Team management philosophy in baseball differs throughout the league. You have the big market teams like the Red Sox and Yankees who, for the most part, are not afraid of spending money on players. You also have the lower end teams such as the Washington Nationals, who run their team using prospects. But, which philosophy is better, buying or raising talent?

If you are a general manager for a team like the Washington Nationals, an absolute joke to Major League Baseball, then it is likely your team doesn’t make enough revenue to buy players through the free agency market. Therefore, you would be trying to fill your team with prospects. The problem is prospects in baseball today are much more overvalued than in the past years, with good reason. Not every team is lucky enough to find prospects such as third baseman Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays, who get called up to the majors and immediately have an impact on a team. Playing in a college or minor league game is much different than facing a Major League team.

I think that this philosophy is absolutely absurd. Why not go out and buy a few proven impact players rather than finish near the bottom of the MLB standings for a few years, just to try and get prospects. Remember Mark Prior? With the contracts of prospects increasing every year, you are much better off trying to sign proven players at a higher price.

If you run a team like the Yankees, you basically have all the money in the world to spend on players. There are two problems with signing whomever you want. The first one is, when you sign a player such as CC Sabathia, you lose draft picks. When you lose draft picks, your farm team takes a hit and limits your trading pieces are limited. Another problem is that when you sign a player to a contract of $100+ million, those players have to produce. If they don’t produce, then millions of dollars just went down the hole and you have nothing to show for your money. Do I have to remind anyone about Kevin Brown or Carl Pavano?

What I don’t understand is why fans hate this philosophy so much. Fans who are complaining about the Yankees spending money can’t get mad at the Yankees. New York City is a huge city. With a huge baseball city comes a lot of revenue. With revenue comes spending money. Honestly, I think you have to blame agents and steroids before the Yankees. Players who are taking steroids are putting up better numbers, which means they want more money. Agents know teams like the Yankees have money to spend, and they know they want to win, so they raise their clients’ price. If fans hate the Yankees for buying out players, they should hate teams like the Washington Nationals for being a disgrace to MLB and for not being able to compete.


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