There is a double edge sword by being the Yankees. They make the most money of any team, and make more than probably half the teams combined, so they reinvest that income into their players and subsidizing 1/3 of the rest of the league between revenue sharing and luxury taxes. This makes it easier for other teams (Tampa Bay cough) to be a crappy team, make a profit and get high first round talent.
Now, the Yankees built a strong roster of core home grown players, those players needed additional pieces to win the multiple championships as we know. That meant using the huge net income found on their bottom line of their profit and loss statement by overpaying for other players to fill in needs. Sometimes it was obvious needs, others, unnecessary spending just to spend on the best available player. That theory is now backfiring (after winning so many games, divisions, playoffs and World Series) in that the core is either retired or vastly overpaid for past performance.
Winning has an affect in that no top end ready made players are available when the Yanks draft. Either picking in the bottom 10% of each round or loss of picks because of free agents, it does not lead to a healthy farm system. Yes they have struck out too many times where other teams seem to find gems (AP and mike piazza for example).
Over spending for those championships and failures on some recent international players (kay igawa, andy morales) has led them to be gun shy in OVERSPENDING for international non drafted players. Reminder they spend x dollars on those players, not only are they spending that on player development but are being burdened by spending up to 60% to finance other teams to go out and compete for those same players.
Has the talent evaulators been horrible...? yes..do they need to revisit who is managing their minor league system....yes
But...before we start bashing this organization for the current and near future state of affairs...ask yourself this question...would you rather be a Yankee fan this past 10 to 15 years or any other team in professional sports? How about being a Pirates fan....Cubs fan...
This fan base knows nothing of real incompetance from the top down. 3(going on 4) years of not winning a championship and everyone should be fired..OMG the fucking world is ending. The manager is clueless...the GM cant hit the front side of a barn....
SPOILED.
/rant