When you have aging stars; a big payroll; and you underachieve, this is what is written. This brings up bad nightmares for me personally.
When you have aging stars; a big payroll; and you underachieve, this is what is written. This brings up bad nightmares for me personally. Will the Yankees have the guts to rebuild from within? Will their media and fans allow them to take risks or will they simply go out and sign more old and expensive free agents; make a splash; and go for it again? Rinse and repeat. I have always thought that in baseball, young pitchers growing up in the family is a key to success as well as building a tight team that focuses on fundamentals and plays for each other. Can a team with a payroll of over $200 million underplay its individual ego for the collective benefit of the team concept? Time will tell. It will be interesting to watch the A-Rod drama next as he has said that his agent will make the final call on where he plays next season. He has the best stats in baseball but he doesn’t deliver in the playoffs. He is the highest paid player in baseball. Does he deserve a raise? Would someone pay him more than $25 million per year – as the Indians entire payroll is around $70 million – and they beat the Yankees like a drum?
Ted, as I am sure you are aware, anything can happen in a short series. Any player can go 4 games with sub-par results at any point in the season. Ted Williams hit .200 in the 1946 World Series, and I don’t have to tell you he was the greatest hitter that ever lived.
Alex Rodriguez *does* deliver in the postseason. Alex Rodriguez *has* delivered in the postseason. In 2000 he hit .308 in the ALDS against White Sox, and .409 *against the Yankees* in the ALCS. In 2004 he hit an ungodly (or god-like?) .421 against the Twins. In the 2004 ALCS against the Sox, he hit .368 and had an OPS of 1.244. He ended the series with a .304 average and an on-base percentage of .448. This year, he sure had a hell of a better series than Captain Intangible.
The man is good. Cut him some slack.
And that’s coming from a Red Sox fan.
I don’t think A-Rod will ever understand the concept of a collective team. Sure, Scott Boras will go out and demand millions of dollars for the regular season slugger, but who wants to pay him that much?
The scary idea is the media gives credence to his every move.
Rather than America getting caught up in the debate over whether he should stay or go, ignore it.
Let him rot in New York, where all the money in the world won’t buy a championship anymore.
globalnhl.blogspot.com
Great questions, and my hunch is that statistically you’d be better off rebuilding as opposed to reloading. A friend from Detroit told me that a popular phrase there is ‘The Red Wings… We don’t rebuild, we reload!’ That seems to be working well for them as well as the Yankees. If I could predict the markets as well as I could predict early playoff exits by the Yankees and the Red Wings, I’d own a few islands.
Personally my 2 favorite teams in pro sports right now are the Colorado Rockies and the Washington Capitals. We can see what diligent rebuilding and good management has done for the Rockies, and I highly suspect the same will happen for the Caps.
Everyone loves the underdog.
Ted one thing that you might want to consider is that would the Yankees even made the playoffs without A-Rod. While I don’t think that any professional athlete should be making that much money he will be the MVP and I don’t think the Yankees would have been playing October baseball.