So, I was going to have this as a comment but it was getting to long so I decided to cheat and put it as a new post:
Thank you for expressing your opinion mike, but you're actually completely wrong. I know, my blog, my opinion, but I also like to refer to the facts when calling someone "not clutch". There's a reason why they call A-rod Mr. April, Reggie Jackson Mr. October and Derek Jeter Mr. November. See, Arod did have some clutch hits last year. I'll definitely give you that. BUT THEY WERE ALL IN APRIL! April!!!! And they were off Chris Ray who finished April on the DL! See, just to prove my point about Arod not being clutch, here were his stats from last season, when he was considered "clutch"(I think Shane Spencer is rolling over in his grave, errr... his couch): .267 batting average, 1 hr, 1 rbi, 15 at bats in 4 games, 6 k's 2 runs. So, basically you're paying him $250 million to suck in the playoffs. Good spending. And here are the wonderful stats from the year before: .071 batting average, 1 hit(a single), 14 at bats in 4 games, only 4 strike outs, 0 runs, 0 home runs, 0 rbi's. And the stats from the year before: .133 batting average, 0 home runs, 0 rbi's, 2 hits, 2 runs, 5 strike outs in 5 games. The yankees record in those three seasons in the playoffs: 4-9.
Now, onto hating Arod because of his salary, I said that I didn't completely blame him for that because there are other people involved. But, he does have some say in it. If he really cared about winning, if he cared about other people than himself he would have gone somewhere else, for less money and I wouldn't have had a problem with that. See, what people forget is that when Arod signed his contract with the Rangers his yearly average was almost DOUBLED the nearest player. You're telling me that the market was set up for that? No way. There's no way that arod is twice as good as the next best player. There is no one in baseball who is worth twice as much as the second best player because baseball is a team sport and the other players are just as valuable to the team. It's like they say, you're only as good as your weakest link. Now, to say that Arod is the only player who would be worth $25-30 million a year is outrageous! Nobody in baseball is worth $25-30 mil a year. Nobody is really worth $1 million a year because they're playing a frakkin' game. But, because of the times people get paid these amounts. So, if I was to pay one player the most money in the league this player better come through all season long and into the post season. See, Arod will put up big numbers. And yes, maybe once in a blue moon he might hit an rbi single to tie or win a game, but there's no way that you can justify him being clutch last year in the playoffs(please see numbers from above). If I was going to pay someone $25 mil for a season, someone who was going to come through in the clutch during the entire season and also into the playoffs there are really only a handfull of people who qualify. And sadly most of them are on the Red Sox. They would be Big Papi, Josh Beckett(yeah, see his stats for the 2003 and 2007 playoffs), Papplebon(when hasn't he been nasty), and probably Pujols. I might put Manny in there just because he's also entertaining. But there's really no one else that would qualify, or I can't think of them. These are the players that I could justify in my head $25 mil a year. I just can't for Arod.
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1. regarding your stats, it's not clear what they represent. What is considered "clutch"? The numbers you have listed there have no qualifier. Does that mean that only one of the walk off home runs he hit last year counts? And the one he hit against the Braves in 06 doesn't count? Why not? hardballtimes.com gives players a "clutch" rating based on the following criteria: ""Clutch" is the name we've given to the portion of Bill James's Runs Created formula that includes the impact of a batter's batting average with runners in scoring position and the number of home runs with runners on. The specific formula is Hits with RISP minus overall BA times at bats with RISP, plus HR with runners on minus (all HR/AB) times at bats with runners on." According to this formula, A-Rod was rated at 9.8. This puts him at #5 in all of MLB. Magglio Ordonez was # 1 at 13.6. To compare a few other names, Vlad Guerrero was a 6.5, David Ortiz a 3.6, Derek Jeter a 3.4, David Wright a -1.6. Of course that's just one way of looking at it, and I'm sure you can come up with more #'s to debunk it. I also know because I watched or listened to almost every game, that he consistently got big hits throughout the year, and without his MVP season, the Yankees don't make the playoffs. So don't tell me that his production doesn't help the team win.
