A-Rod opts out
- Thread starter Lefty
- Start date
Diamondback Jay
Psalms 23:1
Bump....
DWKB
ASFN Icon
Shea Hillenbrand? Should we dare look back at the history to see your glowing remarks of Shea Hillenbrand's ability and character? "He'll hit 30+ HRs here!"
BC867
Long time Phoenician!
Thanks for remembering. I was enthusiastic for Hillenbrand when we traded for him. But I had Mike Lowell on each wish list I posted, too.
DWKB
ASFN Icon
Lowell's had a good career, but he's not worth the money he'll command, especially with the career year resurgence at the age of 34.
BC867, you've always been one to look at RBI and HR for a clean up hitter so why does Lowell (better than 99 RBI only twice, better than 25 HR only twice) land on your radar?
Just curious, but was Lowell a big fat choker before this post-season (.196/.275/.348 in 46 ABs) or does that not count cause it was just with the Marlins?
BC867, you've always been one to look at RBI and HR for a clean up hitter so why does Lowell (better than 99 RBI only twice, better than 25 HR only twice) land on your radar?
Just curious, but was Lowell a big fat choker before this post-season (.196/.275/.348 in 46 ABs) or does that not count cause it was just with the Marlins?
Diamondback Jay
Psalms 23:1
Good point. Having the Diamondbacks in the World Series would have been icing on the cake. I'm still a fan of the sport, regardless of whether my team's playing or not.
C'mon man, it's not even the same physical building. Like calling UoP Sun Devil Stadium.
Judges will accept Pac Bell Park though.
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
C'mon man, it's not even the same physical building. Like calling UoP Sun Devil Stadium.
Judges will accept Pac Bell Park though.
Good point...
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
By the way, here's what true New Yorkers and Yankee fans (like me!) are feeling about A-Hole (oops, I mean A-Rod...):
Bid farewell to A-Rod, the gold-plated phony
Tuesday, October 30th 2007, 4:00 AM
Alex Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, have become the kind of phonies that aspiring phonies now study in sports, somewhat the way scientists study lab rats.
Here was Boras the other night, getting his client A-Rod into the World Series the only way he can, having him opt out of his Yankees contract on the night the Boston Red Sox were about to sweep the Colorado Rockies.
In so doing, Boras unwittingly gave us a fitting epitaph to A-Rod's Yankee career:
He upstaged more World Series games than he actually played in.
It was the late George Young, general manager of the football Giants, who once said to me, "When they say it's not about the money, it's always about the money."
It is always about the money with A-Rod. He just won't ever say that, even if you threaten him with one of his own baseball bats.
So he tries to make it about his teammates, some of whose names he actually knows.
So here was Boras, who never seems to run out of saliva - or angles - talking about Mo Rivera and Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte instead of the $300 million he thinks he can get for A-Rod someplace else.
"Alex's decision was one based on not knowing what his closer, his catcher and one of his statured starting pitchers was going to do," Boras said in one interview he gave Sunday night while Game 4 of the Series was still going on.
If Boras thinks that he can convince anybody who has followed a single at-bat of Alex Rodriguez's career that he has ever cared for a baseball player other than Alex Rodriguez, then Scott Boras really is the world's greatest sports agent.
Boras has made no secret that he is looking for another 10-year contract for A-Rod. That is out of one side of his mouth. Out of the other, he wants us to believe that a huge reason A-Rod walks away from the Yankees is because of this sudden concern about the futures of the 37-year-old Rivera, the 36-year-old Posada, the 35-year-old Pettitte.
I have even heard some broadcasters suggest that Joe Torre leaving the Yankees might also have been a reason why A-Rod wanted to leave.
Every time I did, I had the same reaction: That anybody thinking Rodriguez had loyalty to any manager - especially one who batted him eighth in a playoff game against the Detroit Tigers last year - must be drunk.
It is as interesting to note that this all happens as the Red Sox win again. And that there is all this fuss about A-Rod's contract one night after a Red Sox pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka, knocks in more runs - two - with his first postseason hit than A-Rod did against the Indians in the Yankees' division series.
Once, nearly four years ago, Rodriguez nearly went to Boston. The Red Sox were even willing to part with Manny Ramirez and his own big contract ($20 million a year) to bring Rodriguez to Fenway Park to play shortstop for them. If they had managed to do that, they would probably still be looking for their first World Series championship since 1918.
Boras loves to show you a lot of research about how a lot of great baseball players have come up short in the postseason. Even A-Rod short, which means short enough to ride a horse in the Breeders' Cup. In Boston, where Ramirez was MVP of the 2004 World Series, where he and David Ortiz are run-producing machines in the postseason, they must think Boras is the one acting drunk.
You can go up and down the Red Sox batting order, pick any name, and find somebody who did more for his team than A-Rod did for the Yankees in the last three Octobers he played for them.
