Letters to the Editor
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Player valuation
Why not just look at how much the team paid per base advanced? Here's what I get for the 2006 Yankees:
$ / Game $ / TB
- Johnny Damon $80,246.91 $41,806.96
- Jason Giambi $126,102.29 $70,394.45
- Derek Jeter $127,160.49 $65,058.86
- Hideki Matsui $80,246.91 $48,148.15
- Jorge Posada $74,074.07 $46,255.86
- Alex Rodriguez $133,831.65 $68,930.01
- Gary Sheffield $66,396.12 $38.080.13
I'm using salary data from USA Today, adjusting for games played, and dividing by total bases. For the games played adjustment, I divide the salary by 162 and multiply by GP, to give dollars paid for games played. I'm ignoring dollars paid while injured or benched.
It doesn't look to me like A-Rod is terribly overpaid. If the average ticket price is $25 at Yankee Stadium, then they have to sell 5,353 tickets to pay A-Rod's salary, or 27,522 tickets to pay for all seven of their $10-million-plus players. Not too bad in a stadium that seats 57,500 and regularly sells out.
Compare this to the New York Rangers having to sell about 16,500 tickets out of Madison Square Garden's 17,500 seats to pay for their top 7 players. And I just don't think Jaromir Jagr gets butts in seats like A-Rod does.
-Moonbat
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A few things...
Some of these points have already been touched on, but some haven't, and they're all worthy of being repeated.
1) Someone else's "value" compared to A-Rod's is meaningless to the Yankees. They have an endless amount of money and they're willing to spend all of it to get the team that they want. In this light, bringing in anyone other than A-Rod is stupid.
2) Likewise, iff they'd spent $35 million/year on him, it would have affected their chances at signing some pitchers by exactly zero, as the money available to spend on pitching is also endless.
3) A-Rod did not lose any money on this deal, or at least not nearly as much as people are implying. Yes, it's a smaller contract than he was originally asking for. However, that earlier asking price was through Boras. This contract was negotiated directly by A-Rod, and so he does not owe Boras the usual agent fees. I don't know what Boras's fee typically is, but I think it's safe to assume that it's significant.
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Rodriguez vs. Jeter
All I can say is that, viscerally, I get clammy when Jeter is up in a key spot in October, less so than A-Rod.
Me too. I think it's partially because of my expectations, and partially because of their different approaches. I don't care for Jeter, but I know that he rarely makes a poor decision. He might not execute, but at least he's always playing to the situation. Rodriguez just doesn't appear to be trying to do that, or at least not until the last game or two of the series last year.
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Closers
With the resigning of Rivera, it might be a good time to make a statistical comparison between the decline of dominant closers in recent years, and the initiation of steroid testing in MLB.
True, the likes of Rivera, Wagner, Hoffman and Gagne are getting older...but their slipping performance is pretty suspicious.
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give me lowell any day
I agree that if you take a logical look at A-Rod's RBIs, and his OBP and his batting average, he deserved the MVP award. Hands down.
But sports are about more than mere logic, even baseball, mired as it is in number-crunching analysis and facts. And it's the human element that appeals to me as a fan.
There's just something in A-Rod's eyes that I don't like. I read in his facial expressions "Look at me! Look! I'm the best! Are they looking at me?" Everybody knew this kid in grade school and hated his guts. You just want to stick your glove in his face, as Varitek did in '04. The best I can feel for A-Rod is pity.
Whereas Mike Lowell, whose overall numbers may not make him a logical choice over A-Rod, appeals to fans on a gut level. Look in his eyes and you see that he is *watching the game*. He's an able third-baseman who shows genuine interest and concern for his teammates.
To sum up: Baseball is a team sport. A-Rod is a jerk. It's hard to find value in him when you look beyond the numbers.
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violetkris
I'd rather that my team signs some players who are good at playing baseball. See how many games your team wins when they start signing players based on the looks in their eyes.
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Lowell/Rivera
actually, the Yankees made an offer to Lowell and were talking about playing him at first base, not 3rd. obviously part of the rationale would have been that they were hurting their rival. guess King didn't hear about that...I would say that Arod is probably one of the least overpaid yankees, or at least less so than Rivera and Posada. I can't wait for 2009 when both of those guys are completely washed up and still costing the yankees an arm and a leg. sounds like no big deal, but they are going need to the money with the new stadium costing around a billion.
also about Rivera being so great: 2004 Championship series; 2001 World Series (for the record, blamed that last one on Brosius). good- I though that would shut you Yankee fans up!!
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Irsigman...
OK, fair enough. So I'll never be a GM. ;)
I was just responding to King's query: "Why all the shouting?" Why are fans up in arms when the numbers clearly show A-Rod to be deserving?
How about these numbers?: Two world-series wins since Boston was outbid by the Yankees for A-Rod in '03. Maybe the Look-in-His-Eye factor is worth considering.