Deck stacked in Yankees' favor

Johnny Damon and Joba Chamberlain
celebrate their World Series victory
(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

The question isn’t new, but the Yankees’ win over the Phillies in the just-concluded World Series again has thrown it into stark relief: is the MLB deck stacked in New York’s favor?

Naysayers would accurately point out that eight different teams have taken baseball’s ultimate prize in the 10 years we’ve been in the two-thousand-oughts (see table below). But they would be missing the larger point, as only a handful of teams are repeat contenders: the Yankees (four times), and the Red Sox, Cardinals, and Phillies (twice each). The rest – representing fully half of the decade’s 20 competitors – are one-time wonders.

The popular argument is to explain this disparity wholly in terms of raw finances, but to be fair, there’s a large element of baseball “smarts” and even some dumb luck involved as well. How else does one explain the presence of the Rockies, Marlins, and Astros on the list? (See also Mets, New York and Orioles, Baltimore as notable counterexamples).

However, who but the Yankees last off-season could have afforded to sign C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixiera to blockbuster deals, and give A.J. Burnett his contract of a lifetime? The franchise has its smarts too – Nick Swisher turned out to be a terrific acquisition for them – but it was the ability to add these three mercenaries that enabled them to compile the best record in baseball and then win the championship.

The Phillies are to be commended for making the Series as interesting as it was. They never gave up and they never gave in, but it was clear from the start that their rivals up the Turnpike simply were better. The Yanks had better starting pitching (forget about the days-of-rest thing), a deeper bullpen, and more consistent hitting, and it all was the product of a sustained ability to pay premium prices for premium players (Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte), and to intelligently assemble a solid supporting cast (Jose Molina, Eric Hinske).

Having either one of these attributes would make a club hard to compete with; boasting both makes it well nigh impossible. The Red Sox probably are closer than any other team to matching the Yankee blueprint, and they have had a lot of recent on-field success to as a result. But as long as long as the Sons of Steinbrenner continue their profligate spending – and there’s no reason for them not to – and combine it with sensible roster-building, the deck will continue to tilt.