Them’s fightin’ words. :0
In my team’s defense, lots of teams spend tons of money and still wind up sucking. No one ever criticizes those teams for high payrolls.
And yes, I do support salary caps. But until that happens, there is nothing wrong with the Yankees wanting the best team they can get.
Sure, if the shortstop is standing directly between 2nd and 3rd base…which never happens (unless the infield is “playing in” because of a potential tying or winning run standing on 3rd…Shortstops play closer to the outfield grass than they do in the baseline (possibly a few steps “in” when in double play depth).
Plus a third baseman’s range is typically limited to just a few feet to his right or left…a shortstop will consistently make plays and throws to first from the outfield grass, moving either to his right OR left…
Really, a-rod should be at short, but I see why they don’t want to “tip the apple cart”…
Typically,the best arm and range fielder is your SS.3rd has always been the "old man’s"SS,or the one without the range/arm of the SS.
Arm?A goodly amount of SS’s throws are off a back foot falling away from the play,3b usually has those feet planted for leverage,due to the limited field he’s covering.Field limited to his usual station near the bag,while the SS roams further back to make plays to his right or left.
IOW,your infield’s star.That’s what I don’t get in the ARod thing.No vanity?He’s that humble?Or maybe willing to take an easier job? Why not just DH?Play til he’s 50 
Back to the original question - I think it sucks, but can’t really be upset at anyone, because it seems to be a win-win situation for both teams (Yanks/Rangers). Blame the system? Not really sure about that either…Georgey is going to spend his money to win, and many fans would love that in their owner. Granted, George has the most amount of money to spend, but at least some of it is going to be included in the revenue sharing (because they are so far over the luxury tax). What I want to know is where is A-Rod going to hit in the order? 3rd? 4th? In front of or behind Giambi (or Sheffield (or someone else??)…also, what number will he wear (his #3 is sort of already taken by Babe Ruth, so…)
Baseball is a fine example of the saying that you can use statistics to prove anything. :rolleyes:
By the way, the players’ union has already signed off on the deal. And Selig just did, too. Despite that execrable “best interests of the game argument,” it would be blatant favoritism to say ‘nah, it’s bad for baseball for the Yankees to make a trade that obeys all the rules, because they’re the Yankees.’ Bud’s a bad enough commish as is, he’d be even worse if he started taking the law into his own hands. This is good for A-Rod, Texas and NY. He does say he doesn’t want to see this kind of thing often.
That argument particularly doesn’t hold water because the other changes to Yankee lineup - losing Boone, Soriano, and Henson - mean that according to the Times, the team’s payroll only increases by $750,000.
Makes sense to me that he’ll probably hit third. The Times guess is that it will go Lofton, Jeter, Rodriguez, Giambi, Sheffield, Bernie, Posada, Matsui, and whoever plays second at ninth.
Yankee stadium can be frustrating for right hand hiters. And guess what PayRod is?
His stats for last year
____G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
Home 81 309 67 97 13 2 26 71 43 66 8 1 .314 .407 .621 1.029
Away 80 298 57 84 17 4 21 47 44 60 9 2 .282 .384 .577 .961
His average dropped 32 points when he wasn’t at home, as well as the drop in OBP and SLG home and away. Although he will probably continue to be a great player, his stats will probably decrease next year as he will be away from Arlington which is a hitter park.
So what did Mr. Soriano do last year
____G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS
Home 79 329 52 90 17 3 15 42 19 58 19 3 .274 .325 .480 .805
Away 77 353 62 108 19 2 23 49 19 72 16 5 .306 .350 .567 .917
So the prediction is that Soriano will benefit and be a better player in Texas.
From what I can see, this trade does not benefit the Yankees as much as they would like you to think. The best thing for them to do is have PayRod play SS and move Jeter over to 2nd base. They have signed some decent 3rd basemen in the offseason, let one of them do their job. But since it doesn’t look like King George will do that, the Yankees won’t get the full benefit of this move.
But I find it a little mean that this trade went thru but an almost identical trade to Boston was nixed by the Players Union as well a Selig. I think the Boston fans have a case for calling foul.
I believe that the proposed trade with Boston called for A-Rod’s contract to be restructured, and that he would be paid less money, which is why the deal was killed by MLB.
The Boston fans have nobody to cry foul to other than John Henry. Had he wanted to adopt a ‘damn the torpedoes’ attitude like King George, then A-Rod would have found himself in Fenway. Tough cookies. They had not one, but two deadlines to make a deal, and they didn’t.
Boston’s deal was rejected because they basically asked Rodriguez to drop $28 million from his contract in exchange for nothing. The union found that unacceptable. The Yankees worked it out.
The difference between what Boston was willing to pay and what the Yankers are paying is approx $20 mil.
Some of the complicated money terms are in thisESPN article
So yes it isn’t exactly the same, but for the love that PayRod could have received playing for Boston vs just being one of the crowd is world apart. He could have been loved and adored in Boston but he once again went where the $$$ was.
Note: I am NOT a Boston fan, but I do love baseball and am always appalled when King George makes a move that isn’t good for the game which IMO this isn’t. Now you might ask why could this have been trade good for Boston, I think it would have been fun for baseball fans to see a fair competitive race in the AL East.
Don’t forget that the ball gets to the 3rd baseman quicker than it will to the SS. It’s a well known fact that the SS has, or at least should have the best arm in the infield. You should also look at how they compare at turning double plays.
You’re right.
