DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Yankees sign Mark Texiera

Sources: Teixeira takes Yanks' 8-year deal
ESPN.com news services

The New York Yankees swooped in Tuesday and nabbed prized free agent Mark Teixeira, reaching agreement with the first baseman on an eight-year contract worth $180 million, two sources involved in the negotiations tell ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

Buster Olney discusses the latest details on the Yankees' $180 million free-agent deal with first baseman Mark Teixeira. Listen
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The Yankees had made an offer to Teixeira weeks ago, but then withdrew it. Their intention all along was to make a deal if it fell within parameters acceptable to the organization. They made their formal offer Tuesday.

The contract will pay Teixeira an average of $22.5 million per season.

The Yankees had $88.5 million coming off the books that, even with the Teixeira contract, they expect their payroll to fall below $200 million. New York has committed $423.5 million in salary in the last month, with $161 million going to left-handed pitcher CC Sabathia ($23 million over seven years) and $82.5 million on right-hander A.J. Burnett ($185 million over five).


Likely Yankee lineup

What the Yankees' lineup could look like when they open the season on April 6 in Baltimore:

.LF Johnny Damon
SS Derek Jeter
1B Mark Teixeira
3B Alex Rodriguez
DH Hideki Matsui
RF Xavier Nady
C Jorge Posada
2B Robinson Cano
CF Melky Cabrera
Bench? -- Nick Swisher

Agreeing to a deal with Teixeira virtually eliminates any chance that free-agent outfielder Manny Ramirez has a landing place with the Yankees. New York does have money left to add another starting pitcher, most likely veteran left-hander Andy Pettitte at $10 million if he agrees to terms soon.

Teixeira's salary gives the Yankees, who are preparing to move into their pricey new ballpark in 2009, the four highest-paid players in Major League Baseball, including third baseman Alex Rodriguez, shortstop Derek Jeter and Sabathia.

The Yankees landed the 28-year-old Teixeira at a time it was believed the Boston Red Sox or the Washington Nationals were the likeliest to be his future employer. The Red Sox's offer was believed to be in the range of $170 million, and the Nationals reached out with an offer perhaps greater than that of Boston.

Teixeira finished last season with the Los Angeles Angels following a trade from Atlanta. The Angels withdrew from negotiations on Sunday night, in a very public manner, and say they were moving on to other players.

Because Teixeira grew up in the Baltimore area, the Orioles had long been viewed as a possible landing spot for him. But since the O's made a seven-year, $140 million offer, they did not revise it -- nor have they had active negotiations with his agent, Scott Boras, according to sources.

Teixeira's negotiations with the Red Sox appeared to stall last week in the failed meeting between the team executives and the player. The Nationals reportedly made an offer of eight years and $160 million.

The first baseman, who batted .308 with 33 home runs, 121 RBIs and a .552 slugging percentage for the Angels and Braves last season, had made it clear that he wanted to make a decision on where to play next season and beyond by Christmas.

Buster Olney is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3790141

I am utterly disgusted by this... Its not fair to lower market teams in what the Yankees can do with money. Its wrong. Who needs that much money anyways?

This is why I don't follow baseball anymore.

what an aboslute joke. an embarassment.

tex is a solid player, no doubt, but he's not worth that kind of money. i don't even know if there is a player around worth that kind of money, certainly not cc sabathia.

the funny thing is, the yankees have spent like 400 million, and they still aren't better than tampa.

I'm seriously thinking about boycotting my second favorite sport. This is BS. The Yankees now have the 4 highest paid players in all of baseball. Baseball is becoming a mess.

Honestly, I know we criticize when the government gets involved in sports, but I would have no problem with government intervention here.

Put a salary cap and a maximum contract for ALL sports. There's no excuse for an athlete making absurd amounts of money while family doctors and teachers make a fraction of that.

I don't care "he's providing a service that the customer is willing to pay for." No. This is sports. As much as I love sports, I realize this.

i don't think the government can do anything, baseball has to govern themselves, and they can't really do much with the union, the players will strike just like they did in '94...

it's sad, but true.

this will eventually come back to bite them. you can't keep doing this year in and year out, and expect everything to be ok...

and really, they added 3 good players, but none of those guys are really the best at their position, i know cc has won a cy young, and he's been an innings horse, but the guy doesn't pitch postseason ball very well. burnett is solid, but we all know he spends way too much time on the DL...

and like i said, texeira is a really good player, but he's not worth that money, and i wonder if that contract will get to his head, maybe he thinks he has to do too much to make sure he shows he's worth that money, and baseball is such a weird sport, that mental things like that can absolutely kill you, and your team.

