Injuries are going to KILL the Yanks chances of making the playoffs.

If one of the Sox' starters goes down I believe there is PLENTY of depth both on the bench and within the farm system to at least 'pick up the slack.'

The Yankees' bench and A-ball teams look as empty as the desert.

(See? I'm using the positive mental approach from http://bambinoscurse.com/archives/2004_02_22_index.php Imagine All the Pennants)

Somehow, someway, there has GOT to be a bottom to Georgie Porgie's wallet.

As a fan of the game, I hope that Fox and ESPN don't over-emphasize the Yankees/Sox matchups this year to the point that the whole country gets sick of it by August. I can see the overkill already.

Hey, if we start getting more MLB games on national TV, especially in Prime Time, it's only going to be good for the game.

Bully for FOX. They've surprised me here.

folks won't get sick of the sox-yanks battles so long as the battles themselves stay interesting. a bench clearing brawl on the 16th ought to do it. preferably it will be just a great game, late innings contest, pitching contest perhaps. Or maybe jason steroid giambi will hit a game winning HR! :)

It's great to have FOX put a game on in Prime Time early into the season. However, it does illustrate the problem the sport finds itself in. Unlike Football for example there are only really a couple of teams which FOX would consider worthwhile for a national audience. That is a bad thing IMO.

A Yankees Red Sox rivalry would be just as good theater if the Yankees weren't outspending the Red Sox by 50+% and the Red Sox the rest of baseball by 20+%.

It can't be good for baseball regardless of TV etc. when one team has it's ticket punched to the playoffs before the season even starts. The chances of the NYY not making the playoffs is extremly remote for however long they have a competent GM and outspend everyone by 50% and outspend the average team by 2.5-3x.

Fox's ratings on the last five Fridays:
2/27: 3.9 (distant 4th)
2/20: 3.2 (distant 4th)
2/13: 3.6 (distant 4th)
2/06: 3.3 (distant 4th)
1/31: 3.8 (distant 4th)

While this is a plus for baseball, FOX having nothing people will actually watch on Friday nights plays greatly into it.

Wow, a new cheesey FOX reaility series. Do you think the loser of the game will have to vote off a team member?

I think the NL central matchups will be at least as exciting as the AL east come mid-summer. I expect that Fox will emphasizes Yanks, Red Sox, Cubs, Astros, Cards, Giants, A's, Phillies, Angels and do very well. Lots of good (and bad) storylines this year to keep people tuning in.

I hope Fat Al is right, but I predict that we'll have 90% of the games Fox does will include either NY/BOS or CHI/ATL as one of the teams.

And everyone that's posted here will probably be sitting, just like me, in front of the T.V. that Friday night or watching it somewhere. So it won't really matter about all those other factors will it?

And as far as this quote from above:

"It can't be good for baseball regardless of TV etc. when one team has it's ticket punched to the playoffs before the season even starts. The chances of the NYY not making the playoffs is extremly remote for however long they have a competent GM and outspend everyone by 50% and outspend the average team by 2.5-3x."

How many times does an Oakland and a Minnesota, etc. have to make the playoffs (and go deep) before people will quit bringing this up?

David, there needs to be an entire seperate forum on this argument alone. :)

Tom F., Oak and Minnesota can make it because they are not in the AL East. Anything can happen in the playoffs, but when it comes to the regular season it is almost guaranteed that the NYY will be there.

Wouldn't you agree with the statement that as long as they have competent management, its close to impossible that they won't finish on top after the regular season as long as they continue to outspend everyone by 60million and the average team by 2.5-3x ? Do you honestly think Oak or Minnesota could play in the AL East and win the division?

Wouldn't you agree with the statement that as long as they have competent management, its close to impossible that they won't finish on top after the regular season as long as they continue to outspend everyone by 60million and the average team by 2.5-3x ? Do you honestly think Oak or Minnesota could play in the AL East and win the division?

Minnesota, probably not. Oakland - why not? They've matched evenly with New York in terms of regular season matchups and head-to-head over the last few years.

er, I meant regular season "records".

Well, I suppose your right. Maybe we should just go ahead and distribute the rings to the Yankees now and not even have a season. No need to play with that line of reasoning.

So I guess the argument is, it's ok to spend the money they spend, as long as they re-align the teams each year to more evenly match "competitive" teams in a division? So, in essence, it's really not about the money, because it would be ok if an Oakland, NYY, Boston and someone else were in the same division.

Let's not ever forget, there's one thing about hiring 185 million worth of players, there's another about still going out and actually winning the games. Both Boston and Baltimore have just as a legitimate shot this year as the Yankees, in my very humble opinion. Yes, I said Baltimore. The talent they have added to their team is extremely impressive. Lopez, Ponson, Palmeiro, Tejada. That's a stout pickup package for them.