I think they did get what they paid for in Beltran, with the knowledge that contracts over $100M usually produce dire results. Centerfielder Vernon Wells, Kevin Brown, Mike Hampton, Jason Giambi, Griffey, Zito, and Carlos Lee all were disasters. Not-so-great 100M signings include Todd Helton, Alfonso Soriano, Beltran... Many are in progress and need hindsight to judge (Tulowitzki, Miguel Cabrera, Tex, CC, Cliff Lee, Ryan Howard, A-Rod, and Santana), but I'd say the two best deals are probably Manny and Jeter.
I got the list from sporcle, actually: http://www.sporcle.
I was actually gonna point out to you two that the Yankees have allowed fewer runs this year than the Bosox - and that boggles my mind in so many ways.
-Natron
I think you have to give Tex and CC - and to a lesser extent A-rod - a successful grade for the simple fact that, with those guys, the Yanks won a World Series. Also take into account that each of them were major contributors to winning that championship, which adds to my argument. I think if Beltran had won a WS with the Mets and played at least as well during that year you could call it a success. But given his uneven numbers and recent spat of injuries I think overall for what the Mets thought his impact would be, it was a failing grade or at least a "D."
I do agree most $100+ million contracts end up being bad ideas. Sadly there are a lot of ex-Yankees on that list Natron produced. A-Rod is sort of an enigma. He won the WS but creates a LOT of distractions by just being a complete moron in the best cases and an outright cheater in the worst. He also doesn't seem to learn from any of his mistakes (see poker and the fact that he still employs his cousin whom he said gave him steroids). That being said, his presence has generated a TON of money for the Yanks (through television ratings, ticket sales, jerseys and other merchandise sales, etc.) and also add to that a WS title during his tenure and he's a passing grade, although sometimes he does feel like a failure.
Jeter, for all the talk about how overrated and overpaid he is, was always a great signing for the Yanks. Maybe he wouldn't have been on other teams, but for the Yanks he's worth every penny. BTW, he's been hitting the hell out of the ball lately and has his average up to above .280. Perhaps rumors of his demise were a bit premature. He might not be what he once was, but a shortstop in that lineup batting .280 with a flare for the dramatic is more than passable.
-Ronjaya
Just a quick chime-in: Natron poined out (during a real life conversation!) that A-Rod may be producing at a high clip - we're just talking about the on-field production - but is he producing numbers that are almost twice as good as Beltran's? Because his contract pays him an average of $27.5M per year versus Beltran's average of $17M.
-StanO
