More rest planned for A-Rod

June 22, 2009 by Benjamin Kabak 46 Comments

The more I think about this weekend’s A-Rod injury flap, the more I wonder how the Yankees could get this one so wrong. Just two months removed from a major labrum procedure, Joe Girardi penciled A-Rod into the lineup for 38 straight games. He played the field for 36 of them and DH’d during the other two. As A-Rod slumped his way through June, it became clear that the Yanks needed to get him a rest. They did on Friday and Saturday, and he appeared stronger on Sunday.

Today, Bryan Hoch reports that the Yanks will rest A-Rod one day a week through the All Star Break. After the July vacation, the team and Dr. Marc Philippon, A-Rod’s surgeon, will assess this situation. Over the weekend, I questioned the way the Yankees handled A-Rod. This decision is definitely a step in the right direction.

A.D.

Its been a bit of a weird combo of first the Yanks saying they won’t play A-Rod every single day, and giving him some DH time, followed by playing him everyday, and now this.

My only guess is that A-Rod kept saying he feels great, and wanted to play to get his timing down etc, until the realization he’s hitting sub-.240 and could probably use some time off.
- Memo
  
  He probably did keep saying he was okay but that is no reason to keep playing him when they see he is struggling.
  
  Waiting for a pro athlete to say, “I can’t play.” is like waiting on a kid to say, “I don’t want McDonald’s, I want broccoli.”
  
  Truth or perception the Yankees seem to buy a mansion and then want to use duct tape and gum to handle the repairs.
  - Zach
    
    “but that is no reason to keep playing him when they see he is struggling.”
    
    you dont bench a guy like Arod because hes slumping, if hes fatigued or his hip is an issue then yes give him rest. yeah his BA is around .220, has an OBP of .370 and pitchers still fear him and he still gives Tex protection- more then Matsui or Posada or whoever
    - Memo
      
      So be it with the semantics of struggling with the bat as opposed to struggling with the physical and his hip rehab. But we all now know REST was part of the rehab process so there should have been rest. And the Yankees knew it before he stepped on a field.
      
      The didn’t follow the guidelines of the guy they trusted to do the surgery. Point blank.
Jake H

They need a healthy and effective A-Rod to make the playoffs.
JackC

There is no shortage of things Joe Girardi has done, big and small, this past 1 1/3 seasons that has me scratching my head. I’m not a huge believer in a manager making or breaking a team, or frankly having much of an impact, but I was nonetheless excited about the Girardi hire. Now, a year and a half later, I’m afraid that Girardi has had an impact — negatively. There are so, so many things in baseball a manager can’t really control, but the few things he can control, I feel he’s screwed up an alarmingly high percentage of the time. This is an another example, in my opinion.
- Jake K.
  
  Yeah, it seems they really screwed this up. But I also think some of this falls on the front office. They should have set the guidelines for how much Arod can play.
- Jamal G.
  
  Name me two others. I’m sure not issuing an intentional walk to Manny Ramirez, the banning of unhealthy foods in the clubhouse, and his alleged cold relationship with the media last season were significant culprits in the Yankees not making the postseason.
  - jsbrendog
    
    duh, it had nothing to do with losing jorge or having 4/5 of your opening day rotation being on the dl/ineffective (other than pettitte who was good 1st half, bad second).
    
    obv they shouldve made it with aces like sidney ponson and karstens. stupid no ice cream.
  - JackC
    
    Two off the very top of my head: his panicky weird ass maneuver to bring in Mariano in the 8th against the Mets last Friday, and his insertion of Gardner the other game as a pinch runner and then not having him steal. now that MAY have been Gardner’s fault, so instead I’ll throw in his Tomko move yesterday — not putting him in, he’s got to cobble together innings, I mean leaving him in after he promptly coughed up the lead. That’s from like the past 10 days. There’s no shortage of other. And no, the litany of boneheaded moves he pulled last year you helpfully catalogued were not the reason they didn’t make the playoffs, but that doesn’t really mitigate their innate boneheadedness in my view
    - http://www.riveraveblues.com Benjamin Kabak
      
      his panicky weird ass maneuver to bring in Mariano in the 8th against the Mets last Friday
      
      There is absolutely nothing wrong with the decision to bring the best reliever into the highest leverage situation late in the game. Who else would you rather have facing Beltran and Wright in a one-run game? Phil Coke?
      - JackC
        
        Coke seemed to be cruising, and why turn Beltran around to hit into that jet stream? Moreover, I think it’s generally a mistake to bring RIvera into tie games when the other pitcher’s cruising, especially in a year you’re looking to keep his innings down. Why waste them in situations he has traditionally proved merely mortal.
        
        pat
        
        A mere mortal Mariano is still pretty much better than anybody else in our pen.
        
