New York Yankees Suck, They Always Have... They Always Will

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January 18, 2002
Scott Gleason
Yanks-Suck.Com

The Evil That Men Do

What better thing to do is there when you’re upset than listen to a little Iron Maiden? “The Evil That Men Do” you say, Bruce? Well today the Evil Empire as CEO Larry Lucchino has dubbed the Yanks have extended their tentacles yet again. Not sure if I would call anyone evil, as the notion of good and evil seem arcane, but the actions today smack of just that: evil. Today the men in pinstripes have meddled with us, and did so likely out of spite for the not-so-secular comments made by lovable Larry. Today is a dark day in Red Sox land.

The Yankees facilitated a trade for Colon by trading El Duque to the white sox with cash considerations for Antonio Osuna and a middling minor-leaguer. The Yanks had the gall to say that this move actually cut payroll. I’m going to have to go by 2002 salaries and assume that neither player’s salary will adjust precipitously this season. According to ESPN, the Yanks traded $2 million to go along with Hernandez. His salary last season was $1 million higher than Osuna, thus meaning they increased not decreased their payroll by $1 million. Let’s say that Hernandez salary does go up, it’s likely to be by at most a little over $1 million. So is cutting tens of thousands of dollars of a $165 million payroll really cutting salary?

Why make the trade? Is Hernandez worth more to the Yanks than Osuna? Well Osuna is a 29-year old middle reliever who has missed most of ’99 and ’01 with arm problems not to mention being sidelined at various times this season. They did lose Stanton and Mendoza in the bullpen, but with the extra starters, they were likely to have adequate replacements in-house, El Duque being one of them. Hernandez has durability issues as well, so with the wealth of starting pitching that the Yanks have, maybe it was a decent deal, but with the dearth of starting pitching around the rest of league, they probably should have gotten more.

So, what other motivation do the Yankees have for making a trade that would rob them of a decent starting pitcher? Well, that seems pretty obvious, no? If you were the Yankees, would you want your closest competition to get Bartolo Colon? The answer is of course not. How can you stop it, though? I mean your payroll already sits about $50 million higher than any other team. You already have eight starting pitchers that would likely get starts on any other team. People are already mumbling about the skewed economic position that your team works from. What can you do if you’re in the Yankees shoes? Well, facilitate a trade for another team of course.

The thing that I hate about this trade, though, has very little to do with the Yankees unless you’re some sort of conspiracy theorist. Bartolo Colon was going to cost a lot Omar Minaya told us. What about Colon for our all-star third baseman making a pittance of a salary? Not enough, guys. I honestly don’t like Shea Hillenbrand and I thought that was enough considering the economics of the game. It was a fair amount better than Johnny Estrada for Kevin Millwood. When the Expos made their demands of the Yanks and the Sox back during the winter meetings the price tags were easy to read. For the sox it would cost us Hillenbrand and Casey Fossum. For the Yanks it was going to cost (insert link http://www.futilityinfielder.com/archives/2002_12_15_futility_archive.html) Nick Johnson, El Duque and Juan Rivera. Was this too much to ask for one-year of Colon at $8.25 million? Definitely, but one thing remained constant and that was that Minaya never wavered with what he asked from the sox. With that in mind, I propose this question: Why did the price tag for the White Sox via the Yankees drop so markedly?

Seriously, why? I want to know why the demand for the sox never changed but they decided that Rocky Biddle (please) and Jeff Liefer (sorry mr. and mrs. Liefer but your son isn’t very good) were Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera clones. I want to know how the Yankees were able to do the next best thing to getting Colon themselves, namely stopping the Red Sox from getting him, without giving up nearly what they were asked for initially. I’m screaming mad at dirt. I’m fit to be tied. I hate when people say dumb-ass things like “Axis of Evil” or “Evil Empire” but I’m starting to believe it. There is a force of evil in Baseball, at least where the Red Sox are concerned. That force of Evil is George Steinbrenner and he must be taken down.

Scott Gleason, a former writer for RotoWire.com, shows his hatred of the New York Yankees through song with the band BenderX. Download their aptly titled song Yankees Suck.