The New York Times’ Murray Chass, marvels at how the Yankees’ quarter billion dollar payroll has been propped up by pitchers making peanuts (in a zillionaire pro sportsman sense. Apologies to those who are really making peanuts).
Aaron Small, an emergency call-up from their minor league system in July, earned $149,180 for his remarkable 10-0 record. That was the prorated portion of the $350,000 salary his contract called for. Small, a 33-year-old right-hander, may get more from a postseason share than from his salary.
Chien-Ming Wang, who was a victim of errors and unearned runs in Game 2 of the division series against the Angels, joined the Yankees a few weeks into the season, compiled an 8-5 record and earned $274,557 based on the major league minimum salary of $316,000.
Shawn Chacon, whom the Yankees acquired in desperation from Colorado on July 28, had a $2.35 million salary with the Rockies, and the Yankees paid $860,382 of that. Al Leiter, obtained from the Marlins on July 16, cost the Yankees $1,678,291.
But remember the game Leiter pitched against the Red Sox the day after the trade, his 5-3 victory. Maybe that game was the one that enabled the Yankees to finish with a 10-9 record in the season series, an outcome that gave the Yankees first place over the Red Sox.
When the season began, the Yankees had a starting rotation whose collective 2005 salary of $64 million was higher than the entire payrolls of 14 of the other 29 teams. Gone from that rotation are Kevin Brown ($15,714,286), Carl Pavano ($9 million) and Jaret Wright ($5,666,667).
Other teams have griped about how the Yankees spend lavishly to overcome injuries, correct mistakes or bolster some questionable part of their team, but they haven’t done any of that this year.
They replaced $30,380,953 worth of starting pitchers with $1,284,119 worth of starting pitchers. Instead of criticism, they deserve accolades for fiscal responsibility.
Chass makes a strong point, but I’d have been even more impressed had the Yankees gone to greater lengths to get out from under some of those crushing salaries. Perhaps employing the woman that Denny Neagle paid $40 for a blowjob to hang out in front of Kevin Brown’s house.
I don’t think he made a strong point at all…first of all, no one coulda predicted what Small was about to do – if Cashamn takes credit for that, he’s kidding hmself –
While Chacon was a good bet, given that his tenure was in Coors Stadium, Leiter also was a disaster – Yeah, he won that one game vs. the Sox, but he lost or (when banished to the pen) added fire to games where the Yanks coulda and maybe woulda won..of course if they did win one of those, they wouldn’t have been in teh tie in the first place
We don’t know to what extent Cashman takes credit for Aaron Small. But with both NY and Boston struggling to find decent starters in ’05, the pre-season signing of Small looms pretty large in the former’s success. If Cashman could be criticized for failing to acquire a particular player (or for said player turning out to be a bust), certainly he’s gonna recieve recognition when things work out.
I remain mostly unconvinced that Al Leiter should still be playing.
I just read on firejoemorgan.com (best site ever) that Aaron Small was like 1-4 with a 5 ERA in Columbus…like I said, there’s NO WAY Cashman or anyone else saw him doinf what he did
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Harris,
Aaron Small isn’t the first or the last guy to put up poor numbers in triple A and then thrive at the big league level. Whether or not he’ll do so for a longer stretch after the league has seen him 3 or 4 times (ie. the Jae Seo effect) is another question.
You’re correct, there was little to indicate from Small’s performance as a Clipper that he’d be this good. At the same time, the Yankees took a flyer last spring on Small,hardly a kid. If Cashman can be tarred and feathered for the Yankees’ lack of depth below the big league level, surely he deserves a share of the credit for Small’s contributions to a division championship. The standard Yankee M.O. (prior to luxury taxes) would’ve been to deal for an AJ Burnett in midseason.
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Actually a trade for Burnett may’ve won this Angels series for them…but we’ll never know
and correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Jae Seo awesome this year? This after being extremely mediocre last year) When Randolph deemed fit to have him face major leaguers, that is.
Jae Seo _was_ awesome this year. He also emerged from Norfolk with an expanded repitoire and a slightly altered release point. His terrific second half was more than good enough to solidify a spot in next spring’s rotation, i think. But my point is, let’s see how he fares after the same hitters have seen him 3 or 4 times. Hitters are gonna adjust to him. And he’ll have to adjust to their adjusting!
Either way, I don’t feel like we saw enough of Seo in ’05 to say if he’s gonna be a 17-20 game winner in ’06 or revert to old form. Certainly he was more deserving of starting opportunies than Victor Zambrano or Kaz Ishii, but long-term, we don’t know how he’ll turn out. Same goes for Aaron Small.
Gotcha…but to me, knowing that Seo actually worked on something in AAA to make him better, gives him a better shot at long term success than Small, who judging by his AAA ERA, wasn’t really doing anything down there but (to borrow Harold Reynold’s fave word) scuffling – unless Slottlemyre did something (which I highly doubt)
the thing is, sometimes guys who struggle at AAA inexplicably are successful when they’re called up. I saw Ezequiel Astacio get lit up in Round Rock a couple of times this year, then he went toe to toe with Pedro and looked nothing if not competent against big league hitters (well, the Mets). Whether or not that kind of performance can be sustained over a full season is another question, and one we might see Small and Seo answering next season.