        JackC
        
        I was being kind. He’s actually been flat out bad this year in those situations.
        
        http://www.riveraveblues.com Benjamin Kabak
        
        Ain’t nothing like a small sample to bash one of the game’s all-time greats.
        
        When you have a pitcher who has thrown in just 9 tie games all year – one while battling a really bad stomach bug – and he struggles through two or three of them, the numbers look bad. There is still no one I would rather have out there.
        
        King of Fruitless Hypotheticals
        
        …is there a way to look up his numbers for tie games for the last few years?
        
        JackC
        
        Well, let’s agree to disagree on that move, then. I would be shocked if his career numbers in tie games approaches his numbers in save situations, but I have no numbers to back it up and freely admit I might be wrong. Reasonable people may certainly disagree, but does anyone think Girardi’s made consistently GOOD decisions? Where would his bizarre rejiggering of the rotation prior to the Boston series figure into those? I give him credit for switching Damon and Jeter, but let’s face it, there’s been no shortage of low hanging fruit he’s left for those inclined to gripe to pick from. Indeed, this post stems from another aggressively silly-seeming decision. Worse, it’s actually a very long series of DAILY silly decisions to not rest him, despite doctors saying from the start he’d need the rest.
        
        http://www.riveraveblues.com Benjamin Kabak
        
        I would be shocked if his career numbers in tie games approaches his numbers in save situations
        
        In save situations, he has a 1.97 career ERA. In non-save situations, he has a 2.57 ERA for his career. I think you’re letting some media bias impact your analysis. This is Mariano Rivera. He pitches with the game on the line.
        
        http://twitter.com/tsjc68 tommiesmithjohncarlos a/k/a Ridiculous Upside
        
        It’s a fact (albeit a totally inexplicable one) that Mariano Rivera does not pitch as well in tie games or non-save situations as he does in save situations. The statistical evidence in this matter is clear, and it’s not a small sample size issue, there’s enough data to say that with total statistical clarity.
        
        (cue Stephen A. Smith voice)
        
        HOWEVAH…
        
        A “lesser” Mariano in tie games/non-save situations is still a better pitcher than everybody else on the planet, including whatever other relievers we have in our pen (no matter how excellent they may be) or whatever starter we may still have on the hill in the 8th/9th inning (no matter how much of an awesome ace he may be).
        
        So, while it’s true that Mo is better in save situations than in non-save situations, it’s false that the manager should not bring him into the game in those non-save situations. He should. Because Bad Mo is still better than Good Everyone Else.
        
        JackC
        
        I’m not disputing that so-so Mo is better than anyone else the Yankees can throw out there, but the same recovering-from-shoulder-surgery-so-we-can’t-push-it trope that makes it non-negotiable for Girardi to bring Mo in for 5 outs in Boston the night before suddenly dissolves in a game against the Mets the next night in which he’d have to get 4 outs. That smells a little nervous to me. Either he’s a one inning pitcher or he isn’t. And if you’re going to be inconsistant, the time to gamble a bit with that philosophy is the previous night in Boston in a game with a 2 game differential, not against the Mets. Like, I said, though, I think there’s room for differing opinions, but that was just one example of the many questionable ones Joe makes. What’s odd is that A) I was a pro-Girardi guy initially, and B) I’ve never been a fire the manager guy; I don’t think they make a huge impact either way, but GIrardi’s making me rethink both those positions.
        
        JackC
        
        It struck me that he was trying to relitigate Thursday’s 8th inning in Boston, when he should have brought him in. But who knows – it’s not exactly fair of me to try and read intent there.
      - Greg
        
        Yeah, and they were at home so Mariano would have come in to pitch the 9th anyway in a tie game. With their two best hitters coming up, you want your best reliever in the game there.
        
