For all of you out there who were hoping that the Yankees might just go silently into the night after missing the playoffs for the first time since 1993 this past season, that sure as hell doesn't look like it's going to happen.

First it was the 6-year, $140 million contract to a guy who looks like he could eat himself out of the league by 2010, and now there's this. The Yankees are set to offer the talented but inconsistent AJ Burnett a 5-year deal for $80 million.

So yes, that's two pitchers totaling approximately $220 million. Or about the equivalent of A-Rod's last contract. By the way, read those last two sentences again and just stop and think about that for a moment. That's ridiculous.

And besides all of that, let's just think about this rationally for a moment here. If Sabathia and Burnett sign with the Yankees, combined they'll be getting nearly $40 million per year. The Tampa Bay Rays roster this past season, which made it to the World Series, had a combined payroll of $45 million.

So, in other words, for what the Rays paid to produce a World Series team, the Yankees would field a team of Sabathia, Burnett, and 20% of Alex Rodriguez. Anyone else think the Yankees are going slightly overboard here, or is it just me?

By the way, it isn't stopping with Burnett either. The Yankees are also believed to be in the process of preparing a deal for free-agent Derek Lowe.

And just to truly make your head explode, there have even been relatively solid rumors that the Yankees will do what they can to try and get Jake Peavy in pinstripes. Man, at this rate, the Yankees starting pitching staff will have a higher payroll then the Boston Red Sox's entire team.

What's stunning about all of this is that apparently the Yankees have learned nothing from the Rays' success this past season, which is that you can win without spending insane amounts of money. There's also no guarantee that just because you assemble a roster that has a higher GDP than Malaysia that you'll win a World Series. After all, the Yankees have been spending money like a drunken sailor since their last World Series victory in 2000, and they have absolutely nothing to show for it.

As much as I'd like to go off on a rant about how bad this is baseball - and it is - something tells me that the sweetest thing of all will be watching the Yankees lose in the playoffs to either the Red Sox or Angels or hell, even the Rays. Because when you're going to be spending as much as it looks like the Yankees are going to be spending, anything but a World Series championship is a colossal failure - and might just cause Hank Steinbrenner's head to explode. Which, admittedly, is a great thing to root for.

Yankees prepare AJ offer [New York Post]