No, he wouldn't. But when a team fails in the playoffs, you don't start looking for the reasons at the bottom of the pay scale, you start at the top. You pay guys based on their performance. Are you going to blame a guy who sucked in the regular season when he sucks in the playoffs? Of course not. Do you point the finger at your middle pay scale and give the big ticket players a pass? Of course not. When you examine why you are getting knocked out of the playoffs, you look at two things; 1. Who had the biggest performance drop-off in the playoffs? 2. Who are we the most heavily invested in and did we get value for our money in the playoffs? That doesn't mean A-Rod is alone in the blame....but the blame STARTS with him because HE is the guy making all the money and supposedly the most productive. You move on to other players afterward, but you sure as hell don't excuse him because he plays so well in the regular season, and blame the rest of the team first.
I hope you don't mean the Yankees... They stuck to their guns, A Rod came back hat in hand, and they took away some of Boras' power... They come out looking good in all this IMO
The entire league benefits from this deal because of Boras losing power.... too bad some can't see that... However I fully expect A Rod to be beaned at least 9 times when he faces Boston pitching this year
Seriously, if you have nothing but trash to offer to this thread, why don't you just opt to not participate?
Absolutely fair. So why aren't more people ripping Wang? He went from legit Cy Young candidate, and just a few outs shy of a no-hitter, to an ERA over 19 in the Cleveland series. Talk about a performance dropoff. Where was the team's second-highest paid player in the Cleveland series? You know, Jason Giambi. Why isn't he getting any blame, if we're going to talk about return on investment? How about the next highest paid, Derek Jeter? Can anyone say GIDP? Or maybe the next guy, Mussina, who fell out of a starting rotation that at one point included Chase Wright, Tyler Clippard, and Kei Igawa. We're talking about a group of guys here that make enough to field an entire team in some cities. But since ARod makes a few million more, he gets the most blame? That's ridiculous. Imagine what would happen to Boston if just Ortiz and Manny stopped hitting, and Beckett was just average. Do you seriously think you'd have even made it past Cleveland? That's only 3 guys. The Yankees had 9 doing that at a time. But yeah, it must be ARod's fault.
I wish A-rod would play like that in the postseason...also i've never blamed him for losing I understand its a team game and the pitching has been horrible. However I would like to see some production from him...because he's getting paid so much and he is "the best player in baseball". In all my post in this thread I've never blamed him for losing (choking yes). Also paying him that kind of money into his 40's is crazy.
Okay, that's a bit more fair. He has performed in October though. Just not up to expectations the past few years. He showed signs of breaking out this October though. It just didn't appear as big because there was no one on base to drive in, and we got spanked all over the place. We all, even his biggest supporters, want him to hit better in the playoffs. We all know he's capable of it. Asking for more production is fair, which you're doing. It's those who think he should win it by himself that are ridiculous. As for paying him into his 40s, it makes sense. Even if we assume that a few years from now he no longer hits like a phenom, he should still be able to post 35-40 HRs as a DH. He will surely break Bonds' record while under this contract. That's a HUGE revenue stream for the Yankees, as everyone under the sun will be tuning in to see him do it.
We had teams like that in the past, when Mo Vaughn and Jose Canseco went 0-fer in the playoffs. Those stats made it impossible to look past them to the rest of the team, becasue they were the "big guns"....so I understand where you are coming from. I also think a lot of it is the whole free agency, Boras thing that adds fuel to the A-Rod fire.
I found this *stat* very interesting “Since Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS — the night Boston began its epic comeback from three games down against the Yankees — (Alex) Rodriguez has come to the plate with 38 runners on base, over the span of 59 at-bats. He left every single one on base, going 0-for-27, right through the Yanks’ Division Series loss to Cleveland this month.” http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/01/the-most-amazing-stat-youll-ever-see/
Unless we have a depression, I'll bet 27 million a year seems rather average 10 years from now. In fact he may not even be the highest player on the Yankees next year if we get Santana. Think about that.
That's the biggest problem. Plus the image the media (especially the NY Post, the dishrag that it is,) has given ARod to the general public.
Assessing the fallout Winners and losers from short-lived A-Rod Derby http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/john_donovan/11/15/winners.losers/index.html?eref=T1
Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees have agreed to the outline of a $275 million, 10-year contract, a deal that potentially would allow him to earn millions more if he sets the career home-run record. The amount of the guaranteed money was revealed by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn't been finalized. A-Rod met Wednesday in Tampa, Fla., with the Steinbrenner brothers but the parameters of the deal were set in place last weekend. "Yeah, I could say that," Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said. "The meeting was a final get-together. He wanted to make sure myself and my brother knew that he was sincere and serious." The Yankees still must draft the agreement with Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras.
A-Rod - yankees Agree... NEW YORK (AP) -Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees have agreed to the outline of a $275 million, 10-year contract, a deal that potentially would allow him to earn millions more if he sets the career home-run record. The amount of the guaranteed money was revealed by a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn't been finalized. A-Rod met Wednesday in Tampa, Fla., with the Steinbrenner brothers but the parameters of the deal were set in place last weekend. "Yeah, I could say that,'' Yankees senior vice president Hank Steinbrenner said. "The meeting was a final get-together. He wanted to make sure myself and my brother knew that he was sincere and serious.'' The Yankees still must draft the agreement with Rodriguez's agent, Scott Boras.
pfft..just posted that in the other thread. I didn't see that as worthy of a new thread as there is still no deal. I am curious about one thing though. They say they reached the deal last weekend. When was the first day teams could talk to FAs and does that even matter if the player approaches the team? Oh, wait, he was THEIR FA so they could talk to them anytime they wanted.
