It will be a tremendous comfort to the fans of every other team when Yankees fans drive the best player on their roster out of town because they don’t understand that the WARP-3 of 13.7 is the only reason they got to play in the ALDS in the first place.
I am actually giddy about this possibility. The only thing that will make it better is if Alex hits three home runs in game three, but the Yankees lose anyway, and then Rodriguez openly mocks any attempt to re-sign him in the off season.
If no one wants to hear how bad A-Rod is anymore, let’s just talk about how awesome Indians pitching is instead! 
(The above statement does not count for game 3, because I am not sure if one can consider Jake Westbrook “awesome”)
As a Blue Jays fan, I’m rooting hard for A-Rod to be driven out of town. Without him, the Yankees likely aren’t in the playoffs this year, and unquestionably would have missed the plyoffs in 2005. A Yankees team without A-Rod would be much easier to beat in 2008.
The same bugs were flying around when Fausto Carmona and friends were mowing the Yankee hitters down like grass. Carmona’s hat and face were covered in bugs (they weren’t mosquitoes) and he didn’t throw two wild pitches in one inning. Chamberlain’s a very talented young pitcher, but he’s also young and inexperienced, and Torre was stupid to leave him in as long as he did when he was obviously rattled.
Joe Torre has been stupid, way to often in the post seasons for many years in a row now. He was dumber in the first game when he left the sinkerball pitcher whose sinkerball was not sinking in the game for so damn long.
He also gave Jorge the green light with bases loaded, down a run and a 3-0 count in the same damn inning Thursday night.
To everyone hoping A-Rod will be gone; I think you will get your wish. When A-Rod leaves, the Yanks will have to over pay Mike Lowell to return to the Yanks and over pay Bobby Abreu to remain to avoid losing too much RBI production. This still might be cheaper than A-Rod’s extension.
BTW: We’re not dead yet and A-Rod is not gone yet. We still have a chance.
Jim
My point is that all the whining about A-Rod as a postseason choker betrays a complete ignorance of:
(a) the fact that he has had some excellent postseason performances, and that he has even had some excellent postseason performances for the Yankees.
(b) the fact that, when they play so often, you have to pay attention to the long run. Any players, even the best player in the world (which is, coincidentally, pretty much what A-Rod is) can have 0-6 slumps. Hell, 0-6 is nothing in the big scheme of things. Sure, it wold be preferable for Rodriguez and for Yankee fans if it didn’t come in the postseason, but sometimes shit like that just happens.
Interestingly enough, Rodriguez himself apparently has a better understanding than most of the whiners about how this shit works. In this NYT article from a few days ago, he talks about the upcoming playoffs and his hopes for success.
He realizes that, even in the monster season he’s just completed, there were periods when he had “slumps,” in which he went three or four or five games with virtually no production.
Just looking at his Game Log, i can see places where he went 2-25 (May 9-16), 0-19 (June 30 - July 4), and 0-15 (July 26 - August 1). Does that make him a regular season choker? No. It’s just an understandable aberration that you’ll likely find in any large sample size.
A-Rod had almost 600 at-bats this year. You toss a coin in the air 600 times, and i’ll bet you get at least one sequence (probably more) where you get the same result 10 or 15 times in a row. And tossing a coin is a 50-50 proposition. Even for great baseballers like A-Rod, getting a hit is generally only a 1 in 3 chance.
Nothing wrong with expectations being higher for A-Rod. He is paid a shit-load of money, and the fans have a right to expect good performances from him.
And he’s given it to them. He hit .314 this year, got on base at an average of over 4 times every 10 plate appearances, and slugged .645 with over 50 homers and 85 extra base hits. His on-base average and his slugging percentage were the highest of any season in his awesome career. Hell, even last year when the fans couldn’t stop booing him, he hit .290, OPSed over .900, and hit over 30 homers.
Everyone also seems to have forgotten that A-Rod’s 2004 postseason (he was in a Yankee uniform, remember?) was a very good one. You’d think he was solely responsible for the Yankees’ collapse against the Red Sox, they way some people tell the story.
The more important question: Is it stupid? To which the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Well, he’ll be considered a failure among the morons in the New York fans and media. Those who actually know something about baseball won’t feel that way. As i’ve pointed out, and as other have noted, the Yankees wouldn’t be in the playoffs at all without him. RickJay said “probably,” and he knows more about baseball than i do, but i’m not sure i’d even use the qualifier. If A-Rod hadn’t done what he did this year, the whole Yankees team would already have failed. They never would have even got to step onto Jacob’s Field in October. And the same can be said, even more emphatically for 2005.
