Bull in a China Shop - DO NOT WANT

Ooof. . . How many teams could afford him? I mean, if I had to guess it would be Boston, L.A., the Mets and the Yankees. Maybe Chicago, but I don't think so. Quite honestly, I don't think that the Red Sox want to change that lineup too much if they can help it. Though, replacing Lowell with someone with slightly more power might be acceptable, does Boston really want to do that? I couldn't speak about the needs of the Dodgers or the Cubs.

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It's not just his price-tag that horrifies me. Dude is a mopey prima donna with a history of folding in big games. Besides, one overpaid Boras client on the roster (Carlos Beltran) is enough.

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Oh, trust me, I knew where a good portion of your horror came from. It actually started to scare me as I was capable of rationalizing that, yes, they could make room for him in Boston. Now, I'm not a life-long Red Sox fan (mostly, I started following the team because Pedro was such an interesting and amusing figure, then came Schilling), but I'm a little unnerved that he could go there with a little effort. However, I'm glad to say my Phillies, even if they could pay him, are too cheap. . . :-)

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No, no, no...see, we have this nifty third baseman over here by the name of Mike Lowell. You might have heard, he was World Series MVP?

Yeah. I'll bet dollars to donuts that the Sox re-sign him. There's even a petition out (supposedly at the Rolling Rally today) to keep Mike Lowell.

Besides, I'd bet that Jason (Varitek) and A-Rod would be fighting daily in the clubhouse. Which means A-Rod would be unable to play. :)

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Ah, but A-Rod used to play shortstop, and Julio Lugo's numbers don't look so good in the regular season. Never mind his kick ass performance in the post (and the clutch), or the fact that he's a better defensive player, from what I can tell. . .

I would think that if the Red Sox can keep Lowell from going anywhere, they will. He fits in well with the organization and the team, and is probably one of the best overall players in the position today. He's no Mike Schmidt, I mean to say, who was the best to ever play the position, but then, neither was Mike Schmidt some days. However, if it's a matter of keeping Lowell (I'm not entirely aware of his contract situation, but I thought it was on the hairy edge kind of stuff), it seems there's this opening and $25-30 million of available salary in NYC. So, cross your fingers and pray to whatever gods you hold truck with, and maybe things will be okay.

As for A-Rod, he plays for A-Rod. Unfortunately, he's a marquee name. If he can get asses in seats, he's going to end up somewhere. That's what sucks about guys like him: They usually end up getting their way. . .

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No, the Lowell situation isn't cut and dried yet, I'm just being overly optimistic, because frankly, I love the guy and desperately want him to stay with us. Mike wants to stay here. Theo wants him to stay here. I basically think (and I want to say I'm in the majority here) you give your World Series MVP whatever he asks for and be thankful. He wants a two year contract? Sign him. He wants $10mil/yr? Do it. Lord knows, we've given a lot more to players who are a lot less (JD Drew jumps to mind, as well as Lugo).

Yeah, but the worst part of A-Rod is Scott Boras. I'm ashamed to say that Scott Boras is also Jason Varitek's agent, and he really pushed in '04 to the point that there were some serious concerns about Jason being re-signed. And we'll have to go through it again next year. Boras is out for the money equally, if not more so, than A-Rod. He was the one who leaked the news about the opting out (which was completely bush league the way they announced it, and Boras apologized...a little too little, a little too late).

SS has been a revolving door for us. We NEVER should have given up Alex Gonzelez. Best investment in a shortstop we ever made, and we let him go.

I like the idea that I've heard though, that with Joe Torre in consideration for the Dodgers manager, that maybe A-Rod will follow him there.

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Mopey prima donna? Perhaps. Too expensive? Probably.

Folding in big games? I know you're a smarter guy than that :) Spend a few minutes here and hopefully you'll see the light. Or does having a .279/.361/.483 line in the playoffs qualify as "folding"?

Admittedly, you've got this and this manning his two primary positions. If your third baseman looked like this, though, you'd be happy to take 50 home runs, in whatever form.

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*boggles* How in the name of Harmon Killebrew did that schmo get 472 ABs?

I'm not the stat-hound I used to be--no time for it anymore--and A-Rod's actual postseason numbers are better than I'd imagined. But even so, if you want $30 MILLION every g.d. year, you are telling me that you are better than that. You are telling me you are money, you are Mr. October. You are this, or perhaps this. Not this. I can get that more cheaply. :)

I'd also be curious to see his RISP numbers during the playoffs.

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I'll give you Ortiz. But two of the players you mention didn't make it to the playoffs this year :) One of them has won one World Series in 11 trips to the playoffs (when his team had an absolutely lights-out pitching staff).

Tell me with a straight face that .314/.422/.645 with 54 HR and 156 RBI wasn't worth at least 6 wins, which is what the Yankees won the wild card by. Or maybe, just maybe, a 4.50 team ERA (and 6 runs/game in the playoffs) had something to do with it.

Or before last year, did you think the Colts would have been better off without Peyton Manning? :)

And Ron Gardenhire likes Nick Punto because he's a utility infielder who's hard-nosed, gritty, and plays the game right, just like he did. Their talent levels are similar.

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According to this, A-Rod was worth 13 wins this season. If your typical championship team wins 90-100 games, he's worth between 1/7 and 1/8 of your payroll. By that admittedly unscientific reckoning, the Yankees are the only team in MLB who could afford to pay him (at his old salary) what he was worth to them...their payroll was $195.2M this year. If he's asking for $30M, and the Yankees up their payroll to $210M for 2008, he'd have to be worth about 14 wins to have equal value...and he's at the age when his production is likely to level off, if not decline.

Adjust that win proportion upward for the rest of the teams who don't have $200M payrolls, and the real market for A-Rod (at least, among teams with prudent GMs) gets much smaller. :)

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You're working under the fallacy that the Yankees have a budget :) They don't. Neither do the Red Sox. The Mets, Dodgers, Cubs, and probably Angels and White Sox would find a way to make the money work, if they wanted to.

I never maintained that $30 million wasn't too much to pay. I maintain that if your team can spend as much as it likes, you should get him and not damn him based on a very small sample size of ABs (like RISP in the postseason) :)

And production for hitters declines after 27. He's been in "decline" for 4 years :)

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...better you than us? ;)

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Actually, I had heard this. I had also heard that since Grady Little is (about to be) fired, the he might go to LA since the Dodgers are considering Joe Torre for manager.

That would not be bad at all, as far as I'm concerned.

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See, I read this article today:

http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071031&content_id=2289325&vkey=news_nym&fext=.jsp&c_id=nym

And I swear - I had the same reaction you did. If they do pursue Rodriguez, it might actually make me less of a Met fan - especially if they ended up displacing David Wright in order to make that happen.

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