A young man’s game
Former New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner may have picked a pretty good time to retire. It looks like his brand of baseball, which centers on throwing big bucks around to land veteran stars, is becoming as passé as wearing stirrups with socks. The proof is all around Major League Baseball as teams that rely more on their own home grown talent are succeeding, while squads that shell out big bucks to bring in outside help appear to be stumbling.
Let’s take Steinbrenner’s Yankees, which are now run by his son Hank. This plethora of over compensated veterans like Jason Giambi, Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon are being owned by this year’s biggest surprise, the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rays, who were a game and a half up on the Boston Red Sox in the AL East as of Thursday, rely almost exclusively on players they drafted or traded for while they were still prospects. Guys like Carl Crawford, Scott Kazmir, B.J. Upton and super prospect Evan Longoria are fueling the greatest season in the franchise’s 11-year history.
In the National League, the Florida Marlins are doing their best Ray impersonation as up and comers like Hanley Ramirez, Mike Jacobs and Dan Uggla are fueling a potent offense that has them at the apex of the topsy-turvy National League East.
On the other side of the coin, big spenders like Detroit, Seattle, and the New York Mets have joined the Yanks near or at the bottom of their respective divisions and wanting to return some of their big purchases.
Closer to home in the National League Central, the Reds debuted another young stud this year, outfielder Jay Bruce. The 2007 minor league player of the year welcomed himself to the league with a three-for-three night at the plate with two RBI this past Tuesday.
The Reds could quickly join the likes of the Marlins and Rays as youngsters like Bruce, Edwin Encarnacion, Joey Votto and the intriguing one-two pitching punch of Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto have people talking about the franchise’s bright future.
Hopefully, it won’t take the Pittsburgh Pirates’ new management team long to turn the team’s spotty draft history around. Rumors are already swirling that the Bucs, who own the second pick in the upcoming amateur draft, are taking a good long look at Florida State’s Buster Posey, who is not only arguably the top college talent in the United States, but can play all nine positions on the diamond. The only bad part is, he can’t do them all at once.