That’s why it’s better for A-Rod to move to SS. Jeter’s problem defensively is that he’s got a crappy first step. To stick him at third would be suicidal, since the ball gets there so much faster. You’d be moving him from just a defensive liability at short to a huge defensive liability at 3rd. Whereas with Rodriguez you go from a good defensive shortstop to a pretty good defensive third baseman (my guess as to how it will turn out).
The Yanks made the right move. Unfortunately.
deb, A-Rod was okay with the deal. It was the Players’ Union that rejected it.
Great comparison of the two with the home/away stats - that was great… plus, playing in New York affects people differently - look at how much Giambi’s numbers dropped, and he’s LEFT - handed.
You guys mean that when the coach told me to play third because of my arm, that he wasn’t speaking highly of me? I think going to your right and firing to first from foul territory is a lot tougher throw than any that a shortstop makes. The shortstop has less time because the ball takes longer to get to him but he makes a shorter throw. The third baseman gets the ball quicker but often has to throw across the diamond. Plus the shortstop gets a lot of little flips to second that the third baseman doesn’t. I would put my stronger armed infielder at third, unless the stronger armed is also the most athletic and agile, in which case I’d put him at short.
Well, I’ll never be convinced that a throw from shortstop is shorter than a throw from third (unless maybe it’s a little league field).
And I’m not real sure what percentage of throws a 3rd baseman makes to first from foul territory, but I’m guessing that it’s not real high.
The division will be won or lost on pitching, and IMO the Bosox are still ahead in that regard. A-Rod will help the Yankees substantially, but I still think Boston can be considered the favorite to win the AL East - at the very least they are still highly competitive.
YEAHH!!!
Okay, just had to get that off my chest. I just watched A Rod don the pinstripes. And wow, boy did it feel good to see that. (A hell of a lot better than seeing Sheffield put the uniform on) Now obviously I’m somewhat biased as a Yankee fan in thinking this is a great trade, but there are some reasons that this trade makes good sense bot only for the teams and players involved, but for baseball in general.
A Rod will benefit. Moving to the Yankees removes the pressure of carrying his team from his shouders. Being a part of such a great lineup allows him to just be one of the guys. A sentiment he repeated not a few times at the press conference. Let loose from the burdern of carrying a mediocre team (which he did admirably) it just makes sense that he will put up even better stats as a Yankee. I even think that the move to 3rd will spur him to work even harder.
Soriano benefits. I don’t have access to the stats, but I’m willing to bet that playing in Arlington will really help boost Soriano’s already impressive numbers. It’s a better park for him to hit in. I think his moving away from the harsh spotlight of New York will allow him to develop at a better pace for him. The media here was especialy harsh on him after this postseason.
The Yankees benefit. They added the reigning MVP of the American league to their team. And they have him for the next 7 seasons. AND they have him for not much more money than they had been paying out to everyone on their payroll a month ago.
The Rangers benefit. Freed from an unwieldy contract that prevented them from building a championship caliber bullpen they can now move forward and continue developing what should be a very goood team in a few years.
Baeball benefits. This trade leapfrogged into that realm of story that changes the world’s perception of the game. Think I’m overstaing the case? How many people in America heard about the David Beckham to Real Madrid trade two years back? The whole world heard about that trade as as a result the whole world spent a little more time thinking about soccer/football. Nowadays the only thing that matters is getting people’s attention. This is that kind of trade. when the news of it broke over the weekend it immediately shadowed everything else that happened (Daytona 500, NBA All-star Game, John Daly winning the Buick, hell even presidential politics took a backseat to this story). Now everyone is wondering how this new Yankees team will mesh and almost everyone has a pretty strong opinion about this trade. I bet you’ll see attendance rise all over the league because everyone will be talking about baseball this summer. All because of this trade.
And I haven’t even started on the drama inherent in the Red Sox angle. (snicker, poor suckers…)
With regards to the distance of the throws of the third baseman and the shortstop, there are some throws that the ss makes that are longer. However, IMO the third baseman has one particular throw, when he’s a few feet beyond third base, and a few feet into foul territory, that is longer than any throw that a ss may make.
As a Mariners fan I recal when A-Rod was called upon–I believe to sub, temporarily, at SS. The kid was good, a blast to watch, and the following year he learned how to hit. Bugged me to hear he left the Ms for money (he’s persona non grata in The Emerald City these days). But he’s not from “moss land” so what would keep him? So now he’s playing for a team in his home town. I couldn’t be happier for him, he’s still a damn fine player and deserves to be paid whatever anyone is willing to pay him.
And so what if the Yankees “buy” talent? There are more than a team’s-worth of outstanding players in the game. I have to live with The Rockies as a home team now, but if they are a sorry bunch of losers I can’t blame NY. I CAN blame the Rockies management for 1) not developing current players 2) acquiring new talent and 3) not buying hot players.
Baseball is full of crybabies (boo-hho salary caps, boo-hoo too much pitch on the bat, boo-hoo the fans are too loud & keep hitting me with beer bottles, boo-hoo we can’t beat the Yankees because they are a team of supermen) who just can’t deal with someone being a TON better of a player than they are. Maybe things would improve if some new rules regarding the usage of the bat were introduced.
I cannot find the exact quote but I am sorta sure I read it in the LATimes, so I am gonna have to paraphrase. Cashman said that they learned from the Boston rejection that a trade for ARod would have to be done quietly because the more open it was the more chance there was for the union and press to kill the deal.
From this I read between the lines that Cashman thinks the Boston/PayRod deal might have gone thru if it had been less public during the negotiation states of the deal.