We should ignore NY and Boston (for now)

[El Gordo]

If you want to insure that you will get your share of wins against the MFY's and the Sux this season, and thus avoid the dread culture of losing, you would have to sign Lackey, Holliday, Beltre/Figgins, Gonzales/Soriano etc., Wolf, and trade for one of AGonz, Blanks, Votto or Fielder. How realistic is all that? Just some of it wont be enough.

[wildcard]

Seems like most here have already played the season.

Yankees:

Posada, starting catcher, 38 years old

Pettitte, #3 starter, 37 year old

Jeter, starting shortstop, 35 years at a middle of the infield skill position.

Hughes, #4 starter, 5.45 ERA as a starter, unproven

Chamberlain, #5 starter, 1.55 WHIP

M. Cabrera, projected leftfielder, 752 OPS

Red Sox:

If Bay walks they lose 36 homers and a 921 OPS. Who replaces it?

Ortiz at 34, is held together with scotch tape

Martinez can't catch like Varitek

Varitek, 37, can't hit like Martinez

Dice-K, 5.76 ERA last year

Wakefield, 43 years old

Will the Yankees and Red Sox be good next year? Sure they will be.

Will they be great? That's why they play the games. Don't assume the O's will just lose whenever they play them.

The O's should surround the kids with some quality veterans and see what happens. Sometimes the outcome is not that predictable when a team puts 25 quality players on the field.

[Wind Rider]

But, again, you take nothing into consideration of our payroll limitations. You just assume we can match the Yankees and Red Sox dollar for dollar. That's a ridiculous assumption. Just awful.

Do you honestly think that signing Lackey to a 5/$100M (what it'd take to get him here) contract would make us a winner next year and also not hurt us 3 years down the road? I really hope not, because that just shows such a bad understanding of reality.

It is a ridiculous assumption, from 2002 through 2008 our earnings were 146 million higher than the Red Sox and 302 million higher than the Yankees. Based on earnings they can't compete with us.

Figures are from Forbes and include rights fees from YES, NESN, and MASN. They do not include profits from the Yankees owning 35% of YES and the Orioles 90% of MASN.

We could afford 3 Lackeys and have plenty of money left over.

[ChaosLex]

The homegrown core was Jeter, Williams, Posada, Pettite and Rivera. That's pretty much it.

I like JTrea, but I'm so freakin' tempted to put this as my sig line. :laughlol:

[justcompete]

I think it's ignorant to say the Twins couldn't compete in the AL East.

I generally believe that we make too much out of the AL East, like it's some huge mythical beast that is just impossible to compete with. That attitude around here of "ZZZZOOOMMMFFGGZZZZ WE ARE IN THE AL EAST WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO!?!?!?" is just tiresome.

oh really

Twins record vs AL East

2009- 10 - 25 including postseason

2008- 13 - 19

2007- 19 - 19 beat Baltimore in all 7 games lol

[oriolefaith]

Seems like most here have already played the season.

Yankees:

Posada, starting catcher, 38 years old

Pettitte, #3 starter, 37 year old

Jeter, starting shortstop, 35 years at a middle of the infield skill position.

Hughes, #4 starter, 5.45 ERA as a starter, unproven

Chamberlain, #5 starter, 1.55 WHIP

M. Cabrera, projected leftfielder, 752 OPS

Red Sox:

If Bay walks they lose 36 homers and a 921 OPS. Who replaces it?

Ortiz at 34, it held together with scotch tape

Martinez can't catch like Varitek

Varitek, 37, can't hit like Martinez

Dice-K, 5.76 ERA last year

Wakefield, 43 years old

Will the Yankees and Red Sox be good next year? Sure they will be.

Will they be great. That's why they play the games. Don't assume the O's will just lose whenever they play them.

The O's should surround the kids with some quality veterans and see what happens. Sometimes the outcome is not that predictable when a team puts 25 quality players on the field.

Don't forget Rivera. But, overall I agree with this.

[oriolefaith]

The homegrown core was Jeter, Williams, Posada, Pettite and Rivera. That's pretty much it.

:D:D:D:D:D O that is just priceless

[RShack]

It is a ridiculous assumption, from 2002 through 2008 our earnings were 146 million higher than the Red Sox and 302 million higher than the Yankees. Based on earnings they can compete with us.

Figures are from Forbes and include rights fees from YES, NESN, and MASN. They do not include profits from the Yankees owning 35% of YES and the Orioles 90% of MASN.

