had to replace Sabathia with Manny Parra (which the brewers had to do)
September 17th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
The point is, most of the high-priced players listed are also aged players. Posada is 39. A-Rod 35. Jeter 36. Heck, two people having good seasons are Pettitte, 38 (although he missed two months with injury), and Rivera, who will be 41 in about ten weeks.
Two of the biggest disappointments as far as high-priced players go are Burnett (33) and Vazquez (34).
September 17th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
@4
Yes!!! Parra sucks! I noted this in another thread the other day, but the Brewers have the #3 oWAR in baseball (trailing only NYY and TBR). But, they have the #27 dWAR (followed only by BAL, CHC, and PIT-- among them the two division foes that are actually worse than Milwaukee). And, of course, they are the WORST team in MLB in terms of pitching (Sean's new park factors ensured that ARZ has joined the Crew as having sub-replacement-level pitching). Ah the Brewers. When you look at the lineup, they shouldn't be bad. But, apparently pitching and defense are important. Who knew? Apparently not Doug Melvin (okay-- let me be fair. Melvin has done a FANTASTIC job making a laughingstock into a competitor. However, he's failed to take the next step, the organization has stagnated, there isn't any depth in the minors, and there's STILL no pitching anywhere. Basically, welcome back to the late-1990s. It's going to be a long road back). It's not easy being a Brewers fan. But I can't help it. I just love the guys. Except Manny Parra. No love for him.
September 17th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Whoops! I meant @3.
September 18th, 2010 at 11:36 am
@2 - So that's about the 3 X 15 I think he'll get. Jeet sells lots o' sh!t.
I always hope Yankee players get just a little above market value on their contracts, but that never happens. Instead of 5% more to stay or come to the Yanks, it seems the Yanks have to pony up 20 - 25%. In terms of market to Yank value, Jeter's next contract is liable to set a record.
I'm figuring 3 for 45, and he may be worth only a third of that. Then again his three year averages are .299/.367/.414. If this year is only a bad year, he may well be able to replicate that over the next two years with the third year being much like this one.
September 19th, 2010 at 8:52 am
It is amazing to me that they keep winning this year beacuse when you look at their so called star players....it's just not much there. There just seems to be some guy (Thames...freaking Marcus Thames) who comes up and does something for them. They also will steal games in the late innings beacuse again of the vets who have done it before but also beacuse I think some of these pitchers, mainly closers (Joe Nathan is one) who just do not have the fortitude to buckle down and pitch to this team. They get scared and pitch scared. Sounds like I am taking away from what they can do........I just think their is too sides to teams that always come back late in games, especially in the ninth.
This bullpen has over achieved IMO.....and it has really saved their bacon beacuse their starters besides CC...are blah.
September 20th, 2010 at 12:02 am
Part of the big picture is Mariano's recent glitches. This team, with its inconsistent offense and declining stars, is going nowhere without Mo. This road trip was pretty awful, but if Mo doesn't blow two saves, the Yankees go 5-4. Granted, we got spoiled last year, and four blown saves isn't very many, but his strikeouts are down and his walks are up. Mo is still great, but he's not as good as he was last year.