2. Re: salary, I completely agree that his contract with the Rangers was outrageous. However, Tom Hicks thought it was a good investment, and he made it. His mistake. I absolutely do not blame A-Rod for making that deal. Boras showed him the money. He has come out and said that he made a mistake and that he should have signed with the Mets at the time. The Yankees have made out like bandits over the last few years with the Rangers picking up a good chunk of that salary. With his current deal, as long as he stays healthy and productive, the Yankees will make money off of him. It's just business. That's all it is. Baseball is his job, and he's good at it. The people signing the checks pay the players what they think they are worth. There are many players out there who do a worse job at earning their paychecks than A-Rod. Giambi is basically a part time player making over 23 million this year. Randy Johnson is making 15. Pedro Martinez is in the 4th year of his deal and has accounted for only 27 wins. Big deal. None of it matters, owners and GM's cut these deals, they have to live with them. Why should I complain about it? It's not like teams lower ticket prices when they cut payroll.
Bottom line, I am a Yankee fan, A-Rod is a Yankee, I will support him. You are a Mets fan and a decided hater of A-Rod. If I had the power to wipe the slate clean, cut him and his contract, and replace him with any other player in baseball to play 3rd for the Yankees, I wouldn't do it. There's no one I'd rather have there. I agree with you that sports contracts are out of control, but the owners are still turning profits. I wish I had an agent and was represented by one of the most powerful unions in the world. I'd suck every last dollar I could out of my company.
This argument could go on for years. He could hit .400, 70 HR, 200 RBI, and a walk off home run to win the world series this year, and you'd find a way to diminish it. He could pull a Beltran and whiff to lose the series, and I'd find a way to support him... We both have our minds made up, so lets just agree to disagree...
I forgot to mention Barry Zito. There's no argument in the world that could ever convince me that A-Rod is more overpaid than that guy. Every night when you say your prayers, you should be thankful that Omar didn't cut that deal.
Okay, here's what my stats mean: when it matters the most, i want someone who is going to come through in october. it's that plain and simple. arod does not do that so you can't say that he's the best player. in fact, your stats support what i'm saying. if he's making the most money in baseball, then he sure as hell better be #1 in that category. now let's say that you're the yankees gm and this is right after the world series. you've lost these players off of your payroll, arod, clemens, posada, & pettit. you've now cleared about $70 mil off of your payroll, you're telling me that you'd re-sign these the 3 players instead of getting someone who's younger, who's going to be cheaper and play longer? personally the only player i would have resigned would have been posada but there's no way I'd sign him for 4 years. maybe 2 years. but if i was too look at what made the yankees win the back to back to back world series was it ever because they had the best hitter in baseball? no. they had the best pitching in baseball and they had clutch hitters who did okay during the regular season(sorry but shane spencer was not a fantasy stud and did more in october than arod ever has). but if i was the yankees gm i'd pull a trade for miguel cabrera(at least he's won a world series) because the marlins aren't asking for much and you could probably get him for melky and help clear up your problems with too many people who play outfield and then make a trade for 2 out of these 3 pitchers, bedard, santana, or haren because the yankees have the players to get 2 of these pitchers and pay them to keep them for a long time and then you'd still have money left over to go after a big free agent next year(sorry, i have no idea who's going to be a free agent next year) or you could have signed andrew jones.
now, if arod comes through and bats .400 in the playoffs, hits a game winning home run to win the world series i have no problem giving him the credit that he deserves, but i highly doubt that would happen.
now, if you go back to my original post i just said that it was partly his fault for the salary. tom hicks is a horrible gm and takes MOST of the blame. but, there is always some part to blame on the player. he had the choice to go anywhere in the league and instead of thinking with his head, where would be the best place overall for me to go, he went with his pocket. i also said that if i was in his place and all i cared about is money and didn't want to win a world series i would have taken the money also.
lastly, i never EVER said arod was the most overpaid player and he is probably not even in the top 20 most over paid players. zito is by far the most overpaid because he is done with and i thank god ever day that omar didn't sign him for that long and big of a deal. giambi is probably #2 but if he was healthy and was playing every day he wouldn't be that bad. he did have some good years with the yankees, as most yankee fans like to forget. so yes, we will agree to disagree. if arod ever does come through in october when it matters the most, i will give him credit for it and i have no problem doing that. i just highly doubt that it will ever happen.
