The Alex Rodriguez sweepstakes are on again. The grand prize is reported to be $30 million a year. Outrageous you say, well someone will gladly pay for the greatest player in the game today.
The Yankees, reportedly, will not be in the running because of his opt out.
Who can possibly afford to pay this type of salary? In the American league you've got the Angels, and of course Boston. A-rod obviously wants to go to a winner and will veto a Texas type situation. The Angels would be great fit for him and he would certainly thrive in the L.A. marketplace. In Boston, he would ensure further dominance/dynasty. Their payroll would balloon to the Yankees level, but they would easily rule the East. The middle of the order would be Manny, A-Rod, and Big Poppy- wow! I don't know how realistic this scenario is, but with some wheeling and dealing, the Red Sox could save some money by letting go of Schilling.
In the National League, you've got the Mets, Dodgers, Philly and the Cubs. The Mets implosion with their elevated payroll requires an immediate injection of success. Its doable, but A-Rod may want out of N.Y. entirely. The Dodgers are a possibility for similiar reasons as the Angels. Good fit and great market. I don't buy the Philly rumors. Philly has got to be one of the worst places for a pro athlete to play. An A-rod collapse in the playoffs in Philly would lead to him having to leave town for fear of his family's life.
And then you've got the Cubbage. Uncle Lou would love to manage one of his most talented players ever once again. The Cubs obvioiusly have the ownership issue hanging over them. I believe this should simply be ignored. Whoever buys the team will have very deep pockets and most likely is buying ther Cubs as a side business. The payroll will be up substantially next year because of them front loading contracts. But a signing of A-rod would add substantial cache to buying this team. A few millioin bucks a year to the purchase price is not going to deter a billionare.
The detractors to all of these scenarios mostly point to three substantial issues. The first being that many of these teams already have "great" 3rd baseman. I don't buy it. No one even comes close to A-rods numbers. Ramirez of the Cubs looks like a triple a player next to Rodrigueez. Imagine the numbers that A-rod could put up in Wrigley. He could replace any 3rd baseman in the league and within a few weeks you would forget who the old 3rd baseman was- that's how good this guy is.
The second argument centers on his "lack" of ability to play shortstop at this age. I don't buy this on either. He may not have the range he did at 23, but he maintains great conditioining even as he gains a few pounds in older age. Additionally, 3rd to short is not such a stretch.
The final argument goes to the issue of his agent Scott Boras. Many GMs don't want to deal with this guy. Is he greedy, a jerk? I don't know and don't care. He represents great clients and gets the most money for them. This traditionally puts him at odds with GMs and gives him a bad rap. To me, this issue is moot if you want to play ball.
Of course I would love to have Alex Rodriguez as a Cub. He is the best and i want the best for my team. Additionally, the Cubs management has the least to lost by signing him. Its not their money they are spending and none of them may be hear next year to deal with the fallout. With a continued weak N.L. Central, A-Rod could dominate like never before!
4 comments:
My first thought upon seeing the press fall-out concerning the classless timing of ARod's opt-out announcement was "wow, I never have to defend or rationalize this guy's behavior again." As a Yankee fan you would guess I would be devastated upon learning that the Yanks were about to lose the reigning MVP. Nope, more a feeling of relief. I'll never have to rationalize the "slap" play or the "Hah" play again. While such antics would have made ARod a folk hero in Boston or Chicago it was unseemly as a Yankee. Go ahead, accuse me of Yankee arrogance but remember it was Carleton Fisk (Bo & ChiSox lifer) who chastized Deon Sanders for "disrespecting the Pinstripes" for not running out a ball.
A-Rod is the dictionary(sorry, DSM-IV)definition of a narcissist. That's not all bad in the short-term. Best work ethic in the league, always prepared. But it also prevents him from seeing the bigger picture. I will never forget how in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS with Yanks up by one and a man on third all they needed was a fly ball to get the all-important 2 run lead for the save and series sweep. ARod swung from his heels and struck out. The rest is history. Also, whenever he would hit a sac fly, he would appear disgusted that he "just missed" a homer instead of celebrating the insurance run.
However, the negatives you mention should not really be a concern. Could he flourish in Wrigley? Of course. He got leaner in the off-season and I think he could go back to short. Also, his particular type of narcissism (insane work ethic and conditioning) could actually be a positive example for Ramirez and Soriano.
Boras is very smart and usually gets his clients the most money possible. However, with ARod opting out the Yanks would lose the money Texas was paying on the last years of his contract. Money the Yanks could have used on middle relief or anything else that could have helped realize ARod's dream of "playing for a champion." Nope, he opted out because he always needs to be the highest paid athlete. Remember his deal with Texas was exactly 252 million (I believe) because it had to be double Kevin Garnett's deal with Minnesota.
So, chase away, but you know what you are getting into (nice picture of ARod by the way.)
Actually, when you look up a narcissist in DSM-IV it has a picture of Samuel Peralta Sosa. I know exactly what you mean by a sense of relief. The rest of the country sees the hero, but the regular fan only sees the selfishness. Sammy's not quite in the same talent category as A-rod(even with the Domincans best pharmacies behind him), but the world revolved around Sammy. And, yes, i only felt relief when he left.
I remember the SI piece on A-rod during his slump last year when he admitted some of the players don't like him. One of his reasons was that he may be too "pretty". That was my first look into his behavior. As far as the whoring, i could care less. Its a Yankee tradition from Ruth, to Joey D and Mantle etc.
So there are two reasons A-rod ma have opted out. Either he believes he can get more money or he didn't like being there.
Realistically Artie Moreno is probably willing to spend the most, but i don't think A-rod will reach his goal of 30mill. I think mid to low 20's will be the figure. Of course the Cubs won't get him, but we can still dream. You see, the Yanks have had numerous A-rod's, we settle for the Sosa's and the Santo's.
Gallo, if you want to join DCS as a writer, we would love to have you aboard. You can write about anything you like-not limited to Chicago sports. Apparently we even have someone covering St. Rita football.
I agree with jackson, we would welcome gallo on as a writer.
Again, there is no question ARod is a fantastic player. Based on his incredible regular season I wanted the Yankees to do anything they could to keep him. However, I did respect and agree with Cashman's position that if he opted-out the Yanks would not attempt to sign him. I just assumed that they would have a handshake deal were they would reward him after the Texas contact ran out. A pretty stupid assumption considering Boras' history.
However, his post-season performance (yet again) makes his parting painless. He was 4/15 with one RBI (solo shot in loss). As a Yankee he was 23/94 (which includes his one great job in the 2004 DS against the Twins were he was 8/19). These numbers suggest that he pressed and was probably never going to get it done in October, at least as a Yankee.
Can that change with a new team? Sure, he would hit 60+ homers in Wrigley or Fenway and that could carry over to the post-season. Also, don't count out Detroit as a team that will pursue him.
Finally, thanks for the offer of a sportwriter position. However, I will never forget Hunter S. Thompson's estimation that "sports writers are a kind of rude and brainless subculture of fascist drunks whose only real function is to publicize & sell whatever the sports editor sends them out to cover . . .Which is a nice way to make a living, because it keeps a man busy and requires no thought at all." Instead, maybe I could be a special guest commentator ala Jim McKay. I will forward you a picture of me slumped over a manual typewriter.
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