Anatomy of a Yankee Spending Spree

Maury from the Biz of Baseball has an excellent posting about the Yanks entire spending spree and the reasons/enablers that made it all possible. You have to read this. To summarize Maury's reasons:

• Not Landing Santana
• Missing the Playoffs for the First Time in 14 Years
• Shedding Player Payroll in Preparation of an Aggressive Off-Season
• New Yankee Stadium and Tax-Sheltering
• The Perfect Spending Storm

Maury's got another entry that lays out the "cartoonish" figures of the Yanks this coming season.

• The Yankees now have four of the highest contracts in all of MLB (Alex Rodriguez has the largest in all of baseball at $275 million over 10 years, while Derek Jeter is second at $189 million over 9 years, on top of the Teixeira deal and Sabathia deals). Those four have combined contract totals of a staggering $805 million, or $205 million more than the cost of the Mets’ Citi Field.
  
• The total base salaries of A-Rod ($32 million), Jeter ($20 million), Teixeira ($20 million), and Sabathia ($14 million) for 2009 will be $86 million, or more than the Opening Day payrolls of more than half the league last year (Brewers, Indians, Giants, Reds, Padres, Rockies, Rangers, Orioles, Diamondbacks, Royals, Twins, Nationals, Pirates, Athletics, Rays, and Marlins).