Roger, your points are badly tainted by personal biases.
I don't believe in a player being "clutch". "Coming through in October" is a silly and meaningless way of evaluating a player's talent. Any player can do anything over a 5-10 game stretch.
If you extend the sample size to, say, A-Rod's entire career there is no logical way that a reasonable person could denegrate his skills or his value (monetary or otherwise).
So Roger you are wrong. Regardless of this discussion, the Red Sox are still the best.
OK, here's my last post on the subject. Jeter had a much worse October than A-rod last year. Definitely not up to the standard of his $22 million salary. Does that mean that he sucks too? I just can't wrap my head around the argument that because player X makes this amount of money, he should perform to a standard beyond all players below that amount. I agree that Posada will probably be a shell of himself in year 4 of his deal, but he gets rewarded for his body of work, same as Pettite, Same as A-Rod. His deal is made by looking at what he's done, and projecting what he'll do. The Yankees see dollar signs when they envision A-Rod breaking the home run record in a Yankee uniform. The way things are going, barring a catastrophic injury, it'll probabaly happen.
You talk about the late 90's teams, and it brings up an interesting point. They won as team. And in the past 7 years, they've lost as a team. The Yankees won't win another world series because of any one player. You still only get 4 chances to hit each game. But A-rod gets the blame for everything, and I don't think it's fair. The Mets collapse last year was not the fault of any one player, it was a total team effort. Should Beltran take the blame as the highest paid player? The thing that gets me is that there are 25 other professional hitters and pitchers on the Yankees making millions of dollars, but all the A-Rod haters want to point to him as the cause of all their troubles. It just seems lazy. It all comes back to the fact that they hate him because he makes a lot of money, and tries to present himself a certain way. He's so successful, and people get jealous of that. The only thing that makes them feel better about themselves is to point out every mistake he makes and act like he's the worst guy in the world. Our culture thrives on putting people up on a pedestal, then trying our bet to knock them off. When they fall, we can't get enough of it (see Britney Spears).
Re: Giambi, I don't forget the good years. I still cheer for him. Just saying, if you want to make the argument that A-rod should be this big playoff hero because of how much he's paid, shouldn't the same apply to Giambi?
Anyway, I'm sure if we keep this up we'll lose our jobs. If only we had our own sports talk radio show. We could debate for hours a day and get paid for it. I would then hire Scott Boras as my agent to make sure I got paid more than you :)
Don't you just love this time of year? I can't wait to look back on all this in October to see which of us will have to east his words.
Rob, your comment is the most intelligent thing I've read in weeks... That said it must be pointed out that my posts are just as biased, so this is pretty much a collosal waste of time and energy. But it sure is fun...
Oh wow Roger I just noticed that you are claiming that Papelbon is worth $25 million but A-Rod is not. Remember, I am a big Red Sox fan and love Papelbon. I think it is completely ridiculous for you to think that a closer who pitches approximately 3% of his team's innings per year should be paid more than the person who is statistically the greatest hitter ever.
Get a clue.
