Archive for Alex Rodriguez
That’s never happened before
Posted by: | CommentsUpdate: Once again, Baggarly is wrong. Thanks to commenter Alex for pointing it out. After escalators, Manny Ramirez was the highest paid player in 2004 and won the World Series. That’s twice now for Baggarly.
Because baseball loves its stats, and because the Elias Sports Bureau keeps every stat imaginable, we often hear off-beat statistical happenings. Player A is hitting .345 in the second half in night games, for instance. We also get historical milestones, such as, Player B was the first Panama-born player to record six straight outs in Game 6 of the World Series. Of the many that surfaced this year regarding the Yankees, one got more airtime than others: no team has won a World Series with a 35-year-old shortstop since 1955. Sure enough, it happened again in 2009.
The 2009 Yankees had another first-time-in-a-long-time milestone as well. According to Andrew Baggarly*, the last time the World Series champions also had the highest paid player in the game was the ‘86 Mets. They had Gary Carter at $2.8 million, less than a tenth of A-Rod’s 2009 salary. All of this is a friendly reminder to not think that just because something hasn’t happened in a while that there’s some causal reason for it.
Hat tip to Pinto for the pointers.
* I will never be able to hear Baggarly’s name and not think back to this report. He ran with an unconfirmed rumor that “Sabathia has declined the Yankees’ six-year, $140 million offer.” While that might have technically been true — Sabathia ended up signing for more — it was just horrible timing on Baggarly’s part. Cashman flew to San Francisco that very night and got to work on Sabathia’s contract.
The October (and November) of A-Rod
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the more obvious stories this October involved the redemption of Alex Rodriguez. Unfairly labeled a choker during the Yanks’ futile playoff runs over the last five seasons, A-Rod responded with an October for the ages. He hit .365/.500/.808 over 68 plate appearances with six home runs and 18 RBIs. He was probably the overall MVP of the playoffs, and the coverage has examined A-Rod’s complex relationship with, well, everyone.
In The Times, William Rhoden penned an excellent column on the redemption of A-Rod. After some shocking steroid revelations and Spring Training hip surgery, A-Rod was the black sheep of New York. But, as the narrative goes, he put that past behind him, toned down his Me-First approach to baseball and emerged a true team player.
Rhoden though questions those assumptions and that narrative. He points fingers at his fellow writers and reporters and wonders who exactly is responsible for the rehab of A-Rod.
Some speculated that it was the finality of his divorce, others that it was the tearful February news conference in Tampa with teammates looking on. Still others said the author of Rodriguez’s renaissance was Kate Hudson.
But A-Rod is not the one who has changed. He is the same guy. The Yankees’ lineup has changed. The addition of Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher have made A-Rod more effective. The addition of the no-nonsense pitcher C. C. Sabathia and the effective A. J. Burnett has made the Yankees a tougher team over all.
The new view of Rodriguez is, on one level, a media-driven fan transformation that reached a peak heading into the postseason, when he suddenly began succeeding where he previously had failed.
Everyone loves redemption stories, but this transformation is more about fans’ desire to have a winning team than one man’s sea change. What’s troubling about the transformation story is that the root of it is winning. For all of our new, exciting ways of delivering games, one thing has remained constant: performance trumps just about everything. When it leads to profits, performance trumps everything.
Says Rhoden, “His clutch performances and now a championship have changed minds and attitudes.” He ends with quite the kicker as he wonders if A-Rod — formerly A-Fraud — was the phony or if the fans were or if the reporters were. It’s a question with no real answer, but I believe Rhoden speaks to the reporters and the talk radio hosts who kept pursuing the A-Fraud story and the fans who would boo him.
Today, Tyler Hissey at MVN’s Around the Majors began to answer Rhoden’s question. He eviscerated a Bill Madden column from February. The Daily News scribe alleged that for the Yanks to “remain true” to the organization’s “relentless pursuit of championships and the fierce protection of their brand,” in the wake of his steroid revelations, “they have no choice but to sever ties with Rodriguez.”
