Boston is rapidly catching us and you'd think they would learn from us that payroll doesn't mean success. It's hard to buy a Championship(though Boston did just that w/ their fluke in '04 when they had 1 homegrown regular), I am very happy w/ what the yanks have done the past 2 offseasons- they aren't overpaying and just running around signing a million FAs. I think george ruined our latest dynasty when he started his 80s ways again. you can see a clear difference in the way things are being done now that cashman is truly calling the shots but thankfully Boston is trying to emulate us post-dynasty.
There is a huge difference between winning in a short series and beating out a team over the course of a season. Injuries never affect the Yankees like they do other teams. Why? Because they have a multimillion dollar current or former All Star waiting to fill in, or else they trade for someone's salary dump. In a seven game series you need two or three pitchers to get hot for two games a piece and anything can happen. In a 162 game season, that doesn't work. Not to mention they have to play the Yankees 19 times as well. And Junc, the Sox are NOT "rapidly catching up to the Yankees." last year the difference was $74 million, 2005 it was $85 million, in 2004 it was $53 million, in 2003 it was also $53 million, in 2002 it was $18 million, and in 2001 it was just $3 million. So in reality, not Yankee fan reality but actual reality, they trend is that the Yankees are pulling further away from the pack.
2005 - $85M 2006 - $74M 2007 (current approximation) - $40-50M Looks to me that the trend, since Cashman has gained control of the organization, is that the Yankees payroll is going down, and is getting closer to Boston.
