A-Rod Watch 2007

Murrell, this is exactly what I was saying at the beginning of this thread. "Clutchness" is subjective. Each person is going to interpret it in a different way.

That said, I thought his first homer was pretty clutch, though obviously nowhere near what a bottom of the ninth, two out, bases loaded, two strikes situation is.

Here's the thing. You're gauging the overall "clutchness" of any given game for him. This is a double-edged sword in regard to yesterday. Had he never come up in the ninth, I would have argued that he still had a clutch day. He hit that first homer to give the Yankees their first lead. If you remember, we discussed that it should still be considered clutch if he brings the team to at least within one. He did that early in the game.

Had he come up in the ninth, as he did, and failed, then it probably would have negated the first home run, though I would argue that he still performed better than expected for the day (at least in terms of those fans who love Torre but refuse to give Alex a chance.) He definitely would have been a media goat today though, and as a result, would probably have been booed to no end today (by those same fans.)

Fortunately for him, and the team, he came up and got the job done yesterday when it mattered the most.

 

That's the same way I feel about the Mets. I may not be a fan, but I still want guys to be successful here.

 

So, this didn't make the national article on the game but it was on the yankee site. I guess this was Torre's way to try and make up for hanging him out to dry last year.

"Torre has been steadfast in his belief that too much attention is paid to A-Rod -- in the stands, in the newspapers, on 24-hour sports radio -- but he probably won't have concerns with what could be said after Rodriguez's Saturday in the park.

"It's one of those things when you get to a point," Torre said. "When do you have to stop proving yourself? I think that's what it's all about. When you set the bar as high as his is set, people sort of expect it all the time.

"This game has helped him. It's an important game, but it wasn't a game where the home run didn't mean anything. It was a huge lift for everybody. That's sort of a plateau -- people say [that] with men on base, he can't do this or can't do that. Well, there it is. Let's shut the book on that one and wait for the next chapter."


It was nice to see but the whole idea of even debating this is ludicrous. When he is done A-rod will have destroyed the all time RBI record and probably hit 800 HRs as well. There will still be people saying he isn't clutch because he didn't single handedly win the world series for NY. How silly is that?

 

I'm not sure what is so silly about expecting the best player in the sport to be great when the team truly needs him. What is so silly about expecting a player who has the only legitimate shot at erasing a short-lived record, earned by a cheater, to hit home runs to win games when placed in that situation?

Again, clutchness is subjective. Personally, I think he played very clutch yesterday, and hasn't in situations like the postseason. Of course, he isn't the only one. There's many Yankees who have had dismal production when it really mattered. There's only one Yankee, or for that matter, one major leaguer, who makes as much money as ARod does though.

Should his salary be a basis for his performance? IMO, of course it does. Players get their contracts negotiated based on past performance as a gauge for future performance. ARod received a contract from Texas with the expectation that he would be the best player in the sport throughout the life of said contract. That means, from the day he signed it, till the day it expires, he is supposed to be the model every other MLB player should try to live up to.

I don't see what the problem is with those expectations. He put them on himself.

 

And hasn't he been? In my opinion he has by far. Who has come close over the last 6 years in total? Everybody agrees that the contract Texas gave him was about 100 million more then it should have been. That's why we only pay him 15 million a year and Texas pays the other 10. We pay Jeter and Giambi 20 million and Mussina 19. Should we compare their stats to A-rods over the last 6 years? I won't argue Jeter as he is a great player in other ways but the other two?

 

What people need to realize, even though it will never happen, is that ARod succeeding THREE out of TEN times is considered excellent in baseball.

It's ridiculous. Every single AB is scrutinized to death by the retarded NY media and why? Because the Yankee fans I used to consider fairly intelligent will eat anything they say right up. Everything in baseball revolves around clutch, aura, and the magic of being a Yankee according to the media, and the fans have eaten it right up.

How many Yankee fans would even notice how "unclutch" ARod is if it never made the paper? The guy had 121 RBIs and hit 30+ HRs in what everyone called a "down year." How many players could have that kind of countable season and the fans would be like "damn, but he's not clutch?" It's a bunch of bull pushed by the media, and now its like the biggest story in baseball with fans eating it up left and right.

 

You'll notice I don't defend Giambi. Besides being well paid, he's also a cheater. But he also makes a LOT less than ARod. It doesn't matter who is paying him the total, he's getting it.

The clutchness, again, is subjective, and I would see it regardless of what the media says. I watch the games. I base my opinion solely on what I see.

Last year, I was one of the very LAST people to fall off the ARod bandwagon. IIRC, it was during that Boston Massacre series that I finally said "enough is enough." That was late in the year. I defended him the vast majority of last year, based solely on his overall stats.

