Cashman? The guy bought three of the best free agents in the market, when everybody knew he had the money to do so. He overpaid for each of them – significantly for C.C. Sabathia, who needed substantial financial incentives to go to New York. The position players he bought were in clear areas of need for his team. The Yankees then went on to win the World Series while ending the year with roughly $ 80MM more in annual salary than their closest divisional competitor. Congratulations to the Yanks, but how does this translate into any kind of skill by Cashman? Anyone with ESPN’s “top free agent” list and access to the Steinbrenner/YES checkbook could have done as well.

Right on Mike !!!! Anybody can buy players, what are the dynamics connected with buying? Are you kidding me? Write a check and win an award!!!Please…………………..

You guys are full of it, if the Yankees haven’t sign CC, Aj or Tex the Red Sox would have. I don’t see anyone complaining about the Red Sox signing all this free agents this year.

Come on Benji! Maybe Teixeira, but Boston never had any intention of bidding on AJ and even less intention of spending $20 mill a season on CC.

The comments to CC are accurate too because unless the Yanks gave him what they did – which was a considerable amount more than any other bidder – he would have accepted a lesser offer NOT to go to New York.

Without committing $750 million in 2 years – something NO OTHER TEAM IN BASEBALL INCLUDING THE SOX COULD HAVE DONE – Yankees don’t win. They are champions and no one can take that away, but Cashman was not baseball’s best GM. He’s good – but not the best especially considering his resources.

Yeah its ok that boston can spend Ill be laughing my ass off when Lackey fails. Lets look at the moves Theo made, John Smoltz how did that work for ya, Brad Penny oh he was great, Julio Lugo yeah ehs worth it, granted Cashman did sign Pavano, but he has the money to do so, RED SOX could too, but they are to fricken cheap, could of have arod but they wanted him to take a paycut, could of had damon back but you chose not to pay him so get off your horses

Typical Yankees fans, by which I mean illiterate. I don’t really have a problem with the Yankees spending what they do. I just don’t see why Cashman is Executive of the Year for spending more money than any other major league team which he was fortunate enough to have. That’s like giving the Yankees the award for “Best Major League Baseball Team Named the Yankees.” There was no skill involved at all. Any poster here could have done what Cashman did – which was my point.

Well I mean there is a lot more involved in this job then signing free agnets it is a top to bottom job check to see what they did in the minors

Mike,
What would have been the reaction if Cashman’s FA signings had gone in the tank / gotten injured, this season? Yup, he’d have gotten creamed. He deserves the credit when things break the right way, as much as he’ll take a beating before all those contracts have played out. I’m as disappointed as anyone about the way the Sox season finished, but there’s no way a rational Sox fan can cry about the Yankees “buying” a championship.
Sour grapes, and nothing more. Theo leads the league in “dead-money-walking”, and as much as I admire the guts to cut his losses – they’re still losses!! His career track record for free agents is ~ 50/50, while he has a much better rep for his trades (Doug Mirabelli – Part II, not withstanding).
Until there is a hard-cap in MLB, don’t waste time crying about all the $$$ the Yankees spend. They’ve been doing it that way since George bought the team, and it isn’t changing anytime soon.

Yes, the aptly named Brian Cashman. If you measure a GM’s effectiveness in dollar expenditure per win, you’ll see that Cashman is nowhere near the top. He has the resources to throw practically unlimited salary to solve every need, and the latitude to make mistakes that no other team could afford to swallow–mistakes that are conveniently swept under the rug and forgotten. Kei Igawa, $45 million. Carl Pavano, $40 million. $17 million for Kyle Farnsworth. A grand total of 99 innings out of Roger Clemens two years ago, cost: $19 million. It’s obscene. Despite access to ridiculous amounts of money, Cashman’s 2008 Yankees had more than 1/4 of their games started by such legendary pitchers as Rasner, Giese, Ponson and Aceves. So, prior to 2009, he spends practically a half-billion (that’s with a “b”) dollars on 3 guys. That takes brains? It’s lucky for Brian Cashman that he has the Steinbrenner’s bank account to fund him.

Best GM? Please.

So who may I ask are any of your votes for GM of the year?

Ok, although I am interested in finding out if anyone actually has any idea of who is deserving of this award over cashman, I dont have much time to stand in front of my pc and hit refresh until someone has replied with an answer. My point is, this seems to be more of an anti yankee/anti cashman debate than reality. The responsibility of a team’s GM is to use the resources provided by his or her employer to provide the team with the best opportunity to reach the goal of winning a championship, and although I do agree it does not take much to cut big checks to the top 3 FA’s, that does not always result in a title….ie the Yankees from 2001 til last year. Yes, the Yankees have the most resources in the game in terms of $$, but they also provide the biggest financial return to the game with profit sharing and luxury tax. The bottom line is Cashman used the resources the Yankees provided and as a result the Yankees won the World Series…. No other GM accomplished that goal, and whether you like the methods or not, that really doesnt apply in this debate. Have a Merry Christmas to all and looking forward to a great MLB season in the new year!!!!

I hate to say this but I agree with the Yankee Fan. Not many people thought that AJ could perform in the Post Season but he did, bringing high priced free agents together is not as easy as it sounds. This isn’t a fantasy sport, they have to perform as a team and everything has to come together to win a world series. Is Cashman the GM of the year, I am sure, but I think he got the job done this year and that is really all that matters. Remember, he had a backroom deal with Tex to give him top dollar after the sox game him their final offer. That is pretty smart if you ask me. Don’t get me wrong, I hate the Yankees and I think Yankee fan is wrong in talking about Damon because that wasn’t the way it went down. It wasn’t that long ago that Cashman was considering the GM job in Boston. At the time, we would have welcomed him with open arms!

All I said was that spending money should NOT earn you an award !!!!

Rewarding Cashman as Executive of the Year is like rewarding me for going out to bestbuy and buying a TV. It doesn’t take brains to spend money you’ve been given.

And I am just stating the fact that he didn’t EARN the award for being best GM. It has nothing to do with being “anti-Yankee” or “anti-Cashman,” and there is no reason to play those cards (other than to try to shift focus away from the issues).

Also…the fact that the Yanks turn the biggest profits through their TV, merchandising and ticket revenues is lame justification for Brian Cashman being deserving of an award, as the two issues have little to do with one another.

As for which GM(s) deserved it more…Minnesota’s Bill Smith did a great job. The Twins won the Central Division and made the playoffs with a payroll less than 1/3 of that of the Yankees. An example is Jason Kubel, 28 HR, 103 RBI, .300/.369/.539 for a .907 OPS, while earning just $2.7M. Hardly any team loses lose top players due to money issues with more regularity than the Twins, yet they’re always in the hunt. Also, Rangers’ GM Jon Daniels did a fine job, keeping faith in Ron Washington when everybody was calling for his head, and getting 87 wins from a team that didn’t look like it should approach .500. Daniels moved an All-Star (Michael Young) off SS and gave the job to a 20-year-old rookie, Elvis Andrus, who tightened up the whole IF defense. Texas lost 2008′s leading RBI/TB man for half the ’09 season, yet kept on winning. After having been a reliever 3 of his 4 years and never winning more than 6 games, Scott Feldman went 17-8 for a pricetag of $434,000. Daniels gave Nelson Cruz (who had never hit more than 9 HRs in a season) a fulltime job, and he hit 33 HRs and slugged .524…for a $400,000 salary. This is the kind of move you NEVER see Cashman and the Yankees make. Because they don’t have to. Because they’re virtually printing money in the Bronx. Well, that’s fine. Congratulations to the Yankees.

But I don’t view that kind of spending as “proof” that Brian Cashman did an efficient job. I simply see it as….spending.

See here’s the problem with red sox fans, yankee fans philly fans ..etc there’s so much hate for one another that we don’t even enjoy the good things in sports anymore.

Yeah we care if our our teams win but too many of us are far more interested in rooting againt the team we hate to the point where we get consumed by it . Bombarding the other teams message boards, calling sports talk shows to debate who had the best staff? come on there both great who cares? .

I agree with what phil simms said awhile back that sports talk shows has runined sports . i cant even listen to the fan anymore and espn is close to being unwatchable . message boards as well .

Im not trying to bash every sports fan because are plenty of smart , partial good people out there that just want to talk sports intelligently but those people get bashed and dont come back or there call doesnt get taken because it’s not the trash the host wants to discuss .. Im sure this message will get bashed by the cool posters with there witty responses which will only prove my point.

