New York’s Own

Ever since the New York Yankees began harvesting baseball’s first crop of free agents in the 1970s, throwing big money at Jim “Catfish” Hunter, Reggie Jackson and Andy Messersmith, there has been a perception that whatever success the Yankees achieved was bought, not built.

And even now, with an industry-high $120-million payroll, most think the Yankees’ current dynasty--they’ve won four of the last five World Series titles and can add another with a win over Arizona in Game 6 tonight--is a result of cash, not Cashman, as in Yankee General Manager Brian Cashman.

But it would probably surprise many to learn that the Yankees’ current core includes only two free agents, high-priced starting pitcher Mike Mussina and reasonably-priced reliever Mike Stanton.

And that the bulk of the lineup, shortstop Derek Jeter, center fielder Bernie Williams, catcher Jorge Posada, second baseman Alfonso Soriano and left fielder Shane Spencer, as well as pitcher Andy Pettitte, came up through the Yankee farm system.

And that two key pitchers, closer Mariano Rivera and reliever Ramiro Mendoza, in addition to Williams and Soriano, were mined from the Yankees’ Latin American program.

And that the balance of their roster, first baseman Tino Martinez, third baseman Scott Brosius, right fielder Paul O’Neill, designated hitter David Justice, outfielder Chuck Knoblauch, and pitcher Roger Clemens, was acquired through shrewd trades, not big-money, free-agent acquisitions.

Yes, owner George Steinbrenner’s Niagara Falls-like revenue streams have enabled the Yankees to retain stars such as Jeter, Williams and Rivera with mega-buck contracts while other teams have lost comparable players to higher bidders, but when it comes to construction, they’ve provided almost all of the raw materials.

“I would like to believe that’s a myth,” Cashman said of the perception the Yankees buy championships. “It’s easy to say we’re the big-market Yankees, but when you look at how this team is put together, the people around baseball who go behind the [dollar] numbers realize we’ve done this with good scouting and development. We’ve been blessed. We made a lot of right turns when we could have made a lot of left turns. We’ve been good, lucky and healthy during this run.”

The result is baseball’s most balanced team, a group that seems to save its best baseball for October and is built to win the close, tension-filled games that are so prevalent in the postseason.

Since 1996, the Yankees are 17-2 in one-run playoff games, including dramatic extra-inning victories over the Diamondbacks in Games 4 and 5, in which Martinez and Brosius provided two-out, score-tying two-run homers in the bottom of the ninth inning Wednesday and Thursday.

The roster has everything: A deep rotation and the game’s best closer in Rivera, who is 6-0 with an 0.70 earned-run average and 24 saves in 51 playoff games. There’s a nice left-to-right balance to a lineup that has no 50-homer threats but no easy outs, making it difficult for opponents to pitch around anyone.

The Yankees can manufacture runs. They have good speed and good bunters, play solid defense, and players who put the team ahead of the individual. Case in point: Brosius hit a tying homer in the ninth inning Wednesday night, then bunted the eventual winning run to second in the 12th.

Such talent, combined with tenacity of players such as O’Neill and Jeter, the vast postseason experience of the entire roster and the sage guidance of Manager Joe Torre, has made this team almost impossible to beat in the playoffs since 1996.

But give Cashman and Mark Newman, senior vice president of baseball operations, credit, too. Ditto to former general managers Gene Michael and, to a certain extent, Bob Watson.

Among their architectural achievements:

* Acquiring Martinez and reliever Jeff Nelson from Seattle for pitchers Sterling Hitchcock, Jim Mecir and third baseman Russ Davis after 1995. Martinez did such a good job replacing Don Mattingly that Martinez’s successor will have similarly large shoes to fill.

* Acquiring O’Neill from Cincinnati for Roberto Kelly after 1992, Brosius from Oakland as a player to be named later in the 1997 Kenny Rogers deal, Clemens from Toronto for pitchers David Wells and Graeme Lloyd and infielder Homer Bush in 1999, and Justice from Cleveland for outfielder Ricky Ledee and minor league pitchers Zach Day and Jake Westbrook in 2000.

* Unearthing Pettitte (22nd), Posada (24th) and Spencer (28th) in the later rounds of the 1990 draft, signing Rivera in 1990 and Mendoza in 1991 out of Panama before most teams were even scouting that part of Latin America, and using the sixth pick of the 1992 draft on Jeter.

About the only deal in which the Yankees gave up more talent than they got was when they acquired Knoblauch from Minnesota for pitcher Eric Milton and shortstop Cristian Guzman before 1998. Still, Knoblauch has played an integral role on the last three championship teams.

Once players proved they could produce in the big leagues, were durable, and could handle the pressure of playing in New York, they were rewarded with multi-year deals.

Jeter signed for 10 years and $189 million, Williams for seven years and $87 million, Rivera for four years and $40 million, Clemens for two years and $30 million, and so on.

But it’s one thing to have all the money in the world to spend and another to spend it wisely. Not since the Yankees gave Rogers a four-year, $18-million deal in 1996 and Danny Tartabull a five-year, $25-million deal in 1992 have they had what could be considered a big-money bust.

“This situation wasn’t right for Rogers, and Tartabull didn’t work out,” Cashman said. “We’ve made a lot of good decisions the last few years, but it’s such a slippery slope. You have to go with track record, with guys who have a long history of success and stay away from guys with a history of health problems or who haven’t performed well in tight spots.”