I know I'm in the minority on this one....but I don't give two shovels about this. The Yankees earn way more than any other team in baseball, they charge more for their seats than any other team in baseball and those fans demand to win....and that means getting all the best players that money can spend. What would you rather they do, save the money and buy planes and mansions? They spending the money THEY earn and trying to WIN. I don't see a problem with it. Pavano, Giambi and some other big contract came off the books this offseason so they have the money to spend again........SO FREAKING WHAT!?

Boston, Washington, LA (Angels) and Baltimore were all within a few million per year. If the Yanks didn't sign him, some other "big market" team would have got him.

And plus, the Yanks just paid out some $26+ million in luxury tax for this past year. I will bet that most of the owners that receive a portion of that will pocket it and not put it back into their team. That's the travesty of this system.

Again, a flat salary cap doesn't work in baseball. There is no ONE big TV contract like the NFL. Each team is on its own in that area. So if the Yanks pull in 250 million a year and the Royals pull in 10 million a year....how do you enforce a salary cap?

Small market teams have had very good success stories in the past 10 years. And they know how to win in this climate. Have a strong farm system, sell your vets to the highest bidder if you're out of contention/let them walk and get extra first round picks and make runs every other year.

And remember, the Indians beat those big market Yanks in the ALCS a few years back with the same gigantic payroll. Any team can do it again.

in my opinion, if you're gonna do free agency, it should be fair all around...

the indians have absolutely no chance of signing any big time free agent, i know that the yankees charge more per seat, and all that, but it comes down to their deal with the yes network...

i don't think small city teams should be dinged for being small cities...

it's not the end of the world, because the signings were somewhat dumb, and look like moves of panic, and yet, like i said, tampa is still a better team, and probably boston too

but my problem comes in a few years when that really fun tampa team will get broken up, there is no way in hell that team will be able to keep all those guys around...

but you're right, there really is no way to fix baseball, it will just have to fix itself, maybe if the steinbrenners ever sell the team, the new owner will go about things better...

maybe it's good for baseball that the steinbrenners continuously screw up...

because with those resources, they could actually build a great minor league system, as well as make key free agency signings. instead they just go out and buy the "top" free agent, overpay for him, and regret it 3 years later. they could dominate baseball if done right.

boston doesn't have quite the resources, but they are very close, and they have done a tremendous job of scouting, building a system, and still signing free agents.

it's not fair, but my hat is tipped to theo epstein. he seems to know how to build a winner, maybe better than anyone else in baseball.

Once again...these big contracts drive up the cost of players. Only a hand full of teams can afford a mediocre player at this pace. This is the Major League Baseball not Yankee League Baseball. Whats the point in having a league if one team (whether they make that much more cash) has the upper hand year in and year out?? This makes the league unbalanced and return means that it's tilted and unfair to those teams that can't keep their own drafted players that they trained and brought up to the big leagues. It's almost to the point that you hope you don't have a superstar on your team because soon he'll be gone in his prime to one of the prime 4-5 teams.

Thank god the NFL has a salary cap because we would be seeing both Mannings playing in New York right now.

Plus I think LeBron James has proven that even in a smaller market that he can sell jerseys all over the world and make the Cavs money. Putting all the Superstars on one team will never make any small market team the money and exposure they need to make money.

Eh, I'm kinda glad to see it happen. It just makes it better when they don't win the world series.

The yankees are the epitome of "throwing money at the problem doesn't fix it".

Glad to see they are stealing from the tax payers for their new stadium.

Where the hell is the puking gremlin?????

Damn it, they make me want to vomit. It's ridiculous. Baseball will always be an inferior sport because of the way big market teams buy anybody they want. Complete garbage.

I don't follow it either.

Bottom line, something has to be done to make this sport fair and balanced.

If we can't place a limit on what teams can spend, then something has to be done to offset the talent the Yankees and Red Sox have taken from mid and small market teams.

Here's what the MLB should do: Start spotting teams runs based on where they are in payroll compared to where their opponent is in payroll. For instance, when the Royals play the Yankees, spot the Royals 8 runs.
But, when the Royals play the Seattle Mariners, spot the Royals 3 runs. - How's that sound? At least then it's somewhat fair and balanced.

jc...