Not sure what Forbes knows, none of the books are open to the public. And, even if they were, all the money hidden and back-channeled from YES and NESN makes Forbes number meaningless. If you really believe that the O's earned more than the MFY's, I don't know what to tell you, except that you'll be popular with the folks that think the time to spend big is right now.

Next up, "How to bake a cake in 20 minutes rather than 45 by cranking up the oven-temp"... followed by "How to make a baby in 3 months rather than 9 months"... followed by "How to grow big juicy tomatoes in only 1 week"...

[Slappy]

Bergesen was as good or better than Lackey last year. There is no reason Matusz cannot reach that level too in 2010. The whole point of the AM plan is to put comparable talent on the field at lower cost.

[Leitch]

There are a lot of other people we also didn't sign.

Tex was only the top of the heap.

MSK

I was for signing Tex. I'm not for paying a premium in prospects or salary for overrated established talent that doesn't really fit our needs because it's the sexiest thing on the market right now.

I don't care what the Yankees are doing. They're not the Gashouse Gorillas. Every name they add to their lineup doesn't necessarily mean they're going to add 10 wins and bury us in the dust. Just because they won 103 last year doesn't mean they're going to win 103 next year. Just because they trade for Granderson doesn't mean he's going to stay healthy or be effective. Just because Derek Jeter put up a 70+ VORP season doesn't mean he's got 5 more in him. Just because Posada bounced back from health problems last year doesn't mean he's all of a sudden not a 38 year old catcher. Last year's numbers just aren't the only things you consider when you evaluate a team.

[Wind Rider]

Not sure what Forbes knows, none of the books are open to the public. And, even if they were, all the money hidden and back-channeled from YES and NESN makes Forbes number meaningless. If you really believe that the O's earned more than the MFY's, I don't know what to tell you, except that you'll be popular with the folks that think the time to spend big is right now.

Next up, "How to bake a cake in 20 minutes rather than 45 by cranking up the oven-temp"... followed by "How to make a baby in 3 months rather than 9 months"... followed by "How to grow big juicy tomatoes in only 1 week"...

Do not forget the MASN profits going to the Orioles.

As important as this is, the people running the Hangout should do an article with the Forbes people and find out how good the numbers are.

[geschinger]

Do not forget the MASN profits going to the Orioles.

What are these MASN profits you speak of? Last I hear this year was going to be the first year they turned the corner into profitability. Doesn't seem to be any kind of cash cow - at least not to this point.

[GoldGlove21]

I don't know why you and others can't understand that its all a matter of timing. Nobody with any sense thinks we can be perennial contenders without ever spending big for outside talent. But we simply aren't at the point where the money would be well spent. We don't have the resources of NY and Boston, and we aren't ready to bridge a gap by spending a bunch of money.

I disagree that it is a matter of timing if you are saying that based on the development of our young guys. If they do not develop we are screwed if we do or do not sign a couple top notch players, so why not take that risk? If you are saying it is a timing issue because superstars at our positions of need are not available then I agree with you. The main issue is that they may not be available next year either and at some point we are going to have to consider upgrading via trade. Why not increase your tradable parts as you sign a talented player? Go get Beltre and Bell can either slide over to first or be traded. You could have got Lackey which would have a allowed an extra arm to be traded. Trading for a first baseman would allow Snyder to be in the deal if need be. All of a sudden you have the depth you need to trade for the talent you are missing.

We are taking the wait and see approach which could work out well for us, but it could crash and burn right in front of us. At that point we either try the development process again or we spend money of free agents. We do not seem to be big of the latter.

[JTrea81]

I like JTrea, but I'm so freakin' tempted to put this as my sig line. :laughlol:

I'm just pointing out we already have Markakis, Wieters, Roberts, Reimold and Johnson and then Matusz for homegrown players.

We've got potentially what the Yankees had. But people seem to think it's neccessary to add Britton, Arrieta and Snyder etc. to that homegrown core.

(Note I'm not including Bell, Tillman or Jones because they didn't come up through our system.)

The 90's Yankees didn't have that many homegrown players on their championship roster. Their rotation besides Petitte was all outside acquisitions.

They went out and made trades and signings for established players to augment their roster, so why shouldn't the Orioles do the same?

[clarence]

The same Yankees that brought in David Cone, Roger Clemens, David Wells Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neil, Chuck Knoblauch and Darryl Strawberry to name a few from the outside?,

The homegrown core was Jeter, Williams, Posada, Pettite and Rivera. That's pretty much it.[/QUOTE]

This ends all speculation. There can be no more questions. This is the greatest comment I've ever read on here.

and chaos you blew it, this should be everyone's sig line.