A - Bombs

The bottom line with A-Rod is the number of rings on his fingers. Zero. Nil. Nada. And Yankees fans know that.

Does anyone believe it's a coincidence that the Rangers got good when A-Rod left, and that the Yankees haven't won it since A-Rod arrived? I don't.

 

King, the Yankees hadn't won a World Series ring for three years before A-Rod showed up. I doubt you will blame those ringless years on A-Rod.

The Yankees lack of rings has to do with one thing: pitching.

Now, onto Boom's incredibly stupid post...

A-Rod was the player of the month in May. Had he not played well then, the Yankees would not have held their heads above water.

Secondly, A-Rod won the MVP last season by having an unbelievable stretch at the end of last season. It was a stretch that kept them ahead of Boston. And during that stretch, and in particular that final series against Boston, A-Rod came up bigger than David Ortiz. If you take A-Rod's production out, it is possible that the Yankees don't even make the playoffs.

Third, let's go back just a few weeks to Yankees playing the Red Sox in Boston. The Yankees were up by a few runs and A-Rod hits a blast. The Red Sox make a big push towards the end of the game by achieving runs in bunches. The end result was A-Rod's home run winning the game.

Fourth, let's go back just a week or two before then when A-Rod hit a single up the middle to take the lead against the Royals in a late inning. Rivero closes the door and the Yankees win. Sure, it is the Royals, but it was still a game winning hit in the latter part of the game.

That, in short, is what makes the starting post of this thread so stupid. It is called being short sighted. It is all about "What did you do for me now?" It is fan bullshit like this that has other people looking in and saying, "Yankee fans are a bunch of toolbelts."

 

Anyone outside of NY who believed ARod should have been MVP over Ortiz last year need his/her head examined.

The ARod supporters said his HR in a close Sox-Yankees game a few weeks ago proved he was clutch. Sure he was. It was 7-1 or something like that when he went yard and the Sox came back in the final innings to make the score close. If it was 7-6, he would have whiffed or grounded meekly to short and then pulled that "I hope the camera is on me so people can see me grimace and chomp my gun as I prove how disappointed I am" look. Guaranteed.

Edit: Pastor Crass proves my point above with the "...but the Sox make a big push with a bunch of runs late" note. Thanks pal!

 

To be fair, the Yankees haven't won anything of note since 2000. The biggest problem is that Steinbrenner became star-crazed. Winning wasn't enough, he had to have the marquee names on his team. And, to a certain extent, it's worked. They sell out every home game. They sell out on the road. But, in the playoffs, there are too many chiefs and not enough indians. They can't--or won't--hit and run, steal a base or sacrifice themselves to get a runner over. The pitching is old, overpriced and save for Hughes (not sold on Wang) there's no one coming up that can be the next great Yankee starting pitcher. Finally, the most important Yankee, Mariano Rivera, is 36 years old. He can't pitch forever. Who replaces him? Why didn't they draft Craig Hansen last year? He would have been a set-up guy this year and could have been the Yankees' closer by 2008.

 

likely more of the latter, the point i was making was they've resisted trading guys like wang and cano.

 

I'm not sure how much of it is resistance, though. The only prospects that other organizations are interested in are Wang, Cano and Hughes.

 

While he was in Texas, A-Rod's RISP batting average barely tickled the Mendoza line much of the time. A big reason why he's now in pinstripes. King of the empty stats.

Well, that and 25 million other reasons.

 

it's probably a combination of both, less of the resistance and lack of the farm system depth. but in 2002 or 2003, wang and cano would have been traded.

 

That's true Crass, but what about Texas getting better when A-Rod left? And the Yankees have been to a pair of Series since 2000, both of which came pre-ARod.

Texas finished last in 2003 while the Yankees went to the Series. A-Rod swapped teams. Here's how Texas has done since then:

2004: 89-73, third, three GB
2005: 79-83, third. (Not good but a lot better than A-Rod's last two years in Texas)
2006: 35-32, second, 1/2 GB.

New York: Three World Series from 2000-2003. Since A-Rod's arrival, zero WS.

I'm not questioning A-Rod as a great player. He is. But I think there's a reason Texas is better off and New York hasn't been to the Series since his arrival.

 

To me, ARod is the ultimate fantasy baseball player. He will put up monster, jaw-dropping numbers. But he's not the guy that will help your team win a meaningful game or series.

 

...and Duncan. Thus, you have 4-top prospects if you don't consider Melky Cabrera one.

Sorry, but that isn't a "barren" minor league.

Texas hasn't made the playoffs after A-Rod left. Right now they are in the lead, but it isn't a given that they will hold on.

Texas has gotten better because their young players are beginning to come into their own and they have Buck Showalter managing them.

False. Ortiz would still not be able to catch if you used a tennis ball and lobbed it to him underhanded and he was wearing a fucking velcro mit. The guy is one-dimensional. (Yes, he is very good at that one-dimension but he can't be counted on to save the game with his glove.)

A-Rod demonstrated, last year, that he was damn good at the position. He would make stops that would prevent the extra runs from scoring which in turn kept games closer. (This year, he's accumulated a few errors but I think that is part of the mental factor of him pressing at the plate.)

The final was 7-6. When he hit the home run in Fenway, the score was 4-1. His homer added the three runs. No other Yankees seemed to get a hit late in that game to extend the lead.

The homer wasn't incredibly "clutch" but it was a homer that pushed them into a lead that Boston couldn't take over.

Besides, when the great Manny Ramirez was up last night, twice, he did nothing. Why is no one saying he isn't clutch?

 

The guy's a career .258 hitter in the minor with a disturbing lack of power. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/D/eric-duncan.shtml That doesn't scream "potential star" to me.