Mike, I completely agree with you that this is pointless but it is really fun. It's nice seeing people come up with ways to support what they think. Rob, you're the moron. To say that there isn't a sample size to come up with an argument that arod is not clutch when it counts is obsurd(i can't spell). Don't get me wrong, Arod definitely has come through in the clutch but it mostly came through in the beginning of the season but can someone give me a signature hit by arod in the playoffs? That's all I want. When Jeter is going to up accepting his invitation into the baseball hall of fame and people are showing highlights of his career you know for sure that they're going to show him in the playoffs. Who could really forget the way he lead that team through the 2001 playoffs. I can still remember where I was when he hit those homeruns and then coming back to the house and knowing I was going to hear something about it from Mike. Now, when Arod is going to inducted into the hall of fame what signature hits are they going to show? Do you really want to be remember for the guy who hit a game winning 3 run homer in april? I'm sure they're going to show him hitting his home run breaking Barry Bonds' record, but besides that what else do they show? Can anyone give me one? Can anyone show me when Arod was clutch in the playoffs? Even when he had his best postseason, which was in 2004, people aren't going to remember what he did well because that will be over shadowed by a. his karate chop on bronson arroyo and b. the yankees total collapse. i guess the point i'm trying to make that if you're going to be the highest paid player in baseball you sure as hell better lead that team in the playoffs. i'm sorry, but as much as jeter sucked last year(and of course he gets off because of what he did up til 2001) there's still no way that arod should be paid more than jeter. or big papi. or beckett. yes, papplebon is a stretch but think of all the close games the red sox had. and think of in the past and all of the close games in the past they've blown(and believe me, i can remember a lot of them with a lot of pleasure) you're telling me that he's not the most important player on the team? you're telling me that you'd rather have someone else to close up the close games? believe me, i'd rather have someone else out there.
i guess my final point is this(and I just thought of this like 10 minutes ago)arod is dan marino. or, for the youngins, tony romo. look, dan marino put up silly numbers as a pro. he was amazing. he had probably the best arm during his time and he set a lot of records in the nfl. but what people are going to remember about dan marino is that even though he was statistically the best qb during the regular season, he couldn't put it together in the post season. when it came to crunch time, he faltered. he never won when it mattered the most. right now, the same is with tony romo. he was the second best qb last year behind tom brady. he put up amazing numbers and i had the unfortunate pleasure of watching him pick apart my giants twice. he killed us in the regular season. but in the playoffs this season and last season, when the cowboys had to count on him the most, what did he do? Last year he fumbled the snap on the game winning field goal. Not to out due himself, this past season he threw the game winning interception to end their season, once again. Now, were these guys worth paying a lot of money because they can bring in people and put up huge numbers? Yes. Were they worth being the highest paid player(and I understand that neither are or were, just go with me on this), hell no. and also, i'm not saying that arod can't turn it around. it is possible since i'm a giants fan and I just watch eli help lead the gmen to win the superbowl and having 3 bad post seasons. so there. this will end the discussion until october and then everyone can make fun of me because arod will bat .400 and hit the world series winning home run off of billy wagner(ugghhh).
Roger I'm not done with this argument. I asked you to find some actual stats to show me and you couldn't do it. So I looked some up and here is what I found.
1. Check out this site (http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/bsplit.cgi?n1=rodrial01&year=c) to see A-Rod's "Clutch" statistics. You can scroll down and there is actually a category which shows the clutch situations. You can even look through each year as well as over his whole career (change the "splits" at the top of the page). If you look at his career, he has some incredible clutch statistics. But you've been talking about how bad he was the past 2 seasons, and that he only had big hits in games that were blowouts. Well I agree with 2006, especially after looking at his stats. However, if you look at his clutch stats from last season, he hit .357 in "late and close" games. That's pretty sick. And when the team was blowing people out, or losing badly (the "margin > 4 runs" category), he only hit .218. So that does not match your argument AT ALL.
2. In terms of postseason stats, you can check out that site again to view those. Yes, we all know how he has choked the past few postseasons. But to say he has done nothing in the postseason is a crock of shit. In 1997 he batted .313 in the ALDS. In 2000 he batted .308 in the ALDS and .409 in the ALCS. In 2004 (for the yankees) he batted .421 in the ALDS. In the ALCS that year he batted .258 and has been on a postseason slump since then (but so have the rest of the Yankees). But you can't say he always chokes in the playoffs. I guarantee you that if he continues to get postseason AB's his stats will get better. He's too good of a hitter.
3. You said to me in an IM that A-Rod is great early in the season and then fades at the end when it matters. Just looking at the past 3 seasons, here is what he has done in August and Sept./Oct. In 2005 he hit .324 in Aug and .330 in Sept/Oct. In 2006 he hit .277 in Aug and .358 in Sept/Oct. In 2007 he hit .330 in Aug and .362 in Sept/Oct. Yeah those stats sound like they belong to someone I don't want on my team at the end of the year, especially in a playoff race. Great point Roger.
