I’ve been thinking about just calling them the Yankers from now on. Yanker shortstop Derek Jeter, Yanker ownership, front-running Yanker fans.

Maybe it’s just because I grew up in the South, but I’m fairly satisfied with the inherent pejorative value of the name “Yankees.” There’s not really anything more that needs to be said.

I bet he just spews verbal diarrhea all day over there

I agree they are a party to it, i.e., undeniably a part of the problem. At the same time, if you look at all the top spending teams, which other one is facing a challenge within their own division, from a team that spends an order of magnitude even higher?

New York Yankees $ 209,081,577
New York Mets $ 137,793,376
Detroit Tigers $ 137,685,196
Boston Red Sox $ 133,390,035
Chicago White Sox $ 121,189,332
Los Angeles Angels $ 119,216,333
Los Angeles Dodgers $ 118,588,536
Chicago Cubs $ 118,345,833
Seattle Mariners $ 117,666,482
Atlanta Braves $ 102,365,683
St. Louis Cardinals $ 99,624,449
[12-16 – Phillies, Jays, Astros, Brewers, Indians]
San Francisco Giants $ 76,594,500

Look at it by division:

• The Red Sox are outspent by the Yankees — $76 million
• The White Sox are outspent by the Tigers — $16 million
• The Mariners are outspent by the Angels — $1.5 million
• The Braves are outspent by the Mets — $35 million
• The Cardinals are outspent by the Cubs — $18 million
• The Giants are outspent by the Dodgers — $44 million

So it should be clear here that the Yankees are in their own category, and the Dodgers and Mets are the next tier of villains, if we define “villainy” as trying to buy a title by spending about 40% more than your competitors can. The Red Sox, on the one hand, are much farther outspent by the Yankees than any other second-in-revenue club. On the other hand, they do outspend the Blue Jays by $33 million. The essential point remains, they are part of the problem, but what is unique only to the Red Sox is that they are one of the worst offenders of the system while also being one of its worst victims.

I thought that was where Jay was going at first too, hence I defended CC when the Jackass thread was first posted.

But I think, and Jay will correct me if I’m wrong, that signing with the Yankees and taking their money does not, in and of itself, make the player a jackass. It’s signing onto the Yankee’s company line of aura, mystique, a tradition of excellence that was built on hard work, determination and skill among players and within the organization. When CC talked about coming to NY because it was the place where he could win and about getting chills when he said he was on the Yankees was when he became a jackass.

I fail to see how the money is better left in Sabathia’s family than in Steinbrenner’s. If anything, I’m sure the Steinbrenner family is more practiced at large-scale philanthropy and/or investment that might lead to job creation, i.e., probably more effective at it. Who exactly is served by Sabathia ending up with more money? His family, four generations hence?

I see no evidence that you read or understood my analogy. It makes no difference who has a career-ending injury and when. We can assume off the bat that this is his last significant contract, but it doesn’t matter — either way, he’s worth $130 million or more. Shunning his prior priorities for extra bags of cash he can’t ever spend, allowing himself to become the best single example of the economic corruption that makes the sport into a competitive sham … these things make him a jackass. He can take the money, give it to his family, spend it on charities or whatever.

How about 2 guys who didn’t have a chance to choose to be a jackass, and whose pitching careers were destroyed by society…?

… and we’re getting Franklin Gutierrez when he becomes a FA in 2016.

Eff ’em. They might only be half as bad as the Yankees, but the Yankees are clearly infinitely bad.

Do the math.