The $3.2 Billion Rant You All Knew Was Coming

I like to rant when I am given a good reason to, it soothes the soul and it keeps my blood pressure down. It’s not good to keep all that anger and pent up aggression inside, it can kill you. I felt a lot of this anger, aggression and such this week when Forbes came out and announced that the New York Yankees were valued at $3.2 Billion as a franchise heading into the 2015 season. $3,200,000,000.00, Count the zeroes. 10 zeroes. The team also made over $500 million in revenue in 2014 without much stake in the YES Network and with attendance, parking, merchandise sales etc. down. I touched on this in the blog post but I will go more in-depth with it today as my first thought when I read this information was how the team could lose out on the Yoan Moncada sweepstakes.

The Yankees loved Moncada, you don’t work out a guy privately three times in a month if you don’t, and admitted themselves that he was a once in a decade type talent. Moncada was #1 overall talent in a draft that the Yankees would otherwise never have the opportunity to sign under normal circumstances. The team, the $3.2 billion team that made over $500 million alone in 2014, let Moncada sign with the Boston Red Sox for a measly $6 million or so. Let’s do some math, $500 million divided by 162 games is a shade over $3 million a game in revenue. We let Moncada not only sign somewhere else but sign with our most hated and heated rivals for two games worth of revenue over a six season deal

Now Hal Steinbrenner does not think he’s cheap and frankly, he’s not. No one with a $200 million payroll is cheap. What Hal leaves out is the fact that a ton of that money was on the books when he took over. The 2009 spending spree, the Alex Rodriguez contract, etc. Hal may say he’s not cheap but we won’t know that until after the 2017 season when all of his father’s doings and signings are officially off the books and the bottom line. I reserve judgment on whether Hal is cheap or not but with the announcement three seasons in advance that the team will try and get under the cap again I can’t say I feel hopeful that I’ll be on his side on this one.

I’m not screaming for new management, I’m not screaming for Mark Cuban to take over the team like Mr. Hans in the comments section, hell I’m not really screaming for anything. I just want to win and it angers me that the team looked a gift horse named Moncada in the mouth and watched as he walked away for what Hal carries in his pocket to give out to the bums on the street of New York City as long as a camera is watching. It’s madness and I’m not happy. I said if the team didn’t sign Moncada I wouldn’t buy a Yankees ticket this season and I haven’t, and I won’t. Now you know why.