The Nightmare Before Cliffmas

So my first post ends up being about baseball and my second least favorite team, the Philadelphia Phillies. Excellent.  Late last night it was reported Cliff Lee had signed a five-year, 120 million dollar deal with an option for a sixth year with the Philadelphia Phillies.  After what seemed to be a two team race between the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers for weeks turned into a last minute snag by the Phillies.  Lee gives up $34 million dollars to once again be apart of a Phillies franchise which was two games away from repeating as World Series champs last year. During the off-season - actually a year this Thursday - Lee was traded in what was a complete shock to him to the Mariners for several prospects in the overall deal that brought Roy Halladay to Philadelphia.  After being upset in the NLCS to the eventual champion Giants and losing star slugger Jayson Werth who signed a seven-year contract worth $126 million with the Nationals, the Phils bring in another stud to bring into possibly the best rotation in baseball.
So, with all that being said, what does this all actually mean?  Well, for one, the Yankees dollars have not attracted a single free agent this off-season.  With three $100 million plus signings and not one coming from New York, does this say something about how free agents view the Yankees?  All of a sudden is the "evil empire" really the only team spending big money, and with a lot of uncertainty do the Yankees have what it takes to compete with the likes of Boston and Philly for a title?  The answers, ladies and gentlemen, are all quite simple.  First off, teams constantly whine and complain about the Yankees paying for talent and always buying the best players.  Be that as it may, they have won one world series ring in the past nine years!  If we have learned anything is that money does not buy championships.  All this talk about Boston and Philly now being presumable favorites and how great the Phils staff has become, I say prove it on the diamond.  Philly currently has no position players in its lineup under the age of 30 and only one starter, Cole Hamels (who I still think is a complete headcase with a Jay Leno-like chin), at 26, who isn't in his prime or nearly passed it.  Boston comes into the season with questions at catcher even with new starter and former Ranger Jarrod Saltalamacchia who appeared in 12 games for Boston last year after coming over in a deadline deal hitting .167 with two RBI's and no Home Runs.  (Fun fact: He has the longest last name in MLB history)  Their bullpen was also atrocious last year and won't be feeling any better after Boston's failed attempt at luring Mariano Rivera from the Yanks.  It's probably safe to say Jonathan Papelbon is feeling a little hurt after an attempted move that seems to show Boston's growing distrust in the closer who had eight blown saves last year and was 5-7 on the year with a 3.90 era. 
As the old adage says "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," and that's what Boston and Philly did this off-season.  When it's all said and done, Boston will have spent over $300 million dollars and Philly will have shelled out $245 million including the Ryan Howard extension earlier in the year.  Overpaying for players getting up there in age is something the Yankees have done notoriously well (See Carl Pavano, Kevin Brown, A.J. Burnett, the list goes on) in the past but recently have been able to rely on their farm system similarly to how they won so many championships back in the 90s.  In fact, the Yanks had more homegrown players on their '09 championship team (56%) than the Phillies (32%).
As I conclude my first post I want to also take the time to congratulate Brett Favre on the greatest streak in football history which came to an end Monday night.  297 straight starts is something that will never be broken.  Eli Manning currently holds the longest active streak with 100 and has played now almost seven seasons.  At this pace he'll have to play another 12 years and he's already 29 years old meaning he would be 41, the same age as Favre, to break the record.  Obviously it's a long ways away and far from everyone's mind.  Regardless of his off the field drama he has done something incredible and played most of his career in an age where you got hit and there was not nearly as much protection as there is now.  My hat is off to you Mr. Favre.  I didn't want to waste my first post on you but an honorable mention is in order.  Shouts out to Andrew "The Panth" Inman for the heads up to include a small piece of this in this post.  'Til next time.