A-Rod poll

[Frayed Knot]

A bit of a goofy, off-the-wall question here which could take years before we know the actual answer at which point we'll have probably forgotten all about this stupid thread, BUT ...

When does Alex Rodriguez play his final game in a MFY uniform?

For a little background, his current deal runs through 2017 with salaries of: $28mil (in 2013), $25 in '14, $21 in '15, $20 in '16, $20 in '17 (at least the Yanx learned their lesson about back-loading)
There are also a bunch of goofy performance clauses that really don't mean much here except that he gets various piles of cash in exchange for "marketing agreements" after reaching HRs # 660, 714, 755, & 762. He currently is sitting on 647 and has slugged a whopping 34 over the last two seasons combined. So at this rate he'll probably catch Mays next year around ... oh let's say late September, but that's only if he stays healthy.

But does the PH-ing swaps this week and the (at minimum) one-game benching tonight forever harm (despite all the happy talk) his relationship with his manager and with the Yanx?
On the other hand, can they afford (in both dollars and rep) to just get rid of him?
And if so who takes him?
Or will they just at some point cut him?
Or is this year just a fluke caused by an injury and a bounce-back is in his future?
Or are these injuries simply the beginning of the end and he'll be forced to retire before the Steinbrenners can get around to axing him?

These and other questions all need to be considered as you weigh the options as to when the Pinstripe Empire and Sir Alex of Rodrigia part company.

[Edgy MD]

I don't know. I see a lot of drama this off-season, especially if the Yanks lose today, and it certainly could culminate with A-Rod going to Cleveland or Atlanta or somesuch with the Yanks eating a money sandwich.

Maybe Denver. Yipes.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I think I predicted back in 2000 that A-Rod would become a Met around 2014.

[Gwreck]

The Yankees can always cut him but I can't forsee any situation -- prior to 2017 at the earliest -- where the Yankees would not have to eat 90% of the remaining money.

I put my vote in for "plays out the contract." I expect him to be a part-time player by then - DHing against lefty pitchers only -- but still in the Bronx.

[Ceetar]

Edgy DC wrote: I don't know. I see a lot of drama this off-season, especially if the Yanks lose today, and it certainly could culminate with A-Rod going to Cleveland or Atlanta or somesuch with the Yanks eating a money sandwich. Maybe Denver. Yipes.

I want him to go to Seattle so that he can go into the Hall as a Mariner.

But I suspect he finishes out the contract, mostly as a part time DH type guy.

[metirish]

You look at the money left and marvel that the Red Sox got rid of their high earners and didn't eat anything.

I can't see him going anywhere without most of the money being paid, like has already been stated.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Overpriced guy, iffy attitude, production falling off - sounds like a perfect fit for the new Dodgers regime.

OE: I guess this is the flip side of what Irish wrote.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Put down the MFY's for inclusion in the Fall of 2013 David Wright sweepstakes.

[Guest metsguyinmichigan]

They're stuck with him!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Trade Jason Bay for him. The Mets need to extend their horizon of bloated unmovable contracts.

[bmfc1]

A. Rodriguez for Murphy + 125 million of A. Rodriguez's 130 million contract until it expires.

[Frayed Knot]

I have no idea how to answer this question either.

Mainly I just put this up to start the conversation when I realized how this whole topic not only isn't going away anytime soon but that the events of this week bring them to the forefront much quicker than I anticipated.
I mean, if the Yanx win today the very first question in the post-game is whether he'll be in the line-up on Saturday. And if they lose (heh, heh) what his role will be and what his relationship with Girardi and with his teammates is going to be the overriding topic of the baseball winter and the first thing brought up when ST starts.

And it's one thing when an increasingly below his value player has 162 games left on his contract (Bay) but it's quite another when one has five times that length left with a deal that is worth between seven and eight times as much.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

I'm hoping that A-Rod is a hitting machine the next four games while the rest of his team is a hitless, error-prone, gopher-ball surrendering mess as the Tigers sweep.

[Guest Kong76]

He needs a new drug ...
He'll find one and be comeback player of the year in 2013.

[Fman99]

I voted with my heart, which says he has a monster 2016 and re-ups for five more awful years after that.

[smg58]

He won't retire unless he's unconditionally released, which I think is what will eventually happen. As for any chance he'll get traded, even the Dodgers have to draw the line somewhere.

[Frayed Knot]

I started to think last night about what it is that bugs Yanqui fans (and probably MFY mgmt) so much about ARod -- I mean aside from his personality, his prissiness, his preening, and the whole thing about lacking the clutchness gene -- when I came to the conclusion that it's mostly about one thing: he's aging. Yup, he's aging and Yanqui people think that that's something that "true Yanquis" don't do.