From an economics point of view, it never made sense to doubt A-Rod, and from a practical point of view, the Yankees weren’t going to cut ties with him. That doesn’t stop people such as Madden or Mike Francesa from blowing smoke. That doesn’t stop fans from booing him on an 0-for-4 day and toasting him after a six-home run effort en route to a World Series title.
Once upon a time, the narrative ruled A-Rod too expensive, too self-centered, too into his stats to win a World Series. Now that he has, A-Rod will just work toward his legacy. He has his ring; he has his championship; he has his great clutch October; and he has his fans. The Yankees have him now and for eight more seasons. For that, I will cheer him in redemption as I cheered him all year and since 2004.
He deserved it
Posted by: | CommentsMy father said many times that A-Rod would never win a title with the Yankees. At 4:11 EST on the morning of the Yankees’ 27th championship, I’d like to rub it in.
About pinch running for A-Rod last night…
Posted by: | Comments…Dave Cameron at FanGraphs thinks Joe Girardi’s crazy. He says that Girardi took A-Rod “out of a game that could have easily gone to extra innings for something like a one percent improvement in his odds of scoring,” but bases that on raw stolen base numbers (among some other things). A-Rod’s a smart baserunner with good speed despite his hip issue, but Freddy Guzman is way, way faster. He’s Gardner fast. He’d smoke A-Rod in a foot race, and at that point in the game, that’s what it’s all about.
Considering the situation, the focus has to be getting that run across. That’s it, nothing else. There’s already two outs in the ninth, so there’s zero margin of error. There’s no point in worrying about the 10th or 11th or 15th inning when you’re not in a position to get there. If Fast Freddy scores on a Matsui double or a wild pitch when Swisher was up, then no one has a problem with the move. That was one of those rare times in a baseball game when you have to put all your eggs in one basket, and getting that run across is by far the most important thing to do at that point. I can’t believe people are upset about this.
A-Rod, the playoffs, and small sample sizes
Posted by: | CommentsCritics of Alex Rodriguez took much enjoyment in pointing to his substandard postseason stats, noting that he hit just .159 in his last three postseason series prior to this year’s ALDS. However, as Jack Moore shows at FanGraphs writes, sometimes the sample size just isn’t big enough to conclude someone sucks in the postseason. At the same time, we must also acknowledge that one scorching hot series doesn’t mean someone’s got the monkey off their back and has transformed into a payoff god. I’m not going to bet against him, are you?
A-Rod might not need second surgery
Posted by: | CommentsWhen Alex Rodriguez found out that he needed hip surgery this March, he faced two options. He could have a comprehensive surgery and miss four to five months, or he could have a less serious procedure and miss about two. He opted for the latter so he could help his team in May rather than in July. The decision paid off, as the Yankees hit their stride once A-Rod returned to the lineup.
One consequence of the less comprehensive surgery was that Alex would have to undergo another procedure after the season. But Alex has progressed so well this season that his doctor, Mark Philippon, thinks that he might be able to avoid that surgery.
“At this point in time, based on my clinical exam and what I saw in batting practice, I need [to do] a little more tests,” Philippon said. “But so far, I don’t think he will need surgery. . . . Clinically, we can’t be more pleased.”
Philippon said that Rodriguez’s hip was at about 75 to 80 percent when he returned in May, but is near 100 percent today. Avoiding the second surgery would be a big boost for Alex, who not only would avoid another invasive procedure, but would also avoid another long rehab regimen. The Yankees will be glad to have a fresh A-Rod in Spring Training next February.
Time for A-Rod to turn around playoff slump
Posted by: | CommentsThe past three postseasons have been rough on Alex Rodriguez. The Yankees haven’t won a series and Alex, their best hitter, hasn’t contributed much. It’s a recipe for press disaster. Take a player who puts up gaudy numbers, combine it with a little postseason failure, and in just a few short seasons you have a half-baked “he can’t hit in the postseason” narrative. It’s one that will haunt Alex Rodriguez until he earns a ring.
