Why I'm Done With Major League Baseball:

By Chris


Sources: Teixeira, Yanks agree to 8-year deal

Free-agent first baseman Mark Teixeira has reached agreement with the New York Yankees on an eight-year contract worth more than $170 million, two sources involved in the negotiations tell ESPN The Magazine's Buster Olney.

The Yankees swooped in on Teixeira on Tuesday when it was believed the Boston Red Sox or the Washington Nationals were the likeliest to be his future employer. The Red Sox's offer was believed to be in the range of $170 million, and the Nationals reached out with an offer perhaps greater than that of Boston.

[...]

The Yankees have spent more than $400 million in salary in the last month, with $171 million going to left-handed pitcher CC Sabathia and $82.5 million on right-hander A.J. Burnett.

The agreement with Teixeira gives New York the four highest-paid players in baseball -- third baseman Alex Rodriguez, shortstop Derek Jeter, Sabathia and Teixeira.

Now I consider myself a Yankees fan. And there's nothing wrong with what the Yankees are doing. They're playing within the economic system fair and square.

It's the economic system that's screwed up. Cash-strapped teams like Minnesota need to sell their best players just to survive while juggernauts like the Yankees and Boston can buy up players at will (The Red Sox had the money to spend).

I'm going to find it very difficult to cheer for the Yankees this year (what fun is having a team that's supposed to win 120 games and a world championship--you're just setting yourself up for a major disappointment). And I'm going to have a harder time defending anything that happens in MLB for a long time.

Good for the players...make as much money as you can (careers are short). But the owners and Bud Selig need to realize that this free-spending mentality doesn't help the game. I'm more disgusted with the whole system than anything else and I hope I'm not alone.

UPDATE: Now it's apparently a $180 million deal. Good Lord.