Now im a yankee fan and im sure if there was 3 paragraphs about a jeter award in a ny paper and a blip about theo that most of the clowns there would choose to bash theo first as well but it’s not and not one of you guy’s even said anything remotley congratulatory about youk who is a awesome player and had a awesome year , you chose to focus on the negative because of your blind hate..

i’ll go first

Good job youk

You SAWX pink hat fans make me nits. You cannot see past the Yawkey Way when it comes to baseball. Brian Cashman deserves all the accolades for 2009. That was his team and his manager on the field celebrating a WS win. Maybe they should have given the award to a certain young Boston exec named Leo who has two rather large albatrosses around his neck namely a .200 hitting DH and a Catcher with a “C” on his jersey who will only be playing once a week. Lets not forget about letting Jason Bay slip away. If you want to talk spending money how about Lackeys contract. All that money for a #3 starter?

Well put Mike.

Nick Swisher? Al Aceves? Great deal for Pettitte? Bullpen? Hinske? Hairston jr? Cervelli? Pena? Anyone? Recognize smart baseball moves. Learn the game. It’s more fun when you do.

Just to be clear, the Yankees spending – while it irritates me sometimes (mainly when they sweep us in a series) – isn’t what I’m complaining about here. I just think that giving Cashman an Executive of the Year Award is like giving a guy who bought a new car because his old car broke down a Mechanic of the Year Award. Now, had the writers been consider the total hoodwinking of the Braves in the Vasquez deal, they might be on to something. By all means, consider Teixiera, C.C. and A.J. for awards, and congratulations to the Yankees from a bitter, jealous Sox fan, but let’s confine the awards to where they’re deserved…

LOL Execs don’t win these awards for the guys who get all the accolades. It’s the unheard of moves and callups from the minors that win you this award. Jordan just named most of them, all of which were value added moves. Even Damaso Marte wound up paying dividends at the biggest time of the year.

The thing that really makes me angry the most about people who hate the Yankees is that they make the same argument every single year. MONEY MONEY MONEY. The Yankees have 9 players on the field each day with a roster of over twenty players. Are people actually trying to say that after the Yankees roster there are no other great players in the league. There is like thousands and thousands of players within the majors and minor league systems yet some team out there can’t possibly put together a championship team with all that talent floating around. Seriously people please stop crying about the same things every year. Give cashman credit for using the resources he is provided with to get these great players. When Theo was being called the best executive cuz his Redsox was winning win a inflated payroll, no one had a problem.

Red Sox fans complaining about the Yankees spending money is like Walmart complaining about Target.

Typical idiotic Sox fans. Can’t see beyond the Yankees.

Red Sox payroll in 2007: $143,026,214
Rockies payroll in 2007: $ 54,424,000

Why not complain about that disparity? Looks like the Sox bought their most recent championship, right? Talk about a big-market club pushing around the little guy, wow.

Yankee payroll 2009: $208,097,414. No one else within more than $60 million.

Sour. Grapes.

Brian Cashman is a ninja. He’s the best GM in baseball and continues to show it this offseason as he blatantly robs other teams of their talent while giving up nothing in return that the Yankees can’t easily replace.

Since Cashman was given autonomy in 2005, he’s been gradually making the Yankees younger, more athletic, and better defensively. He constructs a lineup and a rotation that is built to thrive at Yankee Stadium.

He’s completely reshaped the Yankees farm system that was once one of the worst in baseball. A farm system that – since the aforementioned 2005 – has produced a mix of TOP talent and replacement-level players who are ready to step in at the major league level and provide instant production in case of an injury.

Sorry, but Brian Cashman and the Yankees dominate baseball. They dominate the free agent market. They dominate the draft by going overslot (which every team does) and signing high-ceiling talent. Should such talent find that there is no room for them on the Yankees by the time they are ML ready; they are included in only the SHREWDEST of trades.

Meanwhile… Theo Epstein just got off the phone BEGGING for a team to take his money and take his mistakes off his hands.