No-one cares if Doug Mientkiewicz doesn’t hit? Really? Why is that? After all if Mientkiewicz gets out, the effect on the team’s score is exactly the same as if A-Rod gets out. Not only that, but A-Rod actually plays a difficult defensive position, while Mientkiewicz plays an easy one.
Surely it’s not a question of money. The Yankees have all the money in the world, and it’s not like overpaying players is much of a concern for most Yankee fans. If it were, you’d be asking why you paid Giambi over $22 million for his 83 games, .236 BA and .433 slugging this year. Or even whether it was worth paying Johnny Damon $13 million to hit like Scott Brosius and throw like Bernie Williams.
By your “has a World Series ring” standard for success and failure, Craig Counsell (career .257/.343/.347) is a success, but A-Rod is a failure. I know which one of those guys i’d prefer on my baseball team—in any situation.
Not sure why i’m investing so much effort in this. I don’t even like A-Rod. He seems to be something of a dick. But he’s not paid to be a good guy, he’s paid to play baseball, and if the Orioles announced tomorrow that they had signed him, i’d be a very happy camper.
It would also deny fans in Seattle the pleasure of booing him and throwing Monopoly money.
Buh bye, Cubs. I think it’s pretty clear why they were an 85-win team. What a waste of everyone’s time.
It’s a shame that the Cubs couldn’t do what the Cards managed last year and play above their regular season form. I was rooting for them to win the NL, but i knew it wasn’t especially likely, even though anything can happen in a short series.
The Phillies-Rockies situation is pretty exciting right now. 1-1 in the 7th.
Final Score: Rockies 2, Phillies 1
Rockies Sweep the Phillies! On to Arizona Thursday.
Will they move up the League Series if all division series are sweeps?
I suspect TBS is beginning to feel burnt by this. If Yanks and Angels lose tomorrow, their investment is going to look pretty bad. I am rooting for both teams to win, but not for TBS’ sake.
Sure, I give credit to the other players who were able to ignore the bugs, including the batters who faced Chamberlain. But you take the bugs out of the picture, and Joba makes even one or two of the pitches he missed on, and the Yankees would have won the game. (Assuming everything else played out the same.)
It was interesting to see the contrast between Joba and Rivera. Mo acted as if the bugs weren’t even there. He was on some other plane.
The yankees players trying to spin this as some sort of home town advantage to the Indians is bizarre. A guy getting rattled by little harmless bugs is a personal failing.
Obviously. the Yankees SHOULD bring A-Rod back. Yes, he’s a jerk, but there are LOTS of bigger jerks than him in baseball, and there aren’t many guys who’ve ever been able to put up numbers like his.
My hunch (and that’s all it is- Alex rarely consults with me or tells me his plans), he’s not going anywhere. There are no other teams that can afford to pay him MORE than he’s making now, and Boras is going to demand a lot more than he’s making now.
And A-Rod is ALL about money. He proved that when he went tomTexas.
I don’t think so … the schedules are set by MLB, and I don’t think they’re going to change anything for the LCSes, because the dates for the World Series are pretty much set in stone.
My Dodgers shit the bed but I am having fun watching the Rockies. The son of one of my co-workers plays for them so the whole office is rooting them on. The NL is crazy this year.
Do you know if their contract to show the Divisional Series is a flat rate, or if it is pro-rated on a per-game basis?
Personally, i still think that something as big as the baseball playoffs should be on free-to-air television. I don’t think you should need to have cable to watch the postseason.
I really don’t know, but I have the strong impression from Sports Talk Radio that they buy the package for a lump sum. As they are often wrong, I would not bet on this impression.
Jim
I don’t know if this has been posted… but chaos in Yankee land is a GOOD thing! What an egotistical ass!
Wow, George is back to his old form. Foolish posturing and weak threats. At least he wants A-Rod back.
Threatening umpires that are retiring, George is still a fool. Feels like old times.
Jim
Almost a simulpost. I posted a rant in The Pit (King)George Steinbrenner! You are a total asshole. - The BBQ Pit - Straight Dope Message Board about Steinbrenner’s statements.
I would assume, if you wish to Pit Steinbrenner, you can post to my thread.
**I don’t mean to take away from others who posted here. Just apologizing for having posted something similar in a close timeframe.