Ok, maybe you can all remind me.....who won the ALCS last year? Did the Yanks make the playoffs? Did the Twins play in a 1-game playoff for the AL Central (which they got screwed since they had more head-2-head wins and lost home field on a coin-flip)? Who won the AL Central the year before? I can keep going...And yes, I know....more often than not, the teams that pay get to the playoffs more. While that maybe true, there are also a lot of teams that aren't run properly or don't even bother trying. If you have a smart GM with a plan, you can make the big markets run for the hills come playoff time.

You guys make it sound like the Yanks have won the World Series every year for the past 15 years. If you think about it, they haven't won one since they started buying talent. Their core team they built from within won all those titles....the new Yanks haven't won jack rabbit. And that's why I don't mind this. In a 5-game series, ANY team can beat ANY other team. The Tribe spanked the Yanks 2 years ago. Nobody gave us a chance and we SHUT A-Rod down (the so-called best player in baseball). Again, let them overpay for all these superhero like free agents. They aren't that great. CC's arm won't hold up. He's a postseason choke artist.

And the Yanks payroll is all relative. If CC finds his way onto the DL and another starter struggles, they're handcuffed to do anything else. And they don't have a shred of talent in the minors. Their margin is just as thin as ours.

LJ.....you say the Rays are still the best team in the division......then why are you upset? This only proves why this is ok. The Rays built a TEAM and the Yanks are buying a collection of All Star's. The more they spend, the more pressure is on them. CC wanted to play on the west coast and hit but followed the money. He has an opt-out clause in case he doesn't like it there.....come on, do you think that sounds like a guy that's going to be comfortable? One bad outing and the fans will be booing him demanding a 1-hit CG shutout.

Baseball is fine. The Tribe will win the Central and bust them up regardless of how much they spend. Add Manny.....add Bonds.....destroy your clubhouse......the TEAMS of baseball are better for it.

What are the yankees suppose to do. they hvae the largest following of any professional sports franchise in the world. they dish out millions upon millions to the other teams via revenue sharing. they just paid 27 million in luxury tax. you think it would be fair to take a majority of their revenue from ticket sales, merch, tv & radio contracts, and give it to incompetent franchises like the pirates, and nationals??? I've already posted in another thread that some smaller market teams pocket the money they receive from revenue sharing. they don't even spend it on the team.

teams that always struggle in baseball do so becuase their management is incompetent.

as I've stated before the nfl's system is based on a national television deal. baseball, everything is regional, as far as where the teams get their money. comparing the 2 leagues is apples to oranges.

I don't know why this would chase people away from baseball. Any team with any payroll can compete. ANY team. The Rays were in the World Series.....NOT the Yanks. The Indians are the early pick for the Central crown again (with the Twins in the mix). Remember, we beat the Yanks the last time we were in the playoffs 1 year ago. And a lot of people in this thread think the Yanks will struggle again with this roster.......so why are you giving up baseball then?

The luxury tax needs improving for sure but it's at least something.

And AGAIN, there's NO WAY a salary cap would work in baseball. The Yanks aren't going to pool their YES Network TV money with the rest of the league and I wouldn't expect them too. A salary cap wouldn't have guaranteed CC to stay with the Indians just like the NBA salary cap can't keep Lebron in Cleveland and the NFL salary cap won't keep Albert Haynesworth, the biggest free agent this offseason, in Tennessee. You want a salary cap for competitive balance yet I've given you countless examples of how mid and small market teams are beating the Goliath payrolls.

There IS parity and competitive balance in MLB. People refuse to see it.

The bottom line is that the Yankees have an advantage that no other team has because they play in a bigger market than any other team. It does not matter if they make the playoffs or not.

IMO it's a baseball problem more than the Yankees anyways. Some teams in this league are becoming more and more irrelevant every year. I laugh when people try to use the Rays as an example of why it doesn't matter. It's like they don't consider that they will lose alot of those players in the next few years because of salaries. Probably a couple of them going to their rival Yankees. If the Yankees had the same club they could keep them together for as long as they want. You don't see that as a advantage?

So....the Rays won't be able to afford everyone on their World Series roster when their current contracts are up you say? How is that different than the NFL? The Pats would win a Super Bowl and the teams across the NFL would pony up and steal free agent pieces (Asante Samuel, Ty Law, Viniterri (SP)....etc). No NFL team can afford to pay the going rate for all their important pieces too. Same with the NBA, someone will eventually offer Anderson Varejo some ungodly contract that we can't match or won't want to.

