Lost in the midst of everyone’s bitching about the Yankees’ holiday spending spree this year is the notion that Major League Baseball might actually step up and finally put a salary cap in place in efforts to control teams’ future spending. (I said might.)

In one offseason, the Yankees acquired two of the top pitching free agents (CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett) available and the market’s best young hitter (Mark Teixiera). Outside of Manny Ramirez and possibly Jake Peavy, the Bronx Spenders have left the market completely bare. (And don’t think they haven’t thought about figuring out a way to squeeze both Manny and Peavy into their budget, too.)

If you trust what some of the major media outlets are saying, then the Yankees are pissing people off – and not just the Red Sox, Angels and every other team that tries to compete with their spending every year. Apparently, they’re pissing off the league, too, but will it be enough to get Bud Selig off his dead ass and put a cap in place? It’s unlikely, but at least there’s talk of a cap possibly on the horizon.

I don’t blame the Yankees for spending as much as they can because there aren’t any rules in place to stop them. If you’re going to allow a tyrant to do whatever it wants, then the tyrant is probably going to do whatever it wants. The Yankees don’t hide who they are – they want to win and they’re willing to spend to do so. And you know what? Don’t blame them – blame the league that doesn’t care enough about evening the playing field to put a system in place to control the spending of every team.

But maybe this time around people are finally going to wake up. The Yankees’ spending isn’t out of control – it’s been out of control for a long time. But again, don’t blame them. There’s never been a better time for a cap and if the Spenders’ holiday shopping spree won’t force change in baseball, then I’m afraid nothing will.

Harvey Araton of The New York Times wrote an interesting piece about the current state of the New York Yankees and how their erratic spending has caught up to them. (Or will catch up to them in the near future.)

The most common contemporary take on the Yankees is that their deep pockets do not guarantee championship success, just the ability to withstand expensive mistakes (Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, Roger Clemens in 2007) that would level lesser-endowed clubs. But given higher stakes and increased risk, for how long?

With a personnel infrastructure almost as old as the stadium they are vacating, with an overhyped or underachieving farm system, how do the Yankees meet the terms of their aforementioned deal with their fans without sending the newly re-signed general manager, Brian Cashman, on a pressurized spending spree that would compromise the financial restraint he preached in passing on Johan Santana last winter?

“A $40 million mistake four years ago could be a $120 million mistake today, like Barry Zito and the Giants,” Ganis said. “And by the way, if you’re the Yankees and you’re paying the luxury tax, it’s $175 million.”

Yankee tax dollars subsidize smaller markets. The more the Yankees spend without optimum return, the greater the odds of a Tampa Bay rising up against them. The richer and longer a contract the Yankees hand out, the more they are stuck with the status quo, for better or worse.

Take A-Rod. He’s a force of nature now, but if his skills erode sooner than later, the Yankees may want to say, “Take him, please.” At the price they paid, good luck with that, and with selling those overpriced seats long term in their expensive new house if safer, smarter investments are not soon made.

Excellent points all the way around. People want to bitch about how the Yankees can buy every player they want, but fail to see that it’s only hurting them in the end. The strategy of buying and trading for every All-Star on the market has worked for NY in the past, but they didn’t make the playoffs this year. What happens when they go hog wild in spending next offseason and miss the postseason yet again? They’re only digging themselves further and further in finical hell and not getting anything out of it.

Here’s a shocker – maybe the Tampa Bay Rays had it right all along. Don’t overspend (not that they could anyway with the market they’re in, but that’s besides the point), harvest their young talent and build a winner for the future. Well guess what? The future is now for the Rays while the Yankees continue to get burned by the past.