School's Out for Winter: Here Are Lessons Learned From 2009 Postseason

NEW YORK -- The Yankees had just begun celebrating their 27th World Series title, and first in nine years (that's 63 in Yankee-drought years), when general manager Brian Cashman was asked about people saying his team bought a title.

"You can call us anything you want," Cashman said. "You're also going to have to call us world champions."

But if the Yankees' latest championship teaches us anything, it's that a big payroll is just money unless it's combined with smarts.

Here's what we can conclude off the 2009 postseason:

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1. The Yankees took awhile, but they got it right.

Let's back up a bit. The 1998 Yankees -- to whom every Yankees team since will be compared -- did not have the highest payroll in the majors. The Orioles did.

Yet the Yankees assembled enough talent to win 114 games and romp through the postseason.

After the 2001 season, the Yankees debuted the YES Network, setting the standard for team-owned cable networks that -- thanks to cable-subscriber fees -- provide reliable, deep revenue streams.

So what did the Yankees do with all that money? They spent it.

They spent it on the top free agents available every winter, whether they fit or not. Jason Giambi was good for a while, then an albatross. Carl Pavano and Jaret Wright were the best pitchers out there (besides Pedro Martinez) after the 2004 season, but that didn't mean they were good.

Gary Sheffield, Tony Womack, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, Javier Vazquez, Hideki Matsui -- none of those acquisitions, at least immediately, paid off with another title.

Then, after the 2005 season, Brian Cashman convinced George Steinbrenner to stop his management-by-conflict practice, ending the New York/Tampa split that kept the Yankees from working with a cohesive plan.

And the other 29 teams' worst fear came true: the Yankees began spending their gobs of cash wisely.

So people will point to the $423.5 million spent last winter on CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett and say the Yankees just bought another title.

But Cashman could sign Sabathia because he refused to deal prospects for Johan Santana, who would have required a similar contract. That helped keep the Yankees out of the 2008 playoffs, but Cashman stuck to his guns. He has sunk money into the draft and the international market and is trying to mix youth with big-time acquisitions to build an organization that can sustain success.

And remember, Cashman was against re-signing Rodriguez after his 2007 opt-out, willing to suffer the offensive hit to spend the money elsewhere.

When they do spend -- and now they have the revenue and reduced revenue sharing that come with a new park -- the Yankees will continue to try to figure out who will fit in the unique Yankees atmosphere and who will just end up gasping for air when choked by expectations and the spotlight.

Sabathia's calm helped him. Burnett benefited from being the No. 2 pitcher despite having a No. 1's salary. And Teixeira already had the phony polish that helped him fit into what can still be -- despite the pies and Swish-hawks -- a 25-player/25-corporation clubhouse.

"It's a lot of different things," Cashman said. "There are guys who come in here and do well and get off to a good start. Then all of a sudden they go bad, and when they go bad, it starts spinning out of control.

"It's hard to say. It's a different place. It's just a different place. Our scouts will continue to go out and target guys with big stuff and we believe are tough mentally and put them in this environment and see what happens. I can't sit here and say, 'You know what, we're going to get it right going forward all the time.' We'll just keep trying."

They'll have to. Cashman will tweak the roster, perhaps letting Matsui and Johnny Damon go. Because he knows repeating won't be easy in the AL.


2. The Phillies aren't going anywhere.

Here are the free agents on the Phillies roster: Paul Bako, Miguel Cairo, Scott Eyre, Pedro Martinez, Chan Ho Park, Brett Myers, Matt Stairs. That assumes Philadelphia picks up the options on Pedro Feliz and Cliff Lee.

So the entire starting lineup is intact. Lee, Cole Hamels, Joe Blanton and J.A. Happ are set for the rotation.

The Phillies will still have their drive and toughness, and the NL East still has the Nationals and the bumbling Mets (see above, under spending without a plan).

"Nothing is really going to change as far as who we put on the field," Jimmy Rollins said after the Game 6 loss. "Everyone is going to be there. That's the good thing. It will take 162 games to determine that, but we don't plan on being anywhere but here.

"We still have a good group of guys that will be here. We don't have to worry about a lot of guys leaving. That's the good thing. We're a good team. We just came up a couple games short, but in the future I don't see a lot of things changing. We can definitely be here next year."

3. October/November is different

For a week, all the talk around the World Series was about short rest: "Will Sabathia come back on short rest?" "Will Lee come back on short rest?" "Can Burnett and Pettitte come back on short rest?" "Was Burnett bad because of short rest?" "Why didn't Lee go on short rest?" "Why didn't the Phillies pull Lee so he could come back on extra-short rest?" "How has Pettitte done on short rest?"

It just furthered the point that what it takes to win in the postseason is different from what it takes to get there. Because of a TV-driven schedule that can result in more off-days than game days, teams need just three or four starters, not much more than one or two reliable relievers and their every-day players.

That's about 15 players, not the 25-plus it takes to survive the 162-game grind.

The Yankees are just the third team in the past 20 years to lead the majors in wins in the regular season and then win the World Series. We just have to accept that usually it takes two different kinds of teams to accomplish those goals.

4. SoCal is so over.

OK, we shouldn't write off the other half of baseball's final four entirely. But the L.A. teams lacked something -- Torii Hunter called it "nuts" in September -- when it came to the playoffs.

The Angels showed "nuts" in Game 3 of the American League Division Series and then wilted against the Yankees. The Dodgers dispatched the Cardinals and then looked no match for the Phillies.

Next year, the Angels are going to take a step back. They re-signed Bobby Abreu on Thursday (two years with an option for 2012), but of their other three key free agents -- John Lackey, Chone Figgins and Vladimir Guerrero -- they may retain no more than one.

So if the Rangers avoid the usual dropoff after a leap into contention (i.e., the 2008 Rays and 2007 Indians), the AL West could be there for the taking.

Up the freeway, the Dodgers have a nice collection of young talent, but some of it didn't progress this year -- Russell Martin and Chad Billingsley -- and the fulcrum of the lineup is an aging Manny Ramirez.

It seems now that the best record in the NL was due in large part to a soft division.

Add in the inevitable upheaval from the McCourt divorce, and 2010 could be rough for the Dodgers.

5. Dance invitations are available.

The Minnesota Twins had to win just 87 games -- with win No. 87 coming in game No. 163 -- to get to the playoffs. The Cardinals made it with 91 wins. Colorado had 92. San Francisco (88) and Detroit (86) just missed.

So outside of the Eastern divisions, it doesn't take much more than an average team to get to the postseason.

Going deep into it takes a toughness, and talent, that the Phillies and Yankees showed in 2009.