Tonight the Yankees starting lineup has five home grown players (Posada, Cano, Jeter, Cabrera, Gardner) plus the starting pitcher, Pettite. Gardner is a sub so it's 4 of 9 in the front line lineup. Starting rotation has two Yankee products (Pettite, Chaimberlain) and the bullpen is filled with players from the system (Rivera, Hughes, Bruney, Coke, Robertson).
Yes, the Yankees have signed their share of free agents and unlike the 80's most of these signings have been good ones of late. But they did not simply buy this team.
More than signing free agents, their vast revenue helps the Yankees in two important ways. 1) They don't really have to worry about losing the players they develop. They can afford to pay Jeter, Posada, etc. enough to keep them for as long as they want. 2) They can afford to make mistakes. A terrible contract like Carl Pavano doesn't kill them the way it does many other teams.
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