Think about it:
- Jeter put up one of his best seasons this year in about a decade at age 38.
- Mariano missed this year with an odd injury (which maybe can be attributed to age but maybe it was just a fluke) but in recent years has been just as effective as ever and he's like 42
- Pettitte freaking retired but decides to come back after a year off, slides back into the majors with almost no minor league time, then breaks his ankle, and then comes back and pitches to a less than 3.00 ERA at age 40 and they use him as their number 2/3 guy in the playoffs
- Ibanez was 40 before he got here with Ichiro nearly so and those two have been their best hitters lately and both improved on their pre-MFY numbers
Go back to recent years and Posada, even after missing most of the season at age 35, had three more decent seasons at ages 37, 37 & 38 and he was a fucking catcher
Clemens was, of course, too drugged up to decline
And even going way back O'Neill & Brosius, both of them retired on their own terms so there's no MFY memory of them falling into their suck years.

So it's kind of easy to see how one guy doing nothing out of the norm - starting to decline at age 37 like most ball players - seems, in the eyes of Yanqui fans, like an unpardonable sin. He's going down, it's probably irreversible, and because of the contract there's nothing they can do about it. They're not used to this kind of thing so it must all be somebody's fault. That many of them didn't like him much to begin with only exacerbates the matter.

[Ceetar]

It's weird too, because while I'd be more surprised if those other guys (Pettitte aside obviously) weren't using than if they were, A-Rod's the guy you'd peg as the well-conditioned druggie slugger that'd be hitting Bondsian shots into his 40s. (And honestly, I think he will have a good year next year, barring another injury. )

[Frayed Knot]

I'm not even thinking of it from a steroids point of view. Speculation on juicers via circumstantial observations is a waste of time in my mind and, even if not, what does it prove? Some will claim that players lasting longer is a sign of being on the stuff while others will point to earlier physical breakdowns as proof of usage.

The larger point being that some players simply age better than others due to any one of a number of factors and it's virtually impossible to see which is which ahead of time. Why did Robbie Alomar, for instance, go from MVP candidate at age 33 to POS candidate at age 34 and never recover while others like Jeter and Vizquel barely started their slight downward arcs at the same point? This era of Yanqui mainstays has been, for whatever reasons, an exceptionally long-lasting bunch so when somebody suddenly doesn't fit that same mold the natives start to get restless even though they're actually complaining about somebody being the norm.

The result is that Yanqui fans have clearly bought into the notion that Lake Wobegon has been relocated and so now the Bronx is the place where exceptionalism is the new normal and where every prospect is above average.

[ashie62]

No Roids..he's 37 and washed up. It happens.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Trying to look at this objectively, it is crazy to make such a show of tearing down one of your own guys during the playoffs like this.

I'm certain the teamwide tightness was only exacerbated by the management humiliating the team's No. 5 hitter. Sitting him last night for Brett F. Gardner, essentially, was stupid.

[metirish]

Harper says Cahman's fingers are behind the benching, despite the numbers Rodriguez has against Verlander this season.

Bold is mone

It was Cashman who made a point of being available to the media the minute the lineup was announced Tuesday afternoon, and Cashman did a lot more explaining of the thinking behind the moves than Girardi did. Finally, it was Cashman who said flatly that his eyes were telling him that it didn�t matter that A-Rod was 4-for-6 with two home runs against Verlander this season, not when he is 0-for-18 with 12 strikeouts against righthanded pitching in this postseason. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/signs-point-cashman-behind-a-rod-benching-article-1.1185354#ixzz29ZRx0I4N

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Geez, and we think the Mets are scumbags for anonymously leaking concerns about Ike's hard drinking.

[metirish]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, if Donald Trump says it, it must be stupid.

[metirish]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Well, if Donald Trump says it, it must be stupid.

Yes, it's quite hilarious that Trump tweeted that, he tweets similar stuff about Obama, tweets that sound like facts.

[Centerfield]

He also said Jeter got hurt because of bad karma from selling his Trump apartment.

The doormen say that there was a giant "2" emblazoned onto the floor. I wonder if he had that removed or if he was limited to selling to another number 2. Maybe Wayne Tolleson was looking for a place to crash?

[Frayed Knot]

Trump also was on Michael Kay dishing on ARod yesterday.
I only heard about it second-hand but apparently he was saying how he never liked ARod all along implying that he did bad stuff while living in one of Trump's places (didn't specify) that pissed Trump and the staff off.

As I said in another thread yesterday when this and the Jeter injury story first came up: Yeah Donald, this is all about you.
Now we just have to solve the mystery as to why Kay put him on the air in the first place.

[Ceetar]

Frayed Knot wrote: Trump also was on Michael Kay dishing on ARod yesterday. I only heard about it second-hand but apparently he was saying how he never liked ARod all along implying that he did bad stuff while living in one of Trump's places (didn't specify) that pissed Trump and the staff off. As I said in another thread yesterday when this and the Jeter injury story first came up: Yeah Donald, this is all about you. Now we just have to solve the mystery as to why Kay put him on the air in the first place.

stupid comments that can drive a narrative so they can then spend the entire show talking about the comments rather than the actual sport. It's ESPN's MO; talk about the people around sports, but not the sport itself.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Um, Wow, Arod for Heath Bell.

http://keitholbermann.mlblogs.com/2012/10/17/exclusive-yanks-marlins-talk-a-rod-trade/