And to add to that, how long are the Rays supposed to have this team in your eyes? Like they're owed the right for a dynasty. We don't even know how many of these guys were a flash in the pan. The pen could struggle, an injury here and there and then someone just tanks.....bam, should the Rays have to keep them? The Rays have a 2-3 year window if all is good. What more can you ask for? The NFL is barely that good.

I get that the Yanks have more resources....but their fans only want to use those resources on star free agents. They don't have time to bother with the draft or minors. So they're stuck overpaying for every addition to the team. Heck, Evil Empire #2 (Red Sox) were complaining that the Yanks are now too rich for even them to compete.....ARE YOU SERIOUS? They won 2 World Series, almost spend as much as the Yanks and have a great team that will fight for the title and they're crying too?

j/c

Good for the yankees. There are a whole lot of people that take pride when their team beats the yankees, and there are even more that love to see the yanks not make the playoffs with the payroll they have.

Speaking of which, it just hit me, why isn't the team name yankees considered offensive?

I see what your trying to do here. - I'll give you credit for presenting an argument. But, your argument can be used against you. This isn't only about the Yankees, you can include the Red Sox in the mix of teams that buy championships at the expense of small market teams.

While the Indians beat the Yankees in '07, they were bounced out in the ALCS by the team with the second highest payroll - Boston. Take a look at Boston's pitching staff during the '07 postseason, and compare it to the Indians. - Josh Beckett - taken from a small market team, Curt Schilling - bought and paid for, Dice K - bought and paid for. - Now look at their batting lineup - Manny - bought and paid for, Ortiz, JD Drew, Mike Lowell, on and on. - None of those guys started their career in Boston and the only reason they wound up in Boston is because Boston outbid everybody else in order to get them. - In the case of Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell, Boston received them from Florida because Florida didn't want to ultimately lose them in free agency to the Yankees or Red Sox anyway. - Florida should not have to trade away their World Series MVP and Cleveland should not have to trade away their Cy Young winner simply because they know that ultimately, these players will end up playing for the Yankees or Red Sox anyway.

Look at the AL East 2008- Devil Rays, - 2007 -Bosox, 2006- Yanks, 2005 Yanks, 2004 Yanks, 2003 Yanks, 2002 Yanks, 2001 Yanks, 2000 Yanks, 1999 Yanks, 1998 Yanks, 1997 Orioles, 1996 Yanks, 1995 Yanks. - Total, Total BS dude. - There are 5 teams in that division and in 13 years, only on two occasions did anybody other than the Yanks or Red Sox win the division.

Now, let's keep examining the AL East during that 13 year span and figure out the Yanks and Red Sox spending habits have affected the rest of league.
Since only one Wild card team is allowed in the AL each postseason, I'd say this stat affects the American League as a whole.
Wild card 1995 - Bosox, 1996- Orioles 1997-Yankees, 1998- Bosox, 1999- Bosox, 2000 - Mariners, 2001, Oakland, 2002 Angels, 2003 Bosox, 2004 Bosox, 2005 Bosox, 2006 Detroit, 2007 Yankees, 2008 Bosox.

That means that in a span of 13 years, only on 4 occasions did anybody in the entire American League other than the Yankees or Red Sox win the Wild Card.

Now, keeping the last 13 years as a scale, let's take this a step further and look at which teams made it to the ALCS-
1995- Cle Sea
1996- Nyy Balt
1997- Cle Balt
1998- Nyy Cle
1999 Nyy Bos
2000- Nyy Sea
2001 Nyy Sea
2002 Ana Minn
2003 Nyy Bos
2004 Nyy Bos
2005 Chi Ana
2006 Det Oak
2007 Bos Cle
2008 Bos Tamp

So, over the last 13 years, the Yankees went to the ALCS 7 times! The Red Sox, of course were the next closest team with 5 appearences! -12 appearences total in 13 years. - Absurd, and again, directly related to payroll.

As for the World series, 6 appearences by the Yanks in the last 13 years, 2 appearences by the Sox. - That means that within the last 13 years, one of two teams from the same division has represented the AL 8 times!


The absence of a salary cap has screwed over the mid and small market teams in the AL East, and it has also screwed over the American League as a whole.

You can't call baseball a sport anymore, it's a business. - Pure and simple. This isn't a sport, it's a business.

