It's Not The Payroll, Stupid

The 2008 Yankee season is over.  As I write this, the Yankees are 10.5 games out of first place and 7 games out in the Wild Card. Joe Girardi and his team can be as positive as they want to be. Their season is still over.

Alex Rodriguez is one Yankee who's being positive, even though he's been abysmal on the field, falling back to his pre-2007 habit of not coming through in the clutch. The fans are also back in their pre-2007 habit of booing A-Rod for not coming through in the clutch. "Why shouldn't we boo?" fans say. "He makes all that money and he doesn't hit when it really counts."

Well, let's look at this a little more closely. Why, exactly, do players make the salaries they make? Is it for what teams expect them to do after they've signed the big contract? Partly. But it's mostly for what players have done in the past. Big contracts are rewards for past performance, not the other way around. I know that A-Rod is probably the best player in MLB history, and, in his case, more of his deal is for what he's expected to do. But contracts for the majority of players are for what they've already done.

Now let's step back and look at the big picture. As we all know, the Yankee payroll is the biggest in baseball. They're not making the playoffs this year with this huge payroll. It's a terrible thing, but not so much when you remember why all the contracts on this payroll were handed out: for past performance.

To me, this is so simple, a no-brainer. But, I guess, it's easier to ask "What have you done for me, lately?" than to remember what happened yesterday.