        I’m sick of this idea that Mariano can only pitch the 9th and he can’t pitch in a tie game. I would have put him into that Boston game where we had a 3-1 lead after Sabathia put 2 men on. Why? Because it was a high leverage situation and Mariano is their best reliever. If you don’t want him pitching more than 1 inning, have Aceves pitch the 9th for the save is a lower leverage situation.
- e mills
  
  what affect does a manager have? To answer that I give you the Colorado Rockies.
  - V
    
    And you’d be looking at a small sample size.
    
    If you honestly believe players play better because the manager changed….
    - JackC
      
      Actually, the players are on record as saying the firing forced them to reevaluate their collective effort.
    - e mills
      
      not only do the players seem to be playing better, but the manager can have all kinds of effects on a team…you think Francona leaves Pedro in for him to blow it? No, neither do I.
      - Mike Pop
        
        In Mr. Baseball starring Tom Selleck, the Japanese team played better when the manager let the team have more fun.
        
        dkidd
        
        ietc
  - ChrisS
    
    I’ve basically always been of the opinion that the manager has a largely neutral effect at best, but can lose games at worst. It’s like golf (it’s really easy to add strokes – lose games – but hell to take them off – win games).
    
    I think the best manager can only win a couple of extra games a year, but could torpedo a franchise for a season, or more, by being a bonehead (e.g., 150 pitches after a rain delay for your 22 year old starter, benching your best player because he would rather take a walk than swing at a 3-2 slider in the dirt, etc.)
owine

Any idea whether or not these days off will be strict days off or if A-Rod may be allowed to pinch hit on those days sometimes?
- Greg
  
  I imagine he’ll be able to pinch hit. With Berroa and Pena both on the roster, one of them could come in to play 3b for him so he doesn’t have to play in the field.
crawdaddie

I think Girardi screwed the pooch in regard to resting Arod. Cashman gave Torre the Joba rules and now it looks like he should have given Girardi the Arod rules.
owine

How much blame should go on A-Rod for pleading his way into the lineup everyday (you know he did) and how much goes to Girardi for listening to him?
- Greg
  
  None. Every player is going to want to play everyday and they should want to. When Jeter hurt his ankle, he wanted to play but Girardi held him out a couple days. Should have done the same with A-Rod.
  - owine
    
    But at a point wouldn’t you expect A-Rod who is rehabbing pretty much still to say “Joe I need a day” or something? I think Jeter’s was an obvious impediment which made it impossible for Girardi not to hold him out. With A-Rod not really showing any demonstrative signs of weakness he only had A-Rod’s word to rely on.
    - Memo
      
      The signs were the struggling along with the fact that the doctors told the Yankees what they should do.
      
      Its not like Phillipon only told A-Rod the recovery process and he kept it from the organization. They knew, they screwed up.
Hova

Wow. John Henry still talking shit. I didn’t know he Twittered again over the weekend with another cheapshot.

“3 ahead of $400m offseason”

I willingly admit I am completely and utterly irrational when it comes to Yankees and Red Sox. I want to beat them every time at any and all costs. I would be more euphoric after beating them in an ALCS then I would beating some random NL team in the world series.

This team cannot finish behind the Red Sox this season. Not after everything ownership has done to help us improve from last year.
- owine
  
  And everyone viamately hated Hank during his short stint of relevance.
JC in NC

Is anyone taking Francona to task for doing the same thing with Mike Lowell…no, don’t think so. Give the guy an occasional day off, maybe run him out there at DH a little more frequently but lets not start warming up the hot seat on Girardi over this, he simply wanted to put the best lineup out there and got a little greedy.
- Hova
  
  And if folk are going to start pushing blame, don’t leave Cashman out of this just because we don’t see him everyday. He should also have been involved if he thought that Girardi was hindering ARod’s recovery to 100%
Pingback: A Day Off a Week for A-Rod
Hova

I think we can all at least agree with what Francesa just said (surprising to hear anything rational from his these days). If Yankees miss playoffs, Girardi and Cashman are gone.
Bo

This day off thing will go away once Girardi realizes he has to play Berroa.
- JackC
  
  I don’t know; he found a way to work Betemit into the line up so often last year you’d swear Betimit had incriminating photos of Girardi hidden away somewhere.
- jsbrendog
  
  but he doent have to pklay berroa. he plays pena
- UWS
  
  Ramiro Pena says hi.