While the New York Yankees have made some good high-dollar moves recently, it is obvious that overpaying for AJ Burnett’s services wasn’t one of them. Burnett, who the Yankees gave a five-year for $82.5 million dollars before the season, was 13-9 with a 4.04 ERA in the regular season and 1-1 in the post-season with an ERA of 5.27 in five appearances.

Mediocre to say the very least.

How do you cover up overpaying for AJ Burnett?

Well, most teams just have to live with it and accept the fact that he isn’t an ace, but the Yankees could simply go out and sign a guy like John Lackey this offseason and move AJ Burnett down in the rotation.

Must be nice.

Now this is all hypothetical, but it could very well happen.

I am not a fan of parity in baseball and I truly believe the MLB doesn’t need a salary cap like the NFL, because baseball simply isn’t as popular as football in our country and there is no guarantee that the fans in the small markets would definitely show-up if their teams were competitive.

There are non-sellouts in MLB playoff games, while historically mediocre NFL teams like the Houston Texans sell out every week despite never having a winning season in their somewhat brief history in the parody-driven NFL. Certainly there are exceptions to this rule on both sides of the argument, but everyone with a level head can agree that football is the sport that brings the most excitement to the country and baseball has lost its luster.

I have said it once and I will say it again:

Baseball is America’s past time, but football is America’s present time.

Back to the point

With all of that said, it is outrageous that the Yankees have a payroll of over $200 million dollars, with the average player making over $7.5 million dollars and the next closest team, the New York Mets have a payroll of $135 million dollars, with the average player making $4.8 million dollars.

That is a difference of $65 million dollars and nearly $3 million dollars per-player salary difference between the next closest team?

I am not saying that something needs to change, but once again, it must be nice.

It is good to see that teams like the Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, Tampa Bay Rays, Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles have begun developing young talent.

As a good friend of mine told me the other day, all of those young, talented players will look great in pinstripes one day.

Don’t let baseball writers or the ESPN Baseball Tonight crew convince you any differently, baseball just isn’t what it used to be in America.

A very large portion of the American sports fans are happy the MLB season is over because it frees up more room on Sportscenter for basketball and football, that’s just a fact.

I’m not speaking for everyone, but I am speaking for the majority.

In Major League baseball teams with thin pockets or penny-pinching owners need to follow the recipe of the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays, develop young talent and make smart, cheap personnel decisions.

If they don’t then they won’t be competitive, it’s that simple.

While that bugs a lot of people, despite being a fan of a penny-pinching team, it doesn’t bother me one bit.

That is just the way it is, and in a sport like baseball where American’s simply aren’t as interested as they once were, competitive balance doesn’t guarantee public interest.