4. The fact of the matter is that A-Rod is the best 3rd baseman in the game today, and any team would pick him over every other player to start for them at 3rd THIS SEASON if they could. Even I would trade Wright for A-Rod just for this season if we could.
"Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in" -- Michael Corleone
James, Rob, thanks for bringing some logic and intelligence to the discussion. Rog, here's a couple more points I need to respond to:
1. You said the Yankees should have traded for Miguel Cabrera. I couldn't disagree more. In all of your arguments you seem to look at your extremely narrow and short sighted definition of "clutch" hitting as the only thing that determines a player's value. That's just a bunch of nonsense. A-Rod is a 5 tool player. He hits for average, hits for power, he plays great defense, Has a great arm, and runs well. Cabrera can hit, but A-Rod's numbers are, and have been better. A-rod is faster, has a better arm, and plays better defense. Cabrera has age on his side, but Alex has many more years of productivity left in him. Cabrera also hasn't done much to help the Tigers win so far with the 0-7 start. Ortiz offers nothing but offense. While Manny actually plays defense, he's less than stellar at it. Jeter has had many great moments, but his numbers pale in comparison to A-Rods, and A-Rod is a better defender. Pitchers are way too much of a liability to make that kind of investment.
Bottom line. A-Rod is the most complete player in baseball right now. No one player excels in ALL ASPECTS of the game more than him. That is not an over-statement, and he is not over-rated. He is worth every cent that they are paying him, and the Yankees see a big return on that investment whether they win the world series or not. His value is determined by his overall productivity and marketability and there is not a more productive and marketable name in the game right now. If I went by your logic, Aaron Boone would be a very rich man. I enjoy the way A-Rod plays the game, just like I enjoyed the way Ken Griffey Jr. played in his prime. I still like watching him. He's another guy that never won it all, but he's still an all time great. I have a feeling that when the book closes on A-Rods career, there will be many more moments to look back on, and those moments will include a world championship.
And for crying out loud it's "A-B-S-U-R-D"...
I would also like to thank malone for helping my argument. Think of it this way Mike. I'll use football an analogy. If you were to start a franchise in the 1980's and you had to choose who you were to start that franchise with you it was down to one of two players. Player 1 is going to put up the best numbers in the league. He's going to be the highest qb. He'll throw for the most yards each year, the most td's each year and you're going to win at least 12 games each year. But, you're never going to win the super bowl. This guy, as great as he is in the regular season just doesn't put it together in the playoffs. Or, you could have the second quarterback. He won't throw for as many yards. His qb rating will never be as high. He won't throw as many td's as qb #1. But, in the playoffs he's going to excell. You're going to win 3-5 super bowls. You're franchise will be known as the best, smartest franchise. Now, if you go with qb 1, he's going to be the highest paid player in the league. No one is going to be close to what he makes. Qb #2 will not get paid as much. In fact, because of this, you can be able to go out and sign the best offensive line to support him. Which one do you chose? Well, QB #1 is Dan Marino. QB #2 is Joe Montana. You're telling me that Dan Marino is better than Joe Montana because of what he did in the regular season? I don't think so. Now, I'm not saying that arod can't turn into Peyton Manning. I never said that. Arod could eventually turn things around and be the world series mvp. I'm just saying that if I had to put money on if he would or if he wouldn't, I'm putting money on him not. Does that make sense to you?
Secondly, you're comment about how much money arod is bringing the yankees is complete sh*t. What, no one knew who the yankees were? All of a sudden millions and millions of people who use to be rangers fans all of a sudden became yankees fans? I don't think so. He might bring some fans, I'll give you that, but he's not going to bring that many fans to cover his salary. The yankees were an already established brand name. The casual fans(i.e. chicks) already liked the yankees because they had derek jeter. He's the face of the franchise. People were already paying to go watch jeter play years before arod got there. And if Jeter isn't enough for you, they had roger, andy & giambi helping them out(on a side note, if you look at giambi's career with the spankees, twice he hit 41 hr's, twice he hit 30+ home runs, 3 times he had 100+rbi's and once he had 87 rbi's. and the other two years he was hurt most of the season. see, there were more than one good seasons with the yankees. people just like to crucify giambi 'cause he did 'roids. Hmm... let's see, canseco outed giambi in his first book and he was right. now, he did mention a ny thirdbasemen in his second book. could he be right again?).