He was a gold-plated phony coming in the door and he is the same leaving.
Here was Rodriguez standing in the Stadium Club at Yankee Stadium in February 2004, on the day it was officially announced that he was coming to New York to play third base for the Yankees:
"I've come to the point in my career [where] winning is the most important thing. Aside from the personal accolades - and I think I've done a lot there - winning is the most important thing. And being a New York Yankee and the history and the present and the future, I think it provides an opportunity when you drive to the ballpark every day that you actually have an opportunity to win and win big. Hopefully in October. So I think it was just team over personal."
Nothing is ever personal with him, ever. He wants to act like a team guy and sound like a team guy but has no real idea how to do that, because everything is supposed to be about him.
It's why you wanted to laugh the other night when Boras invoked the names of Rivera and Posada and Pettitte. You know who they really are to Alex Rodriguez? Three more guys in the clubhouse trying to breathe his air.
Big Octobers, that's what A-Rod promised Yankee fans. And that is exactly how it worked out during his four seasons here. Only the big Octobers, two of the biggest in baseball history because of the way the Red Sox came back in the league championship series and then swept through the World Series, were in Boston.
A real good Yankee fan I know put it this way yesterday, even talking about a player who hit him 54 home runs this season, one without whom the Yankees wouldn't have even made the first round of the playoffs:
"The Red Sox won, but we lost A-Rod. Call it a split."
Bid farewell to A-Rod, the gold-plated phony
Tuesday, October 30th 2007, 4:00 AM
Alex Rodriguez and his agent, Scott Boras, have become the kind of phonies that aspiring phonies now study in sports, somewhat the way scientists study lab rats.
Here was Boras the other night, getting his client A-Rod into the World Series the only way he can, having him opt out of his Yankees contract on the night the Boston Red Sox were about to sweep the Colorado Rockies.
In so doing, Boras unwittingly gave us a fitting epitaph to A-Rod's Yankee career:
He upstaged more World Series games than he actually played in.
It was the late George Young, general manager of the football Giants, who once said to me, "When they say it's not about the money, it's always about the money."
It is always about the money with A-Rod. He just won't ever say that, even if you threaten him with one of his own baseball bats.
So he tries to make it about his teammates, some of whose names he actually knows.
So here was Boras, who never seems to run out of saliva - or angles - talking about Mo Rivera and Jorge Posada and Andy Pettitte instead of the $300 million he thinks he can get for A-Rod someplace else.
"Alex's decision was one based on not knowing what his closer, his catcher and one of his statured starting pitchers was going to do," Boras said in one interview he gave Sunday night while Game 4 of the Series was still going on.
If Boras thinks that he can convince anybody who has followed a single at-bat of Alex Rodriguez's career that he has ever cared for a baseball player other than Alex Rodriguez, then Scott Boras really is the world's greatest sports agent.
Boras has made no secret that he is looking for another 10-year contract for A-Rod. That is out of one side of his mouth. Out of the other, he wants us to believe that a huge reason A-Rod walks away from the Yankees is because of this sudden concern about the futures of the 37-year-old Rivera, the 36-year-old Posada, the 35-year-old Pettitte.
I have even heard some broadcasters suggest that Joe Torre leaving the Yankees might also have been a reason why A-Rod wanted to leave.
Every time I did, I had the same reaction: That anybody thinking Rodriguez had loyalty to any manager - especially one who batted him eighth in a playoff game against the Detroit Tigers last year - must be drunk.
It is as interesting to note that this all happens as the Red Sox win again. And that there is all this fuss about A-Rod's contract one night after a Red Sox pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka, knocks in more runs - two - with his first postseason hit than A-Rod did against the Indians in the Yankees' division series.
Once, nearly four years ago, Rodriguez nearly went to Boston. The Red Sox were even willing to part with Manny Ramirez and his own big contract ($20 million a year) to bring Rodriguez to Fenway Park to play shortstop for them. If they had managed to do that, they would probably still be looking for their first World Series championship since 1918.
Boras loves to show you a lot of research about how a lot of great baseball players have come up short in the postseason. Even A-Rod short, which means short enough to ride a horse in the Breeders' Cup. In Boston, where Ramirez was MVP of the 2004 World Series, where he and David Ortiz are run-producing machines in the postseason, they must think Boras is the one acting drunk.
You can go up and down the Red Sox batting order, pick any name, and find somebody who did more for his team than A-Rod did for the Yankees in the last three Octobers he played for them.
He was a gold-plated phony coming in the door and he is the same leaving.
Here was Rodriguez standing in the Stadium Club at Yankee Stadium in February 2004, on the day it was officially announced that he was coming to New York to play third base for the Yankees:
"I've come to the point in my career [where] winning is the most important thing. Aside from the personal accolades - and I think I've done a lot there - winning is the most important thing. And being a New York Yankee and the history and the present and the future, I think it provides an opportunity when you drive to the ballpark every day that you actually have an opportunity to win and win big. Hopefully in October. So I think it was just team over personal."
