Stop saying the Yankees buy championships

who would you rather have right now, this guy or alfonso soriano?

Is it too early to start looking ahead?

The Yankees and Phillies are still one game away from closing out their respective league championship series, I’m saying no.

So I’m looking for a couple things for some stories I’m writing. I want to talk to Yankees fans who live in the Poconos who hate the Phillies, and Phillies fans who live in the Poconos that hate the Yankees.

Think you’re one of them? Feel free to drop me a line to tell me why.

As far as the Yankees go, welcome to their new look.

After questionable/mixed results on big-ticket free-agent pickups and roster moves starting in 2002 — Carl Pavano, Randy Johnson, Jason Giambi, David Wells, Jaret Wright, Javier Vazquez, et all, never amounted to much, if anything, and never brought a World Series – it looks like they’ve finally struck the right mix of home-grown core players and roster additions.

They’re up 3-1 in the ALCS and are a hair away from clinching Thursday. They’re going to be a 2-to-3 favorite to win the World Series, despite the fact that they most likely will be playing the defending champs, a team that went into Yankee Stadium in May and won two of three — and should have swept the series.

Why was it so hard to get them back in the series? A closer look at the postseason roster to examine how it all went right this year:

HOMEGROWN (drafted or signed into the Yankees minor league system)

Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera, Brett Gardner, Francisco Cervelli, David Robertson, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain.

Comments: It’s a fallback for every Yankee hater to say, “Of course they’re winning, they’re buying championships!” It’s a crutch we use. It’s also fiction. What is fact is the Yankees have the opportunity and the resources to buy any player they can. In many instances, they have, with somewhat catastrophic results. But what has stayed the same in this run of Yankee glory since 1996 is the three-man Jeter-Posada-Rivera rotation that will go down as one of baseball’s best homegrown triple threat ever. That all three have stayed with the Yankees this long is almost unfathomable in today’s baseball world. Posada is the only one not going into the Hall of Fame, but he might be known as the best Yankee catcher ever not named Yogi. You never think something like that can be repeated, but Cano-Melky-Hughes-Chamberlain is a good place to start.

FREE AGENTS

Johnny Damon, Mark Teixeira, Hideki Matsui, CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Andy Pettitte (technically a free agent, but formerly a Yankee draftee), Alfredo Aceves (signed out of the Mexican League), Phil Coke (same as Pettitte, drafted by the Yankees, traded in 2008 in exchange for Damaso Marte and Xavier Nady, but released and signed back to the Yanks in January).

Comments: The free agent signings of the 2000s haven’t all been busts — but they haven’t exactly been terribly successful, either. It wasn’t until this year — dominant Sabathia, MVP candidate Teixeira, steady Burnett — that the Yankees finally put their money in the right places. If the Yankees put Aceves into the rotation next year as believed and he ends up becoming a fourth starter, it’s one of the team’s best signs of the decade. What’s interesting is that for the first time, the Yankees will only have to replace one major cog next year, Damon. So for the first time in what seems like an awful long time, the Yanks won’t be making that much offseason noise. Damon’s contract is up after this year, and for all the noise he made as a free agent defector from the 2006 Red Sox, his Yankee tenure has been pretty quiet. At least in terms of playoff success.

TRADES

Alex Rodriguez (for Alfonso Soriano and Joaquin Arias), Nick Swisher (for Wilson Betemit and two minor leaguers), Jose Molina (for minor league reliever), Jerry Hairston Jr. (deadline deal for a Single-A catcher), Eric Hinske (in-season deal for two minor leaguers from the Yankees unofficial farm system, aka the Pirates), Chad Gaudin (August waiver deal for the immortal PTBNL), Damaso Marte (2008 deal with the Pirates).

Comments: Every deal in that list is a success. Only the Hinske deal has yet to be determined, but it’s minimal enough to be called a success. Not only have the deals been successful, but they’ve all had significant Yankee payoff. At the time, losing Soriano seemed big and looked like it could be a huge future problem. But he’s now on his fourth team and looks like his body is breaking down at the ripe ol’ age of 33. Having A-Rod over Soriano has been a blessing. Only the Marte-Nady deal has the potential to come back and bite the Yanks in the butt if Jose Tabata ever catches up with his ability. Major questions about his makeup right now.