lastly, the yankees didn't need arod last year at all. they would have done fine with cabrera(at least he helped his team win a world series). cabrera can easily bat .330, hit 40+ home runs and drive in 130 rbi's. jeez, he almost did that in florida, playing for the marlins. It's not like that park's a real hitters park like it is in detroit. Also, we're starting the second week of the season. It's early, don't count the tigers out or what cabrera will do. Honestly, the yankees outscored their opponents by almost 200 runs last year. Even if you take away arod's 156 rbi's, you still outscored the teams by 44 runs. Plus, with the money you'd save by having cabrera instead of arod, maybe you could have traded for santana. Or Dan Haren. Or bedard. Or Jim. Or Rob.
Okay, here's my last comment for right now. Let's say that arod, jeter, big papi and beckett were all driving in a car together. during that ride, the car flips over and all of the players are injured so bad that they can never play again. Five years go by and they're all inducted into the hall of fame. During the ceremony they show highlights from that player's career. Jeter goes first and they show highlights of his game winning hits during the post season, including the game winning and tieing home runs he hit in 2001. Next up is Papi. They show all of the game tieing or game winning hits from the 2004 season and post season. Next they show Beckett's highlights. They show his playoffs from the 2003 and 2007 seasons, including him tagging out posada for a complete game win in game 6 at yankee stadium(i think it was posada, but i'm not 100% sure). Lastly they show Arod's highlights. His best highlight ends up being a game winning 3 run homer off of chris ray in april 2007. If you're arod, do you really want to show up after seeing the highlights those other guys have? I'm just saying that arod hasn't come through when it matters the most, and the playoffs matter the most because that's what you want to win as a team, arod wasn't really able to lead his team. and because he's the highest paid player, and he's suppose to be the best player around, shouldn't he have at least one signature hit in the postseason that everyone remembers? Can anyone remember where they were the last time arod came through in october? Can anyone remember his last game tieing/game winning home run in october?
Roger, steroids aside, do you believe that Barry Bonds is a completely overrated player and that the Giants made a mistake signing him? If so, you need therapy. He is one of the best hitters in the history of the game whether he cheated or not. He also won 0 world series. Prior to 2002 (a monster playoff year for him), he was considered one of the least clutch players in the postseason. Take a look at his stats. He had one great postseason, and he's suddenly cleared of the "un-clutch" label? How about Manny Ramirez. Look at his career postseason stats. Not very impressive. But you're right he deserves to be labeled "clutch".
And comparing a QB to a position player in baseball is retarded. A 3rd baseman averages 4 or 5 AB's a game and maybe 3 defensive plays. Whereas a QB touches the ball every single offensive snap.
I'm done arguing with you. Your logic is too fuzzy. The bottom line is that the Mets need to start winning.
Last comment... Seriously. Your football analogy is interesting, but it's all based on hindsight. Like you said, time will tell.
Regarding rvenue generation, you're missing the big picture. Jersey sales, t-shirt sales, etc. signed and game used memorabilia sales through the yankee/steiner partnership. Advertising dollars in print media, as well as the many programs on the YES Network over the next 10 years that will feature A-Rod. As he gets closer to the home run record, more people will want to be watching, meaning that commercial spots during games and other programs will cost more. All these things and more contribute to why Scott Boras thought it was perfectly reasonable to ask for a deal in the $325-$350 million range. Now I would have balked at $350 mil, and the Yankees did also, but when he came to them hat in hand, and without Boras after he realized that no one was going to shell out that kind of dough, the Yankees gave him a deal that he was comfortable with, and they were comfortable with. As high as their payroll is, they aren't losing money by any stretch of the imagination, so lets just let it go. Re: Gimabi, again, I love the guy, and I'm glad he's a Yankee. I won't kill him for his mistakes, and I really don't care how much he's being paid. But you are holding A-Rod to a much higher standard, while making excuses for Giambi. That's why your argument seems based on a personal grudge rather than on reality. Canseco's first book had some facts, and he claimed to have injected specific people. His second book seems to be a bit farcical. He told Magglio Ordonez he wouldn't mention him if he financed a movie he was producing. His big revelation about A-Rod is that he introduced him to a trainer that had connection with suppliers of steriods. That's it. If it's 100% true, it proves nothing, other than that he met the guy. In the same chapter Canseco goes on about how A-Rod was hitting on his wife, and that he hates his guts, giving him every reason to make stuff up. Anyway, I don't even want to get into the PED crap. My belief is that it was rampant, and you had juiced pitchers facing juiced hitters, and it was pretty darn entertaining.
