During the past two years, the $206 million dollar assembly line known as the New York Yankees have appeared invincible. While they acquired Randy Johnson five months too late, they still received one of the best pitchers in baseball after the 2004 meltdown. Most teams have options like Juan Encarnacion and Scott Spiezio to fill an outfield position, the Yankees chose between Vladimir Guerrero and Gary Sheffield. The best player in baseball agreed to play third base for them. Javier Vasquez, the best pitcher on the free-agent market before 2004, became a Yankee. The idea of striving to construct team unity and attempting to grasp the right combination for winning that resulted in three straight world championships was abolished even before that, with the signings of AL MVP Jason Giambi and throwing an insane paycheck at Mike Mussina. These actions by Brian Cashman and George Steinbrenner even caused a Yankee fan I know to end his relationship with the team. And worse than anything, this overspending never resulted in World Series rings.
The 2004 Red Sox front office, while they had their fare share of high-priced contracts, still figured out a way to mold the right guys together that equaled a winning ball club. They traded a defensive liability and clubhouse cancer Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs for help on a defensive standpoint. There was no way the Red Sox were winning the World Series with Kevin Millar at first base and Nomar at shortstop for the last two months of the season. Not a chance. They acquired Dave Roberts speed to pinch-run for players like Mark Bellhorn and Millar. It actually makes sense. The Yankees, on the other hand, were plagued by inconsistent pitching in 2004 and 2005, but stayed with their veteran club and didn
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