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Ah, the New York Yankees. The pinstriped warriors who set glory in the eyes of their fans, and hatred and disgust in the eyes of the rest of baseball nation. The team that continually spends the largest amount of money in the league year after year, buying MVP players merely because, well, they can.

But what has this proven over the past seven years? Sure, the Bronx bombers have made the playoffs every year since 1995, but let's face it: playoffs mean nothing unless you take home the pennant, which the Yanks have failed to do since 2003. Although this could very well be Steinbrenner himself writing this article, the bottom line is that the Yankees need to bring home a championship in order to justify their $250 million spending. Just look at their past decisions. Since 2001, the last great year of the last great Yankees squad, the Yankees have bought Hall of Fame players for ridiculously large prices, and for what? I'll admit that Pettite had a stellar season, and I'm happy he wants to go down in history as a Yankee. That's more than we could ever say about ARod. But a forty-four year old Roger Clemens at $20 million? I applaud Randy Hendricks for knowing the worth of a seven-time Cy Young winner, but where was the reasoning in that decision?

However, you'll notice that I chose to defend the "Yes" side of this argument, and MY reasoning for that lies in the young faces that surfaced this season. Since 2001, no new faces have really managed to stand out except for Robinson Cano and Hideki Matsui. The Yankees ability to make big plays have managed to occur with random walk-off home runs from sluggers like ARod and Giambi or clutch hits from veterans like Jeter and Posada. But those only get you so far, as has been proven over the past couple of postseasons. So how do you bring the magic back? With young, prideful talent.

Joba Chamberlain. Ian Kennedy. Phil Hughes. Melky Cabrera. If these guys sucked at baseball, they'd probably still be "finding themselves" while looking for their niches merely two years out of college. But the difference is that they're professional baseball players at the mere ages of 21 to 24. Even Chien-Ming Wang is only twenty-six with seventeen wins this year, making him a probable prediction for the Cy Young within the next two or three seasons.

ARod and Torre are gone, and Posada and Mo Rivera are still making their decisions. But even with the slate wiped clean, 2008 could be the new 1995. Old veterans like Mattingly with up-and-coming stars like the Jeter and Rivera of then. With a group of new young talent, I'd say we're in for a new era of Yankees lore. Sure, Steinbrenner will probably write another $20 million check to a big-name player (look out for free-agent Johan Santana), but what else is new?

Oh that's right. The young talent.

Learn more about this author, Matthew Edsall.
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