Again, I followed this team closely last year. A-Rod's all around production was extremely significant throughout the year. Taking him out of the lineup and replacing him with a lesser player could have easily kept them out of the playoffs. He was good all year. During the first half, Damon, Abreu, and Cano were slumping big time. A-Rod carried the team through that. When those guys picked it up in the second half, they took off, and managed to win a very tight wild card race. This is not something I'm making up to help my argument, this is fact.
Miguel Cabrera is a fine player. A-Rod is better. Plain and simple. Better hitter, better fielder, better runner. We'll see if Cabrera has as good a year against American League pitching. Yankee Stadium is also tough on right handed hitters. After watching last season, I am 100% convinced that the Yankees would have missed the playoffs without A-Rod. 100%. You're wasting your time if you try to convince me otherwise.
And the Yankees could have traded for Santana. They had the best deal on the table. Cashman talked Hank out of it. Simple as that. Cashman has stated plainly that he could have cut the deal, but the Twins wanted too much. They also wanted too much from the Red Sox. When both those teams told them to go blow, The Mets came in with a lesser deal, and the Twins had to go for it. Such a great move by Omar.
I'm content with the way it's played out, and I like the young pitching staff. As the 2003 Marlins taught us, you can win a world series with young pitching
Anyway, why don't you go ahead and post a new blog about an unrelated topic (Saved by the Bell, Battlestar Galactica, etc.) so we can move on from this nonsense... Please...
Okay, I'll leave one last post and then I'll see if I can disable comments for this post. I don't think I can. I'm glad that all of you are reading my blog. I've appreciated it and it makes me happy when you guys post comments. It's been a lot of fun arguing our points and coming up with stats to back our points. We've all agreed that what we think is right. We're all biased in our oppions(I'm a met fan and don't like the yankees, malone has arod on his fantasy team & yes i did try and trade for him last year, mike is a yankees fan & and rob just likes to disagree with anything i say). i'm just saying that for me to call arod the god of all baseball, the greatest player that ever live(personally, as I told malone, he'll never live up to it because even though he played in a different era babe ruth will always be the best player to ever play the game. The dude won 96-97 games as a pitcher and then hit 700+ home runs during an era when people didn't hit home runs and there were less teams and thus the competition was better) he needs to come through in the postseason. he needs to lead his team to the world series(he doesn't necessarily need to win the world series). actually, i'd be happy if arod hit one game winning rbi. hell, he could do a suicide bunt and then i'd be willing to say that he's not as unclutch anymore. and there will always be players that are more unclutch than arod, but none of these players are the highest paid player. heck, there are guys in the hall of fame that never had the opportunity to get to the playoffs. but, with the team that arod plays with, with the amount of chances he's had(been in the playoffs every year he's been a yankee) he's had enough time to come through at least once. that's all that I need. until then i'll always view the guy as overrate(and yes, this whole discussion started because i wanted to annoy mike, he he, but at least we've had fun!). personally i think the football analogy is the closest way for me to describe my feelings of arod. also, i think the car accident is another good analogy for arod. so, i'll close this section of my post and we'll wait til october to see what happens with arod(and yes, i admit the the peds was a cheap shot, but the laptop was beginning to fry my nuts, sue me). Lastly, malone, i agree the mets need to win. and get brian bannister back from the royals.
After yesterday, I'd also be happy if the Mets got Bannister back...
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