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Originally Posted by packs
So what? The core of the team was built from within. Unless you're saying Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada were inconsequential to their championships and it was just a total coincidence that when they emerged on the scene the Yankees won for the first time in almost 20 years. And that's not even taking into account heroes of the moment like Ramiro Mendoza or Shane Spencer, or Ricky Ledee and you're seriously discounting the Yankees ability to sign the right guy at the right time, which can't be reflected more clearly in guys like Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson. You call that buying players but I don't think anyone could have possibly anticipated what you were getting when you got guys like Jeff Nelson, or Mike Stanton. Paul O'Neil was a one time All Star that they traded Roberto Kelly for. That's an intelligent trade and not "buying" a player.
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The core four had missed the playoffs the year before, and hadn't made it past the first round since 2004. Unless you're saying that adding a former CYA winner, the AL strikeout leader from the year before, and the league leader in home runs that year was all incidental to their title run. Alex Rodriquez and Hideki Matsui had something to do with that run as well. Then they've bought plenty of players who haven't worked out either, like Carl Pavano, Jacoby Ellsbury, or Kei Igawa. I'm not sure what 'heroes of the moment' has to do with anything; sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle, sometimes you don't, and for each time you do, there are plenty of backup players who were put in the spotlight and wilted. They did a good job drafting and developing the core four, but what put them over the top was the free agent signings. The 87-win 2000 team doesn't make the playoffs without Roger Clemens, and he always turned it up a notch in the postseason.