Yes, his stats are better than practically anyone else in the game, on any team. The problem has been, when a situation like yesterday comes up, he's been the last guy I wanted to see at the plate.

Does he win a lot of games for the Yankees, just based on his raw numbers? Of course he does. To deny that would just be stupid. But he is arguably the most elite player in the sport (IMO, he IS the most elite player in the game, and one of the absolute best players to ever live.) With that talent, and the contract that is based off of that, he MUST come up big in situations like yesterday. When he doesn't, he will be criticized.

That said, I've not been down on him since very early in Spring Training. A few weeks ago, I decided to get back on his side, and I've yet to even consider wavering from that. I truly hope he doesn't let me down.

 

A-Rod makes $22M this year, Giambi makes $21.5M. And the Yankees only pay A-Rod $15M.

 

Man on Fire! ANother blast to start his day!

 

Arod makes 27 million this year. He made 22 in his first 4 years, then 26 in the next two, and now he's up to 27 through the end of his contract. Texas pays 7.1 million of this years salary. Got this all straight off of mlb4u.com.

All that aside, we still pay Giambi more.

 

I wasn't counting the money he agreed to defer each year, which is about $5M this year.

 

Ahh. Gotcha.

I love reading his contract. Pretty complex. The part about his optout is interesting: "he can void deal after 2007 season- + he can void the deal again after the 2008 or 2009 seasons, but only if a position player in the major leagues has a higher salary than him or if he is not earning $1M more than the second highest paid position player."

If the deferred money doesn't count in his salary for the season, then he can opt out after each year of the contract. But if the deferred money counts as part of the yearly salary, the second highest position player going by this year is Giambi's, which is more than 1M, thus preventing him from opting out in 08 and 09. I guess the language is more clear in the actual contract.

 

Okay so I was wrong about something. Big surprise.

Still doesn't change the fact that I don't defend Giambi, and that ARod's contract is probably the primary reason he gets such a bad rap. (And like I said, it's got nothing to do with how much of it the Yankees pay, it's his total salary.)

The problem with ARod is largely perceptual. Right or wrong, it is what it is.

 

Here you go...

Code:

1. Jason Giambi, Yankees, $23.43 million
2. Alex Rodriguez, Yankees, $22.7 million
3. Derek Jeter, Yankees, $21.6 million
4. Manny Ramirez, Red Sox, $17 million
5. Todd Helton, Rockies, $16.6 million
6. Bartolo Colon, Angels, $16 million
(tie) Andy Pettitte, Yankees, $16 million
8. Jason Schmidt, Dodgers, $15.7 million
9. Barry Bonds, Giants, $15.53 million
10. Richie Sexson, Mariners, $15.5 million
11. Bobby Abreu, Yankees, $15 million
12. Jim Thome, White Sox, $14.8 million
13. Mike Hampton, Braves, $14.5 million
(tie) Lance Berkman, Astros, $14.5 million
(tie) Vladimir Guerrero, Angels, $14.5 million
(tie) Carlos Delgado, Mets, $14.5 million

 

Of course it matters who is paying his salary. It is only the NY media and a few idiot NY fans that are on this un-clutch bandwagon because he had two bad playoffs. Nobody brings up the good ones he in Seattle. Nobody was offering him more then 150 million until Texas went totally crazy with his contract. If NY made the trade and took on his whole salary then fine say what you want. They put his value at 15 million a year, Jeter's at an average of 18.9 and Giambi's at 20. Mussina is getting 19 this year. Arod is an absolute bargain at what the Yankees are paying him and the media and the fans should be tearing the others apart, not him.

 

Yes, thats the literal definition of clutch. Now try applying it to baseball.

But how do you LABEL someone clutch in baseball? It's not like theres significant, if any, statistical evidence for this stuff.

 

That has really been my point all along.

I think it could be argued that he was clutch yesterday again when he earned a walk after a 2-2 count in the 8th. We wound up with the bases load, with the chance to take the lead. Of course, it didn't work out, but he still had the patience at the plate to not do too much. He didn't get a hit, but if he walked, he obviously didn't get the right pitches to hit either. I'd say he was as "clutch" as he could be in that situation.

This is why I keep saying it's all subjective. So far, IMO, he's been as clutch as he could possibly be this season without being absolutely perfect, which is unreasonable.

I also thought it was hillarious yesterday on ESPN. They kept talking about the grand slam as "inaugurating him as a Yankee."

So wait, even if we allowed a personal performance to "inaugurate" a player, wouldn't his MVP season have done it for him?

 

I agree but they do it all the time in NY. They said Giambi became a "true" yankee when he hit that walk off GS in the rain his first year. Same for Matsui when he hit a game winner his first year. For some odd reason the NY media seems to think one HR makes you a "true" yankee.

 

wow, you guys are harsh!