Another day, another A-Rod story — actually, there were about four of them, as it turns out! (My brief comment on all of that, besides thinking that writer Bill Madden is ridiculous in calling Rodriguez the “Whitey Bulger of baseball,” is this — Alex may be paranoid, but the Yankees are really out to get him!)
Today, I want to squawk about Mark Feinsand’s “exclusive” article in the New York Daily News today. Some unnamed Yankee player is complaining about the “A-Rod circus” of the media surrounding the team over it. The player says:
“Guys are just tired of it,” the player said. “The media circus that’s revolving around Alex is insane — and we haven’t even seen him. It just keeps going. It’s like a carousel that just keeps going around and around and around. At some point, it has to stop.”
“I would like his bat in the lineup. We could obviously use it because the potential for some home runs would help us a lot. But with the circus that’s surrounding him right now, I don’t think anybody wants that.
Look on the bright side, anonymous player. All of the ongoing drama involving Alex Rodriguez may be extremely tedious for you to deal with, but it takes the heat off you and the rest of your fourth-place teammates, not to mention Brian Cashman and the Steinbrenner kids. You know, the way when nearly all the Yankee bats spit the bit in the playoffs, the media and the team only focused on A-Rod. Without Rodriguez to take all of the attention, the media might get very vocal on other things about this team, and you might face some real scrutiny, other than “What do you think of A-Rod?” questions. Questions like these:
- The Yankees are in fourth place, and only a seven-game losing streak by the Toronto Blue Jays has kept the team from sinking further.
- And forget about the Wild Card — if the season ended today, the Yanks would not make the playoffs. They are tied for fourth with Cleveland for the Wild Card spot, Yes, the $228M Yankee squad has the same record as the $80M Indians team, whose biggest name (other than Terry Francona) is Nick Swisher.
- CC Sabathia is 9-8, with a 4.37 ERA, an earned run average that is worse than even Phil Hughes. What’s wrong with him? He’s not that old to be on the downside of his career,
- Kevin Youkilis. I’ve said it all before, but that is one of the worst signings in Yankee history.
- While the Mets have Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler and other great young arms soon to be making their way to Flushing, the Yanks have crickets where the Killer Bs used to be.
- The Yanks are about to trade for Alfonso Soriano. Because any time you can get a 37-year-old with a .286 OBP making $18M a year, you’ve got to do so. Not to mention his 89 strikeouts as compared to 15 walks!
- Between Soriano and Vernon Wells, the Yanks could end up paying $20M this year for two has-beens. But they didn’t have $7 million to spare to re-sign Russell Martin? Or money for Raul Ibanez?
- Was two months of Lance Berkman worth Mark Melancon?
- When is Michael Pineda ever going to be ready for the majors? The Wall Street Journal reports that he may not come up with the Yanks until after September 1. While Jesus Montero has not panned out so far this year, the fact is that the Yankees should have gotten more for trading their top prospect. (Incidentally, Montero, along with A-Rod, Francisco Cervelli, Bartolo Colon, and Melky Cabrera, are also named in the Biogenesis scandal. But the Yankee brass simply had no idea any of this was going on? Spare me.)
- And so on, and so on. I don’t have all day to point out everything wrong with this team, other than to note that without the A-Rod to captivate the media (he’s the shiny object they’re always focused on), even Teflon Cashman might start to get a little criticism from his lackeys in the media.
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