Checkbooks can't buy World Series

[LittleOzzy]

The Los Angeles Angels and Miami Marlins were champions of the 2011-12 offseason. The Angels committed more than $300 million to Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson on a single day at the winter meetings. The Marlins signed Jose Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell for the grand opening of their avant-garde ballpark in Little Havana.

Then the games began. The Angels finished a disappointing third in the American League West. The Marlins fared even worse, slipping back into irrelevancy with a 93-loss debacle amid embarrassing antics from since-fired manager Ozzie Guillen.

And this was hardly the first time an offseason boom led to an in-season bust. In fact, 2012 merely followed the same script as the year before. Remember the 2011 World Series between the Greatest Rotation Ever and the Greatest Red Sox Team Ever? Of course you don’t. It never happened. The Phillies of Halladay, Hamels and Lee didn’t make it out of the first round. Boston’s only award came from the Fried Chicken and Beer Association of America.

So, there is a reason we haven’t witnessed tearful acceptance speeches from the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays after their Hot Stove League pennants: Championships are earned, not purchased.

The New York Yankees had the majors’ highest payroll in each of the last 14 seasons, according to the USA Today salary database. They won the World Series three times, the most of any team in baseball during that span.

At least, that’s one way to look at it. Here’s another: Although the Yankees outspent every other organization in the industry for more than a decade, someone other than Mariano Rivera threw the season’s final pitch more than 78 percent of the time.

And if the Yankees can’t buy the World Series, well, no one can.

The Blue Jays added a dynamic presence in shortstop Jose Reyes — a threat to lead the American League in batting average, triples and runs. And Toronto has one of the league’s top rotations, led by trade acquisitions R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson. Yet the team’s season could hinge on the health of slugger Jose Bautista, who played only six games after the All-Star break because of a wrist injury.

From this week’s workouts through the end of the season, expectations will be a constant, oppressive force for both the Dodgers and Blue Jays. Faced with a similar circumstance, the 2012 Marlins crumbled. (Reyes, Buehrle and Johnson can tell their new Toronto teammates all about that.) The Angels started dreadfully, too, with a 6-14 record before Mike Trout arrived.

For those reasons, Kemp and Bautista are the most important figures in each clubhouse — particularly early this season. As Hank Aaron Award winners for their respective leagues in 2011, their offensive bona fides are well established. They also possess the personal qualities and organizational tenures necessary to lead — a particularly important consideration, when a redesigned team is supposed to win. (Ask the Lakers.)

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/chec ... rld-series

[TwistedLogic]

Right, the most idiotic article, something that should be expected of Fox and Jon Paul Morosi. These tools just need something to write about. If you're going to make an argument, make some sound points. Don't throw out garbage fallacies that only contradict your own argument. He refers to the Yankees as an example of the idea that money doesn't buy wins? The Yankees have went to the world series 7 times in the last 16 years and won 5 of those championships. No other team in the entire major leagues comes even within a shade of that. He also refers to the Angels and Red Sox as examples of teams that win the offseason but don't win the season while conveniently forgetting that the Angels and Red Sox both won 90 games and would have made the playoffs in most divisions, during most seasons. His last example of the Marlins is also a terrible example. Reyes, Buehrle and Bell is not some sort of extraordinary, world-breaking haul that is supposed to guarantee you back-to-back championships, and it is nowhere near the haul the Jays have accrued. It is also again another flawed point because Reyes and Buehrle did exactly what they were paid to do, while Bell flamed out, exactly what should be expected of aging and overrated relievers. The Marlins were nowhere near the team the Jays were prior to their noted offseasons. The Jays are spending their resources wisely and at the perfect and opportune moment, the Marlins spent money because they had to decorate their stadium with backloaded contracts that they planned on unloading. I also don't understand why the hell people keep referring to the Marlins regular season record, their record means ****. They traded away Infante, Anibal, Hanley, Bell, Sanchez, Choate, Mujica, etc, etc all prior to the deadline or during the course of the year, while Stanton was injured for a significant amount of time. Of course their record would take a dump. All of this "money don't buy rings" stuff is garbage. Each team's season turns out based on individual cases, based on the assembled talent, durability, progression and regression and in many cases, pure dumb luck. Anything else is just garbage for these losers to write about. They look for information in the most arbitrary and insignificant things trying to draw up patterns and come to conclusions and all that does is set them up for yet another story to write about come October where they sheepishly tuck their cocks between their legs and laugh about how off they were on their predictions, only to print the same crap a few months later.