doing everything you can to win. Within the rules.

Strong Yankees are good for baseball’s economics and good for Yankee fans.

Back in 2001 when the Yankees signed Giambi. Since them MLB revenues have grow quite substantially since them. Since them 6 other teams than the Yankees won the World Series. Former expansion teams like the Rays, Rockies, Dbacks, and Marlins made strong playoff runs and World Series appearances. The Twins and As have been regular play off teams.

A lot of the small market success is being funded by the 150 million the Yankees have thrown into the pot for Taxes and yet another pot for Revenue sharing. A team like the Rays for example had most of their pay roll expense paid for by Yankee cash.

Yet in all of this is last the Yankees will be reducing their tax hit for 2010. As much press has been made about their recent contracts they are still below their spending for 2008 and the tax thresh hold has been raised.

Stop crying wolf… seriously you are the one who is incompetent.

Coke, Joba, Wang, Soriano, Melky. Hughes and Kennedy aren’t abandoned. There is still a spot in the rotation. Joba is going to limited by innings. Its clear Kennedy needs more time in the minors to work on his stuff. He was drafted in 2007 for pete’s sake. Hughes has not been able to get his innings the last two years due to injury. Hughes could be in the running for the 5th spot or spend part of the year at AAA. WIth Marte aboard they could try Coke out as a starter and there is Averes.

The Yankees’ abundance of pitchers in the farm system has only come about in the last 2-3 years. These guys are all still developing in the minors, so obviously they aren’t ready to be inserted into the rotation. Now, Hughes will very likely compete with Kennedy and Aceves for the final rotation spot, and one of the others will be the long man in our pen. Our pen itself will be filled mostly with arms we have developed (Coke, Veras, Melancon, et al) or acquired by trade or waiver signings (Bruney, Albaladejo, Ramirez). The only free agent will be Marte. Like Johan Santana and Joba, many of our future starters will first be used in the pen (Coke, possibly Horne). And Joba is not our setup man; he is one of our future rotation horses who will be stretched out into a full 200+ innings by 2011.

The Yanks also haven’t totally given up on Melky; he could be our starting CF or fourth OF. We aren’t going to play Damon or Swisher in CF permanently (though they may get a few appearances there at times if we need extra offense). And no one was ever dreaming that Austin Jackson would be at all in the Yanks’ picture for 2008; he hasn’t even played in AAA yet (but may this season). But in 2010, our outfield will be largely empty, with Damon, Matsui, and Nady gone (though I could see us re-signing Nady). If AJax proves himself in AAA, he could be a starter as early as 2010. I’d love to see an OF of Matt Holliday-Austin Jackson-Nick Swisher/Xavier Nady.

Signing Tex, CC, and AJ wasn’t just about the money. We didn’t outbid the Nats for Tex, and we didn’t allow the Red Sox to outbid us and drive up the price since we didn’t bid in the first place; instead, Cash lurked on the fringes and let Boras know he should come back to us. We sold CC and his family on living in NY and being a Yankee by a massive player and Yankee veteran recruitment effort involving Reggie Jackson, Johnny and Michelle Damon, Derek Jeter, and a personal visit to the Sabathia home in CA by Cashman himself. That was Cashman’s doing. I would say Cash is an excellent GM when it comes to drafting, trading, and signing players off the waiver. For the latter example, I think Edwar Ramirez has been excellent for us and that Jon Albaladejo will be.