David Wright and Arod

by NDirishMV on Mar 20, 2007 9:20 PM EDT Comment 18 comments

I know its not the most recent news but, did anyone else cringe when they heard David Wright say that he would play anywhere to get Arod on the team. I think arod is already uncomfortably close to shea stadium when he is playing in yankee stadium. I would do anything for him not to put on a mets jersey. All hes good for is slapping at the ball and not feilding it. ( google arod slap for pics )

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Hi.

We just discussed this. Stick around the site a while and read some more, maybe check your punctuation and spelling a little better, and you'll be quite welcome.

Also, I have no idea what the deal is with fans who don't wish Alex Rodriguez played for their team. I think he's a jerk too, but come on, look at his abilities and tell me there's any reason besides money why you wouldn't want him in a Mets uniform. (Money is a good reason: he's going to want even more of it if he cancels his last three years, and he'll go for much more than his age-declining production will be worth.)

by anonymous on Mar 21, 2007 12:50 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

ARod a jerk?

I hear this a lot, but I've seen nothing to make me think he's got a jerk or has a bad attitude.

No DUIs, no domestic violence, no juicing rumors. So far, so good.

He shows up in camp in phenomenal shape and smacks the holy bejeezus out of the baseball. He plays wherever his team needs him w/o making a fuss. He shuts his hole when his teammates get into extracurricular trouble. He's a teamplayer & a hardworker. That's good.

So what if he doesn't get along with his teammates? Giambi and Sheffield are cheaters and Matsui doesn't speak english. His wife probably won't let him hang out with a class 1-AAA p-hound like Derek Jeter. (Good for her. Look what happened to Lo Duca & Cliffy and Davey are no Derek Jeter.)

He likes money and winning. Those are good qualities in a professional athlete.

What am I missing?

The worst thing I can think about him is that his Radio Shack commercials were unwatchable, despite the presence of the extra-tasty Daisy Fuentes. (Yum.)

P.S. Welcome mvetack!

by citimetro on Mar 21, 2007 6:07 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

not about the game

I want to emphasize that my impression that he's a jerk has nothing to do with his attitude as a player or his performance, or my esteem for his fantastic play. I feel that this is completely irrelevant to my judgment of him as a ballplayer, just like I think Ty Cobb deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, since he was an excellent ballplayer, even though he once stabbed someone.

It's just my personal impression of Rodriguez's character that the guy doesn't seem like someone it would be nice or pleasant to be around. He seems petulant and self-involved, defensive and peevish, and far too concerned with making himself look good. And his series of attempted explanations and self-justifications for the affaire du slap were unconvincing in the extreme, making him look like a White House press secretary trying to justify some new presidential outrage rather than a guy who did a dumb thing and felt bad about it. He just seems like a bit of a jerk to me, but it's obviously not an uncommon thing for a superstar athlete.

by anonymous on Mar 21, 2007 6:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hey

The reason I wouldnt want him is exactly what you just said. I think hes a jerk. I dont think that just buying big name players is how you win championships. The yankees had a all thier success in the 90s with guys like Scott Brosius, Jeter, Bernie Williams. Guys that they either had in their farm system or signed/traded for before they were big money guys.

Attitude of players and how they get along is a big reason why teams win ball games. There will be no less stress on arod to perform for the mets as their is on him to perform as a yankee. And if the mets want to win a world series they need guys that can come up big in the playoffs. AROD has shown that he is not that guy.

by NDirishMV on Mar 21, 2007 8:52 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

huh?

I think we're watching different games. In the sport I follow, "base-ball," winning is achieved by advancing baserunners to home plate and preventing the opposition from doing likewise. Players' attitudes and feelings about each other do not matter in this sport, unlike their abilities to hit, field, and pitch. Perhaps you are a follower of "character-ball" or "feelings-ball," a sport in which such people as Ty Cobb and Pete Rose would never succeed. In my sport, there are many jerks among the greatest players ever to live.

And please, no more of the "True Yankee" stuff. I wonder how long it's going to take for this burgeoning legend of Scott Brosius to die out? Talk about being in the right place at the right time, or confusing correlation with causation. (Jeter and Williams, of course, are very good baseball players, whether they have quiet eyes and captain-like intangibles or not.)

by anonymous on Mar 21, 2007 10:40 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

hmmm

Character and how a team gets along has soooo much to do with winning. A teams chemistry is sometimes more important then having the best players. The sox when they won their world series were the so called "Idiots". If they replaced players like Kevin Millar, Trot Nixon, and Bill Mueller with higher paid players they would not have won the world series. I live in red sox country and it was obvious that thier succes was due to the fact that they gelled and played as a team. They didnt have the huge contracts with thier key players and they made it happen.

The next couple seasons they got rid of such guys as millar, roberts, and orlando cabrera. They brought in guys that they paid big money for and had the stats that looked good on paper like Renteria and josh beckett and they didnt even make the playoffs last year. They actