Sure, he said, the stakes are higher. The money spent is remarkable. The expectations are warranted. It’s on him. It’s on all of them.
“None of that really matters,” he said. “The expectation is you have to win. That’s just the way it is. You could fight it. You could try to defuse it. But I don’t think there’s any defusing this bomb, no matter what we do. We just might as well look at that and take it head on right away. We’re supposed to win. There it is. If we lose, we’re failures.”
Mattingly just finished Tony La Russa’s new book, “One Last Strike.” He considered that a man who managed for 33 years, who won more than 2,700 games and who presumably will go to the Hall of Fame, won three championships. That’s a lot of work for three, glorious as they might have been.
“It’s not easy,” Mattingly said. “I don’t care what kind of club you have. As far as me being ready, it doesn’t even matter what I think. It comes down to, ‘Am I capable of dealing with these guys?’ That’s the thing right there. And I always have been.
“Beyond that, at the end of the day, it’s going to have to be a team that plays baseball. So, bring it on. Let’s be a rock group, be rock stars. At the end of the day, can you perform? If you don’t perform, you’re going to get eaten up and spit out. In that clubhouse, we’re going to have to know what we’re after.”
Repoz
Posted: December 12, 2012 at 07:25 AM |
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1. Rants Mulliniks (formerly Cold Prosimian) Posted: December 12, 2012 at 08:59 AM (#4322736)World series? No. But it should guarantee a trip to the playoffs. Heck, $250M should.
Yankees get to the World Series in 1981.
Don Mattingly plays his rookie year in 1982.
Don Mattingly plays his final year in 1995.
Yankees get to their first World Series since 1981 . . in 1996.
. .
Yankees get to the World Series in 2003
Don Mattingly becomes a yankee coach in 2004
Don Mattingly remains a yankee coach through the 2007 season.
Yankees get to their first World Series since 2003 in . . 2009.
Rational fans would consider that the bar for the Dodgers to meet expectations this season. But why do I think Mattingly isn't talking about simply getting into the playoffs?
Intangibles baby! Money can't buy that...
Hamilton, Upton, Bourn is a nice outfield. Some good starting pitchers out there. Maybe you could do it in a year.
Or in the NBA you could spend it on the refs. :D
The Marlins did it for $70 million in 2.5 years in 1995. They went from a $37 million payroll in 1995 (Yankees were at $59 million) to a $70 million payroll in 1997 (Yankees were at $90 million). So I would guess that if you went up to $260 million in 2012, that would put you at 90-95 wins, no problem. It's not just about free agency, it's also about taking on other teams' ill-advised contracts to good players .
The Diamondbacks did just that; 100 wins and a playoff berth in their second year of existence and they were 8th in MLB in payroll.
One of the benefits such an approach would have in the short term is that you aren't going to have bad contracts yet. For all the complaining we love to do about long deals the first few years of these megadeals generally work out pretty well. A team with a $500 million payroll would probably be able to avoid that by offering ridiculous one or two year deals (40-50 per year). You'd never miss out on the top free agent and would avoid the dreaded out years of a long term contract.
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