Hal Steinbrenner has turned into his father. Rafael Soriano - who was signed at Steinbrenner's orders and against Brian Cashman's wishes - is going to be out until July at the earliest. Sound familiar? Does the name "Jaret Wright" ring a bell? How about Randy Johnson? Kevin Brown? There are a lot of common denominators for these infamous names (including big bucks and injuries), but the one we're interested in is Steinbrenner.
George liked to throw his weight around when it came to bringing in big names to play for New York. In a way, the approach of filling a team with superstars that came through other teams' systems makes sense. After all, why put the time and effort into developing talent when you afford to sign it while it's in its prime? No muss, no fuss, just a big check.
Unfortunately, big names often come with two big price tags - one tag has a dollar sign, the other does not. In the Yankees's case, the second price tags were injury tags. Wright, Johnson, and Brown all got injured and ended their Yankee careers rather miserably. (Granted, Carl Pavano seemed to be more Cashman's idea than George Steinbrenner's, and he's more infamous than the other three put together. However, everyone is entitled to one or two mistakes.)
In the end, Brian Cashman has proved himself to be a very intelligent general manager with the ability to put together a World Series team. If Steinbrenner keeps out of Cashman's way, the Yankees might avoid signing clunkers like Soriano.
Things could be worse. The Yankees could have Steinbrenner as an owner and Theo Epstein as a GM. Then they would Stein - we mean sign several clunkers a year.
Hydra
6-4-3 double play... Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeee Yankees win!
