Thursday, October 2, 2014

$500 Million Doesn't Buy What It Used To


The New York Yankees went on an absolute shopping spree this winter and spent in excess of $500 million bringing in the likes of Jacoby Ellsbury, Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Masahiro Tanaka, Brian Roberts, Kelly Johnson,  and others but the team actually did worse, record wise, than the 2013 Yankees did. Is the record column the only place where the 2014 Yankees were lacking in comparison to the 2013 Yankees? The answers may surprise you, keep reading.

2014 Yankees: record 84-78 (-31 run differential) -- Pythagorean W/L 77-85

Rk Pos Name Age G R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Team Totals 32.9 162 633 1349 247 26 147 591 112 452 1133 .245 .307 .380 .687 93
Rank in 15 AL teams 13 13 13 8 7 3 9 4 11 14 10 12
Non-Pitcher Totals 32.9 162 633 1347 247 26 147 591 112 452 1127 .246 .308 .381 .689 94
Rk Pos Name Age G R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+

2013 Yankees: record 85-77 (-21 run differential) -- Pythagorean W/L 79-83

Rk Pos Name Age G R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Team Totals 31.9 162 650 1321 247 24 144 614 115 466 1214 .242 .307 .376 .683 88
Rank in 15 AL teams 10 13 14 5 14 5 10 9 12 12 14 13
Non-Pitcher Totals 31.9 162 650 1321 247 24 144 613 115 466 1202 .243 .308 .377 .685 89
Rk Pos Name Age G R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

So $500 million got you an older team by a full year, although Hiroki Kuroda, Ichiro Suzuki, and Derek Jeter all returning from 2013 another year older did not help. The team also scored 17 runs less, won one less game, drove in less RBI, and had comparable numbers pretty much everywhere else across the board. Was Robinson Cano THAT valuable to the Yankees and their offense or were these stats skewed a tad by Alfonso Soriano's incredible second half? I don't really think it matters, both teams missed the playoffs when their All Star's were retiring. 

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