“Isn’t this the end?” Steinbrenner was asked.

“Don’t bet the house on it,” he said.

“Well, then, how long can it go on?”

“I don’t know. I hope forever.”

This is a quote from the locker room after the 2000 World Series in which the Yankees won the most recent of their titles. 8 years later the Yankees will be struggling to make it into the playoffs and it seems that the team is stuck going on one of two different paths, not to mention that the quote was extremely sage thinking at a time when the team had won 3 straight titles and the future of the organization was not as important as the hardware being attained in the present.

Path 1 is the way the team has done business for the past 15 or more years, and that is to do whatever it takes, pay whatever you have to, to win. Path 2 is the path that Brian Cashman is trying to take them on, and that is to rebuild the farm system and be able to win with players developed in the system rather than constantly relying on being able to make a big purchase. In my opinion, it would be a damn shame to see Cashman give in to keep his job. I understand that the Yankees have the money to always make that big move, but in all honesty shouldn’t the team have the best farm system in the big leagues?

Hear me out for a minute. My thinking is that with all that money, there is no reasons why the Yankees cannot have the best scouts money can buy, the best coaches money can buy, the best statisticians money can buy, and thus the best farm system money can buy. In a season where the team has had to lean on AA pitchers to stay afloat, you would think that it might be painfully obvious that a fully stocked cupboard isn’t just for planning the future, it also is where you get those fill-ins from. With number of players drafted who either fall down the board or just aren’t ever signed because of their high salary/ bonus demands, the Yankees should be able to buy top prospects for less money before they ever become big time big leaguers.

Also, as part of my thinking, I look back at the most recent run of World Series titles and really, who were some of the consistent performers/ leaders on the club? Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada were all there. They were a few of the mainstays of those teams who won titles in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000… and they are all products of the Yankees system. Think of what might have been if the foundation had not been set by the Yankees own farm products? Would the Yankees have won those four titles sans Jeter, Rivera and Posada? It just furthers my belief that Brian Cashman is making all the right moves… especially with his decisions not to trade away Phil Hughes.

Even though I hate the Yankees, I like to see things done right, and with more money to spend on their ballclub its appaling that the Yankees don’t make the same financial investments in the long-term success of the franchise as they do in trying to win “right now”.

Unfortunately for Steinbrenner, that question that was asked of him back in 2000, “isn’t this the end?” was the honest truth. Thankfully for fans (not of the Yankees that is) its good to know that teams can’t continually buy their way into the playoffs by outspending the entire AL-West, but as much as it pains me, the Yankees winning is good for baseball, and the only way the Yankees can be successful again is if they stop the bleeding, rethink their approach of spending all their money at the top, and invest a little more in the same foundation that produced guys like Derek Jeter and Don Mattingly.