This is the year.
Finally, after becoming Major League Baseball’s version of the empty threat over the last decade, the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 in game six to win their 27th World Series on Wednesday.
Maybe it was the Yankees move to their new stadium that sparked them, but something certainly changed this season.
Year after year, the Yankees have spent ludicrous amounts of cash signing big-name players, but haven’t won the World Series since 2000.
The Yankees payroll ballooned to a shocking $208 million this season, almost $63 million more than the second highest team, the New York Mets.
But why have the Yankees been unable to win recently when their star player, Alex Rodriguez, makes $8 million more per season than the entire Pittsburgh Pirates team?
The simple reason is that the Yankees have been short-sighted.
Since 2000, George Steinbrenner has consistently added or re-signed over-the-hill, big-name players to help the team win and they haven’t lived up to their price tags.
This is simply not the way to build a championship team.
Just look at former Cy Young award winner Roger Clemens, who was scooped up by the Yankees for a cool $18.7 million in the middle of the 2007 season. Supposed to be their ace pitcher, Clemens won only six games – each victory costing the Yankees about $3.1 million.
What about slugger Bobby Abreu?
After signing for $15 million per season to add power hitting, Abreu only hit 36 home runs over two seasons as a Yankee. This is down from the close-to-30 per season he averaged with the Philadelphia Phillies before coming to New York.
But what made them successful this season was a combination of new factors.
First, the Yankees boast a crop of talented home-grown players. Also, the Yankees brass flexed their wallet to add top flight players (again). But this time, they added expensive and good players in the team’s weakest area over the past decade – pitching.
The Yankees' aforementioned home-grown talent really developed this season. And they didn’t have to break the bank for these guys.
Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera both had stellar offensive years, and Joba Chamberlain was a great fourth man in the starting rotation. All three of these players worked their way up through the Yankees system.
Cano was second on the Yankees with a .320 batting average, only behind American League MVP candidate Derek Jeter. Cabrera steadily improved in the field and upped his home run and runs batted in totals to 13 and 68, up from 8 and 37 in 2008. Chamberlain went 9-6 and struck out 133 batters – pretty good for the team's fourth pitcher.
The best part is the Yankees only dished about $8 million this season for these three – far less than Abreu in 2007.
Another reason for the Yankees' success was their starting pitcher upgrade. Adding C.C. Sabathia and A.J. Burnett in the off-season solidified the rotation.
Although the two were good – if not good at least better than average in the season with 19 and 13 wins respectively – they joined Andy Pettitte to form a lethal three-man punch in the post-season. With the exception of a bad game five from Burnett, the trio went 8-2 in the playoffs.
This two-pronged pitching and hitting attack is wrapped around the Yankees' most powerful weapon – their core of veterans including Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
Jeter is the favourite for American League MVP and had a strong offensive year. His defence was as marvellous as always, but his batting average of .334 led the team in the regular season.
Rodriguez, who had an uncharacteristically poor regular season by his standards, has exploded in the playoffs, hitting .365, six home runs and 18 runs batted in.
One other veteran is worth mentioning in the Yankee success. Hideki Matsui hit a home run and batted in six out of the Yankees' seven runs in their clinching victory, another case of a veteran stepping up.
Even though it is unlikely that baseball analysts will ever consider the star-studded and high-priced Yankees a consensus non-contender. They seem to have found a winning combination that could make them perennial favourite to dominate.