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Now batting... For Legere... Number 7, Walt Cherniak (cherniak, cherniak)... Greetings, Full Montians! As you know, our noble Commish has been very "busy" lately, too busy, apparently, to keep up with his News & Notes duties. When he told me he probably wouldn't be able to write anything this week - that would make two weeks in a row - I volunteered to pinch-hit. Need to keep the dialogue flowing. But what to write? I could have followed John's lead, and made some comments about various teams and league owners. I could have remarked on some of the recent trades. I could even have bragged about my first-place team, and the strategy that created it. But I'm not gonna do any of those things. Instead, I thought I'd write something inflammatory, something that would shake things up, stir the pot, rattle some cages. Yes, that's it! How perfect! I'll piss off the Yankee fans! Not hard to do, given the nature of the beast. So here's a column designed to make the eyes bug out of Kevin's head. Designed to make Doug's hair go straight, to make the back of Dennis' neck turn red, to make a vein appear in the middle of Jim's forehead and start throbbing uncontrollably. Designed to make Brian swear off baseball and start planning for fantasy football (oops, too late). I have a theory about the Red Sox and Yankees, and it can be boiled down to three simple sentences so you Yankee fans can understand it: 1. The balance of power in the American League has shifted. I can already hear you guffawing (or is it harrumphing?). "The Red Sox win one freakin' World Series in 86 years, and all of a sudden they're the cock of the walk! We've won 26 World Series! And they call US arrogant!" I admit that I'm not exactly objective on this topic (neither are Yankee fans). I could be viewing this situation through crimson-colored glasses (you know, like the color of Schilling's sock last October?). But if any of you can refute my theory, bring it on. Most people would date the turnaround to last year's ALCS, but I'll go back a bit farther. The balance of power changed when the Henry/Werner ownership group installed Theo Epstein as GM of the Red Sox before the 2003 season. The Red Sox almost beat the Yankees in the 2003 ALCS, and would have, if Grady Little had a functioning brain. Still, as jubilant as Yankee fans were when Aaron Boone crossed the plate, they were watching the end of a great era, not the beginning of a new one. Epstein, a disciple of Billy Beane, brought in Bill James and other stat-minded geniuses, to help plug the biggest gap between the two clubs: the ability to evaluate and obtain talent. He started with the major league team, bringing in Millar, Mueller and Ortiz for a combined $6 million a year - or the equivalent of a half season from Bernie Williams. He grabbed Brandon Lyon off waivers from Toronto and Bronson Arroyo off waivers from Pittsburgh. Then he packaged Lyon with two young arms to bring Curt Schilling to Boston. He also started rebuilding the farm system, which Dan Duquette had gutted. The second player Theo drafted - Matt Murton - is batting .339 for the Cubs. The sixth guy he picked - Jonathan Papelbon - is in the Red Sox rotation two years later. More are on the way. Meanwhile, the Yankees continue to operate like a dysfunctional family. I happen to think Brian Cashman and Gene Michael are pretty smart baseball guys. But they don't have the authority to make personnel moves the way they'd probably like to. If it isn't George butting in, it's the "Tampa brain trust." The Yankees could have had Randy Johnson at the 2004 trading deadline, but they didn't have the prospects to make the deal. Instead, they had to trade Javier Vazquez - who cost them Nick Johnson and Juan Rivera - to get Johnson last winter. The Yankees have one undeniable advantage over every franchise in the game - nearly unlimited revenues. The Red Sox certainly aren't paupers; they have the second highest revenues in baseball. But their annual revenues are more than $100 million less than the Yankees' and that gap gets wider every year. So how does a team with these revenues allow its farm system to turn into a pile of shit? How does a team with a $200 million payroll wind up with Bubba Crosby playing center field? When their pitchers go down, why do they have to buy Al Leiter, Shawn Chacon, Alan Embree and Hideo Nomo from The Dollar Store? It's because they're being run terribly, that's why. They've made a series of ill-advised personnel moves, while missing out on guys like Carlos Beltran, who could have really helped them. Conversely, the Red Sox are being run extremely well, probably for the first time in almost 100 years. The Yankees are an aging team with no farm system and a team full of big, untradeable contracts. A-Rod, Sheffield, Jeter, Rivera and Matsui are still great players. Giambi seems to have bounced back, for now, but there's a lot of money and a lot of years left on his contract. The Yankees' supporting cast is very shaky, and very expensive. They don't have young players to promote, and the only players they can trade for are players other teams want to dump because they're too old, too expensive, or both. And I'm loving every minute of it. It's certainly possible that the Yankees will overtake the Red Sox this season. Boston has its own flaws. But over the long haul, I think we're going to see the Sox' superior organization continue to pay dividends, moving the club forward and leaving the Yankees in their dust.
INTENTIONAL WALT
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