I wonder how much the Rockies Ownership pocketed in Revenue Sharing money that came from the Red Sox and Yankee’s?

i am a yankees fan but this is just ignorant:
“If you want to talk spending money how about Lackeys contract. All that money for a #3 starter?”

lackey got basically the same exact contract as burnett but is younger and has been better so you can’t fault that contract

Really? The ignorance is amazing! For your information the Yankees started to Lead the league in payroll in 2002. Which was a year when they had to retool. In the late 90s there was no clear leader in payroll. Don’t forget most of this payroll goes to some of the best players in history: arod, jeter, posada, Rivera. Everyone saying that CC never wanted to go to NY are gravely misinformed bc he openly admitted to wanting to be a yank BEFORE he signed. But I guess a good pitcher wanting to be on a well built team with owners who actually try to win championships is so far fetched?
Pathetic.

sour grapes jag offs. suck it.

Why can’t every team be owned by a humble billionaire commodities trader like the little engine that could otherwise known as the Red Sox? Life is so unfair.

I am a Sox Fan, and first off, Congrats to Youk! All you Sox fans complaining about the Yankees and their Money are jealous. I am jealous. But the facts are the facts, the Yankees won and they did a great job signing Free Agents and bringing guys in via small trades and farm system moves. Phil Hughes stands out to me as a great move to the Bullpen. Nick Swisher ended up being a great trade. Congrats to the Yanks.

Second off, Cashman shouldn’t have won this award. As ‘Joey’ states above, Bill Smith of the Twins deserves this award. You are talking about a team that lost Justin Morneau STILL came back to take the Central Division from the Tigers. Though they didn’t do much in their Playoff Games against the Yankees, they still went against all odds and took their division. Joe Mauer is the MVP and I think his GM should be recognized for his outstanding year. He traded for Pavano (Which worked out fairly well) as well as Orlando Cabrera from the A’s which really helped out their IF Defense and helped solidify their line-up. Jason Kubel had 28 HRs and 103 RBIs! and they payed him less than $3 Million. As a Sox Fan, I am not hating on Cashman, but Bill Smith gets my Vote here. Honestly he had a lot less to deal with and had much lower expectations for a team that has lost some great players over the past few years and just keeps producing teams that some how make the Playoffs while everyone else counted them out and dead with a month to go in the Regular Season.

Congrats to Cashman though for a great year!

Third off, this Lackey Contract… if you actually knew what you were talking about you would see that this contract is actually FAR better than Burnett. It is a little more annually, but the Sox gave themselves insurance, in if Lackey has any serious shoulder or arm problems during any year of this 5 years contract the last year of his contract will be for the base salary for pitchers come 2014. This shows me that the Sox believe this guy will stay healthy and will be the work horse we all are expecting. With that said, this is a team that is sensible in a way, that Beckett’s contract is up at the end of the 2010 season and while they would love to retain him they will want him to take a cut (Which he may do because he loves Boston) or he will walk, and that is where the strength of Lackey’s Contract is the biggest. He is only a number 3 starter until they need him to be an Ace.

Kudos to all the Sox fan’s for at least recognizing that Cashman made great moves even though he had a ton of money to do so.

However, as a Yankees fan, I say with great confidence, it is going to take Boston to have a very, very good year to challenge the Yankees this year.

I give the nod to Boston’s rotation as a little better than the Yankees, but when it comes to lineups, it is not even close.

Dynasty 2.0 has begun.

I’m a yankee fan and don’t really understand the Cashman award either. The only two explanations I could see are some great trades he’s made in the last twelve months; Granderson and Vazquez(if included), Swisher and to a lesser extent Hairston who did play a big role in the second half. Otherwise maybe for being able to sign the 3 biggest free agents, if thats even considered.

I am a Yankee fan and I am so sick and tired of the jealous Sox fans. Theo made enough moves , too. And as far as CC is concerned , he wanted the biggest bang for his buck and he got it . Once he got here and settled in , he loved it so much that he moved his family to New Jeresy.
Brought a champinship? Horse hockey! If that were true , why didn’t we win every year since 2001?

bcause yankees suck if you thinjk they were only good for hitting ever since 2001 thier pitching sucked and their defense and all thier players were getting old why the hell do you think they didnt what are you stupid

when i say yankees suck oviously their a good team so dont misinterpret what i was saying

In my opinion the best tv show of 2009 was family guy ? do you guys agree with me ?

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