"All those years when the New York Yankees were outspending everyone by $20 million and $30 million and more, this is what they should’ve done."
This ought to be good.
"The Los Angeles Dodgers are a monetary behemoth, beneficiaries of an $8 billion TV contract, and under president Andrew Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi, they’re parlaying that financial advantage into a competitive one, too."
This is true.
The Yankees have never been as successful as the Dodgers.
"The Yankees sashayed into free-agent meetings like fat cats, paying big dollars for big names and big splashes. They were old money acting like new money."
I read that a few times and I'm still not sure what the Yankees did at free agent meetings. They sashayed like fat cats with new money, I suppose.
By the way ... I hope you're not talking about deadline deals. I'd hate to explain again that the Yankee don't really make big splashes in July, though they're always credited (or accused) of doing so.
"The Dodgers positioned themselves in diametric opposition, fundamentally against larding their roster with aging players, using their cash as judiciously as the filthy rich can, exploring every creative nook and cranny possible."
Carl.
Crawford.
"Gone is Olivera, a 30-year-old coveted by the Braves, who couldn’t compete with the Dodgers’ six-year, $62.5 million offer he signed in May. The Dodgers will pay all $28 million of his signing bonus, and with most of his 2015 salary paid, Atlanta essentially gets him for five years at around $32 million. Considering the Dodgers are taking on some but not all of Arroyo’s remaining $7.5 million – he has a $4.5 million buyout for next season’s deal – Atlanta is paying down Olivera’s cost even more."
So the Dodgers are paying a 30-year-old $28 million to play for the Braves.
I totally see your point about nooks and crannies and sashaying fat cats.
"By absorbing about $15 million from the Marlins – the struggling Morse is owed $8 million next season – Los Angeles paid more than $40 million in contracts for which it has no use. This is where money is best spent, because swallowing others’ problematic contracts or fronting money for valuable players allows the Dodgers to ask for premium talent in return, and in Wood and Peraza, it got just that."
Paying $40 million for useless contracts? Genius.
Why play the shell game? Why not just pay a lot of money for good players? Properly identify the good players and pay them accordingly.
Instead, the Dodgers are paying a lot of money for bad players as long as they also get good players on the cheap. I don't see how that's brilliant in any way.
"This isn’t the first time Friedman and Zaidi pulled off such a deal. They’re also paying the salaries of Matt Kemp, Dan Haren and Dee Gordon – all traded in the offseason – this year. In the Kemp deal, the Dodgers received All-Star catcher Yasmani Grandal. From the Marlins, they got utilityman Enrique Hernandez, catcher/second baseman Austin Barnes and pitcher Andrew Heaney, whom they flipped for Howie Kendrick."
If you have deep pockets, you can waste money. I don't know why the Dodgers' preferred method of wasting money is preferable to the Yankees' preferred method (and why did everyone just look at A.J. Burnett when I said that?).
"The strategy is brilliant, a way to circumvent the artificial spending limits placed almost everywhere on young talent. Got a terrible signing? Just package it with something valuable, and the Dodgers are happy to use their money to buy talent."
Brilliant!
It's like when I was 11 years old and trading baseball cards.
"And that’s what this is: The Dodgers are purchasing talent from others, using their financial advantage to stay flexible instead of boxing themselves into untradeable corners like the Yankees did for so many years. The rules were different then, not nearly as restrictive, but New York has shown no inclination to operate in a similar fashion to the Dodgers."
The Yankees are in first place ... and they have won 5 titles since 1996 ... and they made the playoffs 18 out of the last 21 years (estimate).
Also, the Yankees are worth $3 billion or so.
So why are the Yankees clamoring to operate in a similar fashion to the Dodgers?
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