Not being a huge baseball fan, it seems to me that there is a real uneven playing field out there.. Teams like Boston, NY or Chicago can spend big bucks where as a small to medium market team such as Cleveland or Pittsburgh are hampered by the lack of revenue.

I know they have some kinda cap number of sorts that if the team spends more, they have to pay a penalty or something.

Anyway, Has there ever been discussion of a hard cap such as with the NFL?

180 Million to play baseball for 8 years seems extreme to me...22.5 Mill a year? Yikes,,

what do you suggest then??? A salary cap in baseball?? where are they going to get a majority of the money?? I'll tell you, the large market teams. I don't think it's fair to the large market teams to take a majority of their resources, to give it to teams that a lot of them are incompetent.

did you know in the nfl they have a tv deal worth 21.4 billion. it's no secret why teams like the browns could spend and spend, when your league has a tv deal worth that much. baseball doesn't. everything is on the regional level.


here's an article I found on the net:

Under the latest version, in effect through 2011, all teams pay in 31 percent of their local revenues and that pot is split evenly among all 30 teams. In addition, a chunk of MLB’s Central Fund — made up of revenues from sources like national broadcast contracts — is disproportionately allocated to teams based on their relative revenues, so lower-revenue teams get a bigger piece of the pie.

Revenue sharing makes some franchises significant payers and others recipients. For example, in 2005, the Yankees reportedly paid out about $76 million. Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Florida Marlins and Kansas City Royals each received $30 million or more, according to the Wall Street Journal.


Under the first version of revenue-sharing (from 2002 through 2006), some low-revenue teams seemed to be gaming the system. While revenue-sharing money is supposed to be used to improve on-field performance, some teams appeared to be using the shared revenue to enhance profits while failing to invest in higher payrolls. Last year Forbes reported that from 2002 to 2006, the Royals’ revenue-sharing dollars doubled to $32 million, while their player costs increased only 6 percent. Likewise, in 2006 and 2007, the Florida Marlins reportedly received more than $60 million in revenue sharing, according to The Hardball Times, but the team had opening day payrolls totaling $45.5 million.


Indeed, for low-revenue teams, there was previously a disincentive to fielding a better team and raising revenue — under the 2002–2006 revenue-sharing plan, more money coming in from tickets meant less money coming in from the shared pool of MLB revenues. Lower-revenue teams paid a marginal rate of 48 percent of local revenues into the shared pool, while high-revenue teams paid 40 percent. The current deal seeks to fix that disincentive, with all teams contributing 31 percent. Lower-revenue teams will keep more of the money they’ll make if they field a stronger team.


Baseball also has a competitive balance tax (aka “luxury tax”) on the portion of team payrolls that go above a pre-set ceiling, which rises each year. However, the thresholds are set so high that this tax typically only affects the top-spending New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Going by their opening day payroll of $209 million, this year’s threshold of $155 million and a special 40 percent repeat offender rate, the Yankees will pay $21.6 million in 2008 — equivalent to the entire payroll of the Florida Marlins.

So does the new regimen reduce the disparity in revenues and payrolls decried by MLB’s blue ribbon panel?


Sort of. Thanks to $326 million in revenue sharing last year alone, the average revenue differential between MLB’s seven richest teams and its seven poorest fell from 118 percent in 1999 to 67 percent in 2007.


The same goes for the payroll ratio between the seven biggest-spending teams and the seven smallest. It was a ratio of 3.5-to-1 in 2000, and according to the AP’s 2008 opening day team payroll list, that ratio is now 2.9-to-1 (though the Blue Ribbon panel recommended 2-to-1 to promote competitive balance).

There are, as ever, some gaps that remain absurdly vast. This spring, the news broke that the Yankees’ top-paid Alex Rodriguez was due to reel in more in salary this season than all the players on the Florida Marlins combined. In fact, A-Rod could pay all the Marlins players this year and still take home $6 million.


But the bigger question is whether those monetary effects have helped to solve the problem of competitive imbalance that was the original reason for shifting around billions of dollars between teams. Again, the answer is unclear.


On the one hand, last year marked only the second season in baseball’s modern history when all teams’ winning percentages were in a competitively narrow band between .400 and .600. And the seven World Series in this decade have been won by six different teams — none of them the top-spending Yankees — with more than a third of MLB’s teams competing in the series.


http://www.bnet.com/2403-13502_23-210897.html

I wanted Tex, his ego could have fit nicely in Boston (we don't have too many guys with big egos). But add his ego to that of A-Rod, CC, Burnett, Jeter, etc. Just a team set up to fail with a huge payroll.

