Passed along from our New York cousins: an article from a self-described greedy Yankees fan on the Steinbrenner ramifications of Albert Pujols's contract deadline passing. Ed wisely separates it into "could" and "should", and the case for could is easy to make: "They brought in [Alex Rodriguez] when he was considered the game's best player. He isn't that anymore, so why wouldn't the Yankee way be to bring in the newest model?" Sometimes it seems like every year the Yankees find themselves with $50 million in payroll opening up from last year's model, and $50 million more around in the Mess With The Red Sox war-chest.
↵But the Yankees appear to be a little less ready to commit insane years and insane money than they used to—as he notes, they pushed Derek Jeter around until he got a deal that was only annual-value crazy, and they avoided guaranteeing seven years to Cliff Lee after spending most of the 2010 season like he was auditioning for a spot in Monument Park.
↵If Pujols hits the open market I don't think Mark Teixeira will keep the Yankees from shopping for another defensively apt slugging first baseman—it's a problem they could presumably make work. But if they really have seen the long-term-deal light, that might be a legitimate obstacle.
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