oh ok, i read the book Faithful, and that is what king refers to him as. h]Havent read moneyball yet.
ARod has been clutch this year, in years past he's been a huge failure in big spots but that has changed this year. Ortiz has trugled a bit this year but I don't think anyone has had as many big hits as ortiz the last 5 years. I hate the guy as a player but you must be honest I'd much rather see ARod up in a big spot(assuming he was an opposing player) than ortiz in a big spot. Also, this great yer will be for nothing to me if he can't validate it w/ a good October. I aboslutely would rather have had a Scott Brosius at 3rd than ARod, at least until this year. You don't need superstars at every position, Scott was a great role player and for the most part got the job done when it counted. he played a great 3rd and came through when we needed him. If I had a choice btw the 2 I would 100% choose brosius and spend the other money owed ARod to upgrade pitching or another few positions. That was ARod's ONLY good series as a Yankee and he's been an embarrassment since game 4 of the '04 ALCS. The man has zero RBI in that span of 12 games. That's inexcusable. A player like ARod should never go an entire series w/o an RBI and now he's done it 12 straight postseason games. Jeter as 1 or 2 hitter has had two postseason series in 22 where he didn't have at least 1 RBI, ARodin 4 series as a Yankee has 2 RBI-less series and he's an RBI man. Most of ARod's "cluth" go ahead HRs and nig hits" have come early in the game, ortiz gets it done late in truly big spots. you can skew #s any way you want but you can't compare the 2 when it comes to clutch hitting. Anyway, back to the topic. Roger got the job done and Mariano seems to be over his little slump from 2 weeks ago. 2 wins are great but it will be almost meaningless if we don't finish off w/ a sweep today. if we sweep we start to put a little pressure on Boston but if they get 1 they did their job and can remain playing free and loose.
I would forget about Boston and worry more about Seattle. We have 3 with them coming up and that's our best chance of making the post season. Boston's schedule doesn't get any harder the rest of the year. Ours does but we aren't in first place.
I'm absolutely shocked at this comment. No, you don't need superstars at every position, but come on, dude. I suppose you'd rather have Andy Phillips instead of Albert Pujols at first base, too. To have someone of A-Rod's talent for $15 million per year... and to snub them for Scott Brosius?! That's absolutely insane. That's a Steve Phillipsian move. (Don't get me wrong. I love Scott Brosius and his home run in one of my favorite Yankee moments, but the dude's a career .257 hitter, and a career .245 postseason hitter with a postseason OPS of .542. (Incidentally, A-Rod - even after his struggles the past two years, has a postseason average of .280 and an OPS of .842.) There is no way any objective person makes that choice. You could only be making it for sentimental reasons. RBI are a function of the runners on base in front of you, for one. Secondly, while you shouldn't expect someone of A-Rod's caliber to go without an RBI on this Yankee team for extended periods of time, it DOES happen. See, you say this, but you say it without actually knowing the numbers. This is a myth. I'm not "skewing" them any way at all. Go look at their game breakdown. Go look at their home run logs. 31.3% of Ortiz's HRs are in the seventh inning or later. 26.4% of A-Rod's are in the seventh or later. 21% of Ortiz's HRs are in the first two innings. 25% of A-Rod's home runs are in the first four innings. Again, this is not to say A-Rod is "more clutch", or to knock what Ortiz has done, because Ortiz has had some truly memorable and dramatic "clutch" hits, and he has done it more frequently per AB or per HR than A-Rod in the past. I'm just trying to point out how people are misled by the perception of whether guys are clutch or not, and you tend to exaggerate any differences that might exist based on that reputation as opposed to actual performance. You'll hype what fits your perception, and downplay what doesn't. This is human nature, and a natural well-known psychological phenomenon (the same one that allows psychics to seem like they can talk to spirits)... but it doesn't mean those gut feeling conclusions are accurate. If anything, they can lead you astray. The un-skewed numbers say the difference is not as great as you make it out to be in your mind.
to be honest, with the year arod and the yankees have had, if the yankees make the playoffs i will be happy. with that said, arod can go 0-31 for all i care. although its a losers mentality, making the playoffs would be nice after the tumultuous year we have had. if the yanks do make the playoffs it would be 90 percent cause of arod as well. the playoffs are a time where everyone needs to step up, arod hasnt been doing it since alcs game 4, but one man cant win every game... im very happy with arods stats, and he has carried this team on his back for a large part of the season, without him we arent even talkin about his failures in the playoffs and the possibility of him failing again..
According to the official "close and late" stat (results in the 7th inning or later with the batting team either ahead by one run, tied or with the potential tying run at least on deck), his career splits show him with 61 home runs in that situation for 12.0% of his total home runs. Ortiz has 40 home runs close and late for 15.6% of his total. Also interesting: That's one HR every 15.5 AB for A-Rod in close and late situations, compared to his career average of one HR every 14.3 at-bats. Meanwhile, Ortiz hits one close and late every 14.4 at-bats, compared to his career norm of one every 16.0 at-bats. They trend away from career norms in opposite directions but I'd have to do more work to determine whether it's statistically significant or within normal variance.
He was talking about players he's managed. also: "Defensively, [Coco Crisp is] the best center fielder in baseball and offensively he makes things happen." -- Dustin Pedroia
that's overall and yankee fans are going to look at what he's done for them. he was good against minnesota, played ok against boston until he absolutely stopped hitting in the latter half of the series, was 2/15 against the angels, and 1/14 against the tigers. is what A-Rod did when playing for the Mariners relevant? Not to any yankee fan.