How would you define a cap, when teams have a huge discrepency in revenue?? Would you start it at $100million?? what would the yankees do with all their extra revenue??? the indians still wouldn't be able to meet that cap as far as spending. a cap is good if all teams have similar revenue to spend like in the nfl. that's not the case in baseball.

I understand where your coming from regarding tv contracts, revenue, and other related info.

But, what I'm talking about is what happens on the field of play. - The supposed sport itself.

When you start taking into account markets, revenue, income streams, capital, etc. and then you take into account that it is good for the bank account of the league to allow a few teams to spend amounts of money on players that other teams can't afford, then, like I noted before, you don't have a sport, you have a business.

It's not a sport. The MLB is more in line with the WWE than it is with legitimate sporting leagues.

I used to LOVE baseball. Studied the history, watched old film on the legends, everything. I love the history of this sport. But every since Alex Rodriguez signed that quarter of a billion contract with Texas years ago, I quit right then. I still check up on the Indians now and again but could really care less.

What a shame what has happened to that game.

It's ruined. Steroids, no salary cap, no respect for records that were set legitimately, total bs. - Ruined.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_o...Wjenu.elVoLMxIF

An interesting snippet from the article:

Yankees President Randy Levine:
"As long as we follow all the rules, which we do, provide hundreds of millions of dollars, as we have over the past several years to other teams, and spearhead enormous revenue to the commissioner's office, networks and other entities, people should allow us to run our business the way we think is the most appropriate,"

As long as they follow the rules, people should allow them to run their business the way they want to. Again, this isn't a sport anymore, it's a business. - The Yankees are allowed to cheat as long as they make money and funnel it to other teams.

I didn't go to any MLB games last year, I didn't watch any MLB games last year. - I won't do either this year, or next year, or the year after. - I won't give any money to the MLB Business until it becomes a fair and balanced sport again. - If you want to pretend like this is an actual sport, go ahead dude. Waste your time and money on something that has no integrity at it's core.

Quote:

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How would you define a cap, when teams have a huge discrepency in revenue??

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Simple, look at the average revenue of all teams after throwing out the lowest and highest. That would be the revenue that you could base a cap on.

So if the average team revenue is 75 million, then set aside a percentage for player salaries.

Or, you could just pick a cap number out of the air (probably not the best way)

Just clicking...........

I think that people are crazy on here saying the Rays will be better than the Yankees this year.

The Yankees filled all positions of need. If they can find two solid starters, they can move Joba to the 7th/8th inning closer. In the playoffs that's rock solid. You forget, last year the Yankees were desimated by pitching. While their hitters didn't hit, they had bad pitching. CC and Burnette, if they finally get Petite, to go along with ..., and they use that young guy named Mark something.........


Do I think that the Yankees make baseball worse, yes, for small market teams, but they make baseball an extraordinary amount of money.

As for the Red Sox, their salary cap is often close to the Yankees. They pull in a tremendous amount of money, and someone said that the Yankees seats are the most expensive. I'd be surprised if it wasn't tickets to Fenway.

I'm more of an observer of baseball, I was a lacrosse player from a young age, so to me baseball was always for wimps. But I watch both the Yankees and Red Sox and those are the teams I cheer for.

But yeah, from what I saw, the Yankees are the team to beat. Hopefully they can find someone to replace Cabrera, and then they will be the best again.

Quote:

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they hvae the largest following of any professional sports franchise in the world.

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I can think of 10 soccer teams off the top of my head who's following dwarfs the Yankees'. Baseball is only big in America and Japan. That's about it. On an international scale, the Lakers are much more popular than the Yankees. If you go anywhere in the world(outside of the USA) and put up a picture of

a) Kobe
b) Ronaldinho
c) Derek Jeter

99% of the time people will have no idea who Jeter is and definitely know Kobe and Ronaldinho.

Nfl is not big business?? if that wasn't the case, how come it costs roughly $500 for a season pass for the worst seat at cleveland browns stadium?? plus you have to pay a psl fee, roughly $600 bucks. the nfl still gives out $100million plus contracts.

Does the nfl have a better system than the mlb?? yes, but as I stated, it's becuase of the enourmous tv deals. when you're splitting 21.4 billion over the life of a tv deal, it's easy for small markets to spend and spend like the browns. that's my whole argument: the tv deals.