The Steinbrenners problem with $189 million

The problem for many people who have a lot of fame and money is that sometimes they can convince themselves of anything and they have the resources to ignore reality and believe these things. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks the idea is insane or wrong, they have people who will tell them that they are right and I think that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are in this situation, obviously not to the extent that the boss was, they want to be more frugal but I honestly think that they have not wrapped their heads around what that will mean. $189 million would still be one of the top payrolls in the MLB, but it would also require the Yankees to be smarter about how they spend their money and I do not think that this is something they know how to do. In the offseason fans can convince themselves that a team or a player will do something or be something that they are not based on a hot streak which most of the time amounts to nothing. Owners who are dumb, see something like this and respond with an underseved contract or lets key players walk because some other player hit well over 100 PA. This is what Royals owner David Glass did with Bruce Chen and Jeff Francoeur and unfortunately what the Steinbrenners did with Ichiro Suzuki.
According to Joel Sherman the new two year deal $13 million for Ichiro came from "top of the Yankees hierarchy" following "a strong Division Series and adoration from the fans." As you all remember Ichiro had a great two months with the Yankees but had been disappointing most of the last two seasons. At the time I did not understand the deal as it did not seem to be a move that made sense with the austerity plan and frankly it doesn't make sense, Ichiro could hit well this season but he hasn't so far and when Granderson comes back he could wind up spending a lot of time on the bench and he is still under contract for next season. This could be an issue in the future as the Steinbrenners have always insisted that they will put a championship caliber club on the field, but if they want to they cannot do stupid things like this, it doesn't work. I also need to see the Yankees abandon this policy of not extending players as free agency is starting to dry up as more and more teams are holding onto their talent and I for one do not want to risk losing Cano to some team that wants to give 10 years to Robbie. Its also going to effect their negotiations with Derek Jeter, Jeter has not made any indication that he feels as though he is winding down and what do the Steinbrenners do if he want a new deal? Would they really be able to let Derek walk to keep the budget after not being able to let Ichiro go after 2 months? We will have to see what happens as decision time will come this off season.