The narrative is, in some ways, helpful. It’s helpful, for instance, to the enraged fan who needs a scapegoat. The Yankees fielded good teams from 2005 through 2007, enough to win the division twice and the Wild Card in the other (a season in which they had the best second-half record in baseball). But when the calendar flipped to October, the Yankees faltered, and A-Rod was at the center of it.
The 2005 season was a strange one. The Yankees had infamously started 11-19, but thanks to a Tino Martinez home run tear and some lucky pitching maneuvers, the Yankees rallied back to win the AL East on the season’s penultimate day. Their first round opponents that year were the Anaheim Angels, the team that knocked them out of the 2002 playoffs in just four games.
Alex strode to the plate 23 times, but collected only two hits, as many as Bubba Crosby. He did draw six walks, but after a first round exit that’s no consolation to the grieving, possibly perturbed, fan. The further we get from the series, the easier it is to reflect and say: You know what? Alex made as many outs that series as Derek Jeter (15). Yes, Jeter hit two homers and recorded seven hits to one walk — he clearly had the better series. The point is that it wasn’t all bad for Alex, though at the time all blame came back to him*.
* And Randy Johnson, and Gary Sheffield or Bubba Crosby…
It didn’t seem possible, but things were actually worse in 2006. The powerhouse Yankees offense, in which Robinson Cano batted ninth, annihilated the Detroit Tigers in Game 1, The slaughter came in the third inning, when the first six Yankees reached safely. Jason Giambi, the fifth, hit a two-run homer to make the score 5-0. Alex followed with a single. It would be his only hit of the series. The only other time he reached was when he was hit by a pitch. The saga ended when Joe Torre penciled him into the eight spot in the lineup, ahead of only Melky Cabrera.
It wasn’t always this way for A-Rod. He started off his postseason career well enough, going 9 for 29 in his first two series (1997 and 2000 ALDS). Then he broke out in the 2000 ALCS against the Yankees. he went 9 for 22 with two homers and two doubles, a standout, along with John Olerud, among a mostly stagnant Mariners offense. Even the great Edgar Martinez was held in check that series. Alex did all he could, but when guys like David Bell (4 for 18) and Mike Cameron (2 for 18) are getting plenty of at bats, it just isn’t enough.
A trip to Texas cost Alex three years of playoff time, but when he returned to October with the Yankees in 2004, it was like he’d been practicing for that moment since 2000. He led the team with eight hits and three doubles, and struck out only once. Through the first three games of the 2004 ALCS he was 6 for 14 with two doubles and a homer. In Game 4 he launched a two-run homer in the third to give the Yanks an early lead. To that point, life as a Yankee in the postseason was going great for Alex Rodriguez.
He wouldn’t hit another homer until Game 4 of the 2007 ALDS, in the bottom of the seventh, with the Yankees already down 6-2 and eight outs from elimination. He hadn’t hit well to that point in the series, picking up just two hits in the first three games. After such a magnificent season, A-Rod had again struggled in the playoffs. Not as badly as in 2006, and not even as badly as in 2005. But the Yankees had lost, and A-Rod was nowhere to be found.
My father thinks that A-Rod’s defining moment as a Yankee came in the eighth inning of Game 5. Two innings prior Derek Jeter had doubled home three runs, giving the Yanks a 4-2 lead. Miguel Cairo led off the top of the eighth with a double, and Derek Jeter bunted him to third. Of all the possible results in that situation, A-Rod got the second worst: he struck out (lining into a double play would obviously be the worst). He didn’t even put the ball in play to give Cairo a chance to score. While I disagree that it was his defining moment, there’s no denying that he’s been in a massive postseason slump ever since.
Will 2009 be the year of A-Rod? Or will he again slump when it counts the most? We won’t know until this thing gets underway. The good news: we know that the people who say “he can’t hit in the playoffs” are wrong. He can, and he has. Lately, he hasn’t. I guess “he hasn’t hit in the playoffs lately” doesn’t have quite the same ring as “he can’t hit in the playoffs.”