Nothing is ever personal with him, ever. He wants to act like a team guy and sound like a team guy but has no real idea how to do that, because everything is supposed to be about him.
It's why you wanted to laugh the other night when Boras invoked the names of Rivera and Posada and Pettitte. You know who they really are to Alex Rodriguez? Three more guys in the clubhouse trying to breathe his air.
Big Octobers, that's what A-Rod promised Yankee fans. And that is exactly how it worked out during his four seasons here. Only the big Octobers, two of the biggest in baseball history because of the way the Red Sox came back in the league championship series and then swept through the World Series, were in Boston.
A real good Yankee fan I know put it this way yesterday, even talking about a player who hit him 54 home runs this season, one without whom the Yankees wouldn't have even made the first round of the playoffs:
"The Red Sox won, but we lost A-Rod. Call it a split."
MigratingOsprey
Thank You Paul!
i still can't believe you called him gorilla lips.................
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
Would Monkey Lips be more accurate? Not sure which have larger lips though... Can you clarify?
MigratingOsprey
Thank You Paul!
just be glad you live in scottsdale.............
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
I tell myself that each day I wake up buddy! Born and raised in the NYC area, I loved it growing up. However, Scottsdale has been home for the past 7 years and I wouldn't trade it for the world!
BC867
Long time Phoenician!
I've always liked him as a middle of the lineup guy. Simple as that. Although I hate the AL, I'm happy to see him get the MVP award for the Series. Not bad for a "big fat choker". (I got a kick out of that phrase.)
nashman
ASFN Icon
Some of you are nuts! A-rod is a great ball player and still fairly young, has plenty of time to do something special in the playoffs. The YANKEES suck, its a hard place to play and he got the blame for them not winning, what a crock. Their pitching staff got rocked period thats why they lose not because Arod did not hit. Watch him go tear it up somewhere else in the playoffs when a team isn't counting on hitting alone to win and everyone will see him play. I would freaking love to have that guy on the Dbacks but he just costs to much for us to even look at him.
SO91
ASFN Lifer
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2006
- Posts
- 3,046
- Reaction score
- 371
He's never "tore it up" in the playoffs, so why would he start now? I agree individually he's a great player, and some might argue he'll be the greatest ever (not me, I always have a soft spot for the old guysfrom the past), but the fact of the matter is, he's not a leader. He's not a guy that will put a team on his back when it matters (not April, or June). As much as it pains me to admit it, Jeter's a guy that leads and commands respect, both from teammates and opponents. Could you ever say that about $Rod
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
So, because the Yankees pitching got rocked, that caused A-Hole to grab a WHOPPING 7 hits over his last 44 post season at-bats?? I see...
As for New York being a tough place to play - I would expect a dude being paid $25million a year could find a way to get a hit ever 3rd or 4th at-bat in the post season... Heck, Jeter, Bernie, O'Neil, Jorge, Damon, Tino, even Scott Brosius seemed to find a way to play in the harsh confines of the Big Apple!!!
Agreed. Some people think they know everything there is to know about someone else's team.
Hey, how much does Giambi make? His signing is worse than A-bombs..er Rods.
$23M.
Wow. Expensive medical enhanced suckiness.
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
How ironic is it that with all of A-Hole's numbers, and all of Giambino's issues, it's Giambi that is more loved in New York than A-Hole...
Just another illustration of the type of person A-Hole truly is...
That is also a reflection on NY myopia.
82CardsGrad
7 x 70
Yea... being "myopically" focused on winning, great leadership and team-oriented sucks huh?
Similar threads
Staff online
-
Dback JonDoing it My Way -
Brian in MesaAdvocatus Diaboli
Members online
- leclerc
- JohnnyCakes
- Heucrazy
- SpokaneCardfan
- Russ Smith
- MaoTosiFanClub
- londonpete
- KiwiCard
- bbadge
- Dan H
- Dback Jon
- unseenaz
- netsnjkidd
- PitchShifter
- Chopper0080
- mjb21aztd
- Town Drunk
- kerouac9
- Cardsmasochist
- cardncubfan
- oaken1
- Zeem_Freeze
- Rivercard
- tiny atoms
- Luciano
- HairZach
- Stout
- Cardiac
- Card'em
- Cheesebeef
- Phrazbit
- Sandan
- AzCardsfan76
- Crimson Warrior
- Suns_fan69
- Ganachan
- Hoodhero
- IAcards
- SoonerLou
- ASUCHRIS
- Brian in Mesa
- dscher
- 95pro
- Ouchie-Z-Clown
- Chaplin
- Broseph
- BoiCard