Sigh
You may not have noticed, but I haven't had anything to say about the Torre book in a couple of days. The reason for that is because the A-Rod chapter really bothered me. It bothered me so much that I put the book down for a day and then went and read it again last night. I wanted to take my time with my thoughts.
What I was going to say about it seems almost silly in light of today's A-Rod news, but here it goes. It is clear that Torre and Verducci don't like A-Rod very much. In the book they blame him for just about everything except cancer. Is it true the Yankees have sucked in the postseason since A-Rod arrived? Yes, it is. Is it true A-Rod has sucked in the postseason since he arrived? Yes, it is. But, I think you need to dig a little deeper than that. Start with the pitching. Since 2003, the Yankees have had mediocre pitching. Look back at the teams that won and they all had deep pitching staffs. Do you think not having that pitching matters in the playoffs? I would say absolutely.
Anyway, I was going to go on like that for awhile, but luckily I have a new topic to vent on. Apparently, A-Rod failed a steroids test in 2003. (BTW- if anyone is reading the book and doesn't think it goes out of its way to bash Alex, please speak up) Here are a bunch of thoughts on this in no particular order.
1- This is a six-year old test that is just coming to light now? And, there are 103 other players who also failed. When are those names going to start leaking out? This would be a wonderful time for baseball and the players' union to come clean and provide all the names. It will never happen, but it would be a nice thing right now.
2- I have no doubt the story is true. Four sources confirmed it and that seems more than enough to me. But, I also have a major problem with "unnamed sources" hiding in the shadows and destroying people.
3- Who knew about this list and more specifically, did the Yankees know about it? If so, why did they trade for A-Rod in the first place? It would seem to me that the only reason the Yankees would have traded for A-Rod if they had known about this was because they knew everyone was juicing.
4- How scary is it that the most credible person in regards to this topic is Jose Canseco?
5- I was really looking forward to seeing A-Rod break the home run record as a "clean" player. That's pretty much gone now.
6- However, A-Rod was tested the past few years and for the WBC, which has Olympic-level testing and he didn't fail once. How do we reconcile that with this?
7- This just proves what a bad job the Mitchell Report did. This garbage is everywhere and I am sick of hearing Bud Selig crow about how good a job baseball has done to curb steroid use. Bud, you and the other owners and players were running an athletic pharmacy for years. Cut the crap and admit it.
8- Alex absolutely needs to get in front of a camera in the next 24 hours and address this. Admit it or deny it (be careful if you deny it Alex, think of Clemens) but he has to address it.
9- Along the lines of #3, do the Yankees have a way to get out of his deal now? Maybe not his contract, but the whole "milestone home run" thing? It would seem to me that marketing home runs clouded by steroids is a losing proposition.
10- I am depressed now.
Comments
Peter,
A few observations, not necessarily strung together in a coherent fashion.
I kinda had the suspicion back in 2006 that Torre didn't much like A-Rod. That article in SI (written by Verducci, no less) might have had a little something to do with it. Then again, Torre's indefensible decision to bat A-Rod 8th against the Tigers in Game 4 of the LDS might have had a little something to do with it, too.
It's not entirely true that A-Rod has sucked in the postseason since he arrived. He did, after all, have a good LDS against the Twins in 2004 (so, for that matter, did Kevin Brown -- shows how much that counts!!). So, he has mostly sucked in the postseason. But that's just a quibble. Trying to be fair, here. Of course, as you wrote, the lack of big-time pitching has been their primary post-season flaw. Followed closely by a lack of intestinal fortitude. The Yankees of 1996-2000 hated to fail. The Yankees of 2004-2008 have been afraid to fail. That's a big difference.
With regards to item #3, I would ask you: How about Giambi? Everyone suspected back in 2001 that Giambi had been juicing. Re-phase your question, substituting "A-Rod" for "Giambi" and "trade for" with "sign". Answer: Because everyone's doing it, no one's doing anything so stop it, so we might as well get the best players available regardless of whether or not their juicing. My point is: They must have known with Giambi. They certainly didn't let it bother them. So it doesn't matter if they knew about A-Rod, because again, it wouldn't have mattered to them.
Ironic note: Schilling, who, you may have heard, generally has nothing nice to say about A-Rod, did mention a few years ago that he had to hand it to A-Rod because at least everything he'd accomplished had been done cleanly.
Item #6: Maybe he stopped juicing after he got caught in 2003? (I haven't read the SI article, so I don't know if anything written there has ruled this possibility out, i.e., I don't know when A-Rod learned that he'd failed the 2003 test. All I'm saying is that if he learned in 2003, he might have gotten scared of getting caught again and stopped.)
Item #9: Why should the Yanks be allowed out of the contract? Look, either they knew (prior to the trade) that he'd failed the 2003 test, or they didn't. If they knew, on what grounds could they possibly have demanded to be released from the previous contract, much less the present one? If they didn't know (if this is the first they're learning about it), then their previous behavior with respect to Giambi's signing deprives them of the moral high ground. Because (I repeat): they had to have known about Giambi. Hell, everyone knew. And they went after him anyway. Hard. A-Rod opted out. And in a pretty vulgar way, too. The Yanks re-signed to him to a grotesque contract. Nobody twisted their arms. The Yanks deserve what they get.
This is gonna be a real fun year now.
Posted by: Greg | February 7, 2009 09:09 PM |
Greg- Fair point, if Mariano sends the Red Sox down in Game 4 of the ALCS in 2004, A-Rod had a great series and a great postseason.
I have to admit, I didn't really start to draw the steroids conclusions until after Giambi signed. I cheered Bonds in 2001 because I thought he was clean. (not my finest moment)
Let's assume you are right about A-Rod and he stopped juicing after 2003. His numbers are essentially the same as they were before, so what conclusion can we draw? Is it that he found a new, undetectable drug, or is it that steroids didn't help him?
For the last point, I agree they shouldn't be able to get out of the deal. But, unless it is shown otherwise, I believe they thought A-Rod was going to set a "natural" home run record and therefore the milestone bonuses probably should be removed. (And yes, I know that is small potatoes compared to the rest of the deal.)
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February 7, 2009 11:23 PM
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