The Sports Beat

OK, it happened. First CC, now AJ. Fiscal restraint be damned.

The Yankees seem headed down that familiar path of purchased glory–the one that seldom leads to sustained winning, without a continuance of cash-enhanced success. People have fallen in love with the concept that the Yankees can’t win without homegrown players, as evidenced by their inability to win a World Series this millenium. BUT, it’s really a silly notion.

The Yankees have won constantly since the mid-’90s. If it weren’t for a faulty system that allows the three best teams in the league to play in the best division in baseball and thereby discount one of them from making the postseason, the family Steinbrenner would have bought a playoff appearance even last year, when the team won only 89 games–good enough for fourth most in either league.

(In a most ironic twist the same fate befell the “chokers” over in Queens.)

The Yankees will win and win and win. They buy the best players they can each offseason and fill holes thusly. The problem is their farm system, which had returned to prominence over the past few years, will be wearing down again due to losing draft picks signing free agents. Type A, type B, type $, the Yankees are signing them all. They’re being neither clever nor creative. They’re simply doing what their business plan allows, something that is 100% within the rules and therefore can’t be criticized for any reason other than poor vision. (Unless you’re a small market fan, in which case you’re permitted to bitch and bemoan these facts, but you can blame your owners for allowing it more than anything.)

So, fret not, baseball fans. These contracts are a good thing for the game. The Yankees will remain the foil we love to crunch like the tin type cats chase after, and players will get their money. After all, baseball is America’s pastime because it tells the nation’s story, and New York is America. Meanwhile, the rest of baseball will take New York’s draft picks and restock the pantry. Let’s just hope CC doesn’t clear it out now that he’s made his money.

The Yankees are trying to outspend the Treasury Department this offseason. It’s simply amazing. After obliterating Johan Santana’s record contract from just last winter by backing up the vault and dumping $161 million on CC’s lap (a very big one, by the way), they now are in on AJ Burnett for close to $90 million, according to ESPN.com, and may go after Ben Sheets or Derek Lowe. Probably they’ll only sign one of the latter two if they change their names to BB Sheets or Rosie Perez Lowe (that’s a Kanye reference for all you keen readers).

And right about now it feels damn good to be a Sox fan.

Why? The Yankees are losing draft picks, investing inordinate amounts of money in questionable commodities for LONG PERIODS OF TIME, and doing so at the most injury-prone position. Now, granted no contract has been signed yet, but just for the sake of hyperbole let’s say the Bronx Bombshells convince AJ to put a pen to a pad of paper, the likelihood of him starting even 28 games a year over the next five seasons is lower than gas prices after this little economic meltdown we’ve been having. Throw the fact that CC Sabathia is about a hundred thousand trillion pounds (another Kanye reference) and has been overworked each of the past two seasons, and you’ve got yourself an uninsurable contract. Call him The Big Derivative.

If the Yankees manage to sign BB Sheets, look for them to repeat last season’s miserable injury-depleted debacle at least once over the next few years, and all the while with fewer draft picks to help supplement potential studs like JJ Chamberlain (he’s definitely one) and PP Hughes (he might be one).

Meanwhile, in Boston, the steady march of prospects continues on with Junichi Tazawa. And Red Sox fans rejoice.

• Dustin Pedroia’s 6-year contract extension is a great move by the Sox. While Pedroia will earn more than $40 million dollars during the life of the deal, that total is a fair compromise. Although Pedroia may have just completed a career year, his numbers aren’t likely to fall off too far through his prime years–the ones the Sox just locked him up for. He’s not a speed player, he makes great contact and controls the strike zone (he’s walked 104 times in his career and struck out only 101), and isn’t a huge power guy. So, you can reasonably expect him to maintain his baseline performance for quite some time. Think .360/.440 at least, with solid base stealing stats and good defense. Although not a superstar, those numbers, and the likelihood that he’ll top them, make the deal a great move for Boston. Had Pedroia elected to stick it out through arbitration he likely would have commanded huge dollars in the near future. In his first two season the pesky second baseman has collected two trophies arbitrators fawn over: the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player brass pieces. Throw in mounting base hit totals and Gold Gloves and Pedroia could easily have made another $10 million or so through age 31, when his current deal runs out, and could have required a longer commitment after the arbitration process ended.
• Meanwhile, on the hardwood, Rajon Rondo is becoming everything we hoped he would. Already. Tonight he obliterated the Indiana Pacers. His final line–16 points, 13 boards, 17 assists, and 3 steals in 41 minutes–doesn’t even begin to tell the story. His number could have been even better had the game not drifted in and out of absurdity during the third and fourth quarters. Rondo had 10, 9, and 8 at the end of the first half. He commanded the ball throughout the game, and this on a team that features three future Hall-of-Famers in the starting lineup. Plus, he’s doing all this without any sort of a jumper. Think Chris Paul without the J. That’s what we have in Boston. And he’s only 22. By the time he’s 25 he’ll be the best player on the team (if he’s not by the end of the season), routinely throwing up triple doubles and averaging somewhere from 14-18 points, 6 rebounds, 8-10 assists, and 2 steals per game, depending on whom Danny Ainge supports his young star with. Rondo has taken elements of Steve Nash and Tony Parker’s games and put them together (sans the range), driving at will and maintaining his dribble through the teeth of the defense, while remaining a defensive force. It’s his development that keeps the regular season interesting for Celtics fans, who otherwise might simply hibernate until the playoffs.