MM, why would the world's great sporting superpower even contemplate trading one of the best players in the game?.... and before you answer, consider that he wore out his welcome quickly in arlington on the heels of the mariners not only showing him the door and then reeling off 112 wins the following year, but being rather blase about losing him to a division rival. which doesn't mean he wasn't/isn't productive, but that he packs more than his stick and glove wherever he goes. he was not well-thought of in dallas.
the rangers traded him because of economics. because no team can afford to pay a player that much and still put a team around them. they screwed up by overpaying for him BIG TIME. he was MVP caliber there. he is in a slump right now. he won the freaking MVP award last year in NY. NY fans are merciless. they'll tell you that jeter is the greatest player to walk the planet since mantle, and no one else compares. there is no way you can convince me the astros wouldn't be a better team with ARod in the lineup. no way. we can call him whatever...but 2000 hits and 450 HR's later, ARod is a freaking monster.
Maybe he should just go back home and play for the Marlins...it might actually work. Florida can realistically contend within the next 4 seasons. And they're keeping Willis and Cabrera. With all of that young talent, NY would be getting a gift with 2 or 3 young studs. It could seriously be a win-win. Having ARod in South Florida would eliminate any "pressure" he feels since no one ever shows up at the games. On the other hand it could conceivably bring in fans to watch the best homegrown talent and (arguably) best player in the game. Plus, ARod could keep the Marlins in Florida. Well, he almost has enough money now to finance a new stadium himself. I see it as a "smart" move, but is entirely unrealistic. Just as realistic as Rodriguez leaving New York. No way he's traded by the 31st, and there's still little chance he'd be traded this offseason. You don't trade the reigning MVP for one streaky month and a half.
reread my posts, MM - i rarely, if ever, made mention of his actual game. in fact, you're right - he's one of the very best players in baseball, quite possibly of all-time... so why, if these rumors are anywhere close to true, could he soon be joining his 4th team in six years? like i said, he packs a lot of baggage. i saw it first-hand in dallas. he was aloof with the media, non-existent in the community and then ripped the team's youth movement to try and facilitate a trade.
you are absolutely right although people will claim, from a purely impact-the-game perspective, that he isn't the greatest clutch performer. this is true to a certain extent but as you say, you cannot question his productivity. the real problem is that he is real easy to dislike for a variety of reasons. it really is to the point here in NY that he is loathed. nobody cares about what he does or does not contribute, they want him gone. i think a place like houston, waaaaaay more under the radar than his current digs, would be a good place for him to get his mojo back. that being said, i also just plain don't like him, so i have mixed feelings about the 'stros possibly aquiring him.
You have to wake up. Mariners dumped him and they got better, Rangers dumped him and they got better too. Yankees had one ALCS and two World Series appearances before landing him and they were humiliated by BoSox and kicked out of the playoffs in the first round afterwards. Baseball is certainly a team's game, but you have to admit that MVP didn't improve the team record that much and he is the highest paid baseball player in the world. People will realize sooner or later. A-Rod is a player with all those fancy stats, but his stats hardly matters in terms of winning Championship. David Justice ripped him pretty hard in public on Yes network the other day. But I thought Justice hit the nail on the head on Alex's case: "If the game is 9-2, he might make it 9-4. If the game is 7-1, he might make it 9-1. But when it is 2-2 late in the ballgame and I need a base hit to score a run, the numbers show he has not been getting it done". That is exactly what we see from the past 2.5 years. My conclusion is as long as he stays unclutch, as long as he is soo fragile, as long as he fails to bring Yankees at least one World Series win, fans will continue to boo his a** until he play elsewhere. He can continue to get his fancy stats in some small market teams. It is not easy to be No.1 in New York anyway.
unclutch? are you seriously blaming him for 2004?? his OBP was .435...his average was .320...his slugging percentage was .600. the yankees lost in those playoffs because their pitching SUCKED! the arguments you're making sound like the same ridiculous arguments made about bagwell. i'm gonna assume if a guy has 450 HR's in his career, that he's PROBABLY hit some when they were really needed.
"Stupid stats" lol... Wow. ARod is a dominator, period. He is a straight up masher and would instantly elevate our offense production significantly. He's also a tremendous defensive shortstop. All that stuff about not being clutch or being able to handle the pressure is a bunch of psycho babble BS. There is no such thing as clutch performance in baseball, period. If he couldn't handle the pressure, he wouldn't be in the bigs. Deal with it, ARod is a dominator in all aspects. If the Astros could get him, which I highly doubt, it would be the definition of a no-brainer move to make.
The reasons why the Mariners got better after ARod left is because -the players they got from us through the Randy Johnson deal panned out for them (i.e. Freddy Garcia) -Ichiro came on and became the ROY AND MVP -Bret Boone had that one Brady Anderson-esque season -they had EIGHT all-stars that year. The only reason why the Rangers got better after ARod left is because -they got Alfonso Soriano back -Texeira, Young and Hank Blalock were playing out of their minds -the Rangers' pitching staff was actually decent I mean I had the guy. I think A-Rod a douchebag. But to say that one man's departure can actually turn a franchise around is a pretty bold statement considering the sport is baseball and there's 162 games in a season. Do I think he's a jackass? Yes. But would I root for the jackass if he was playing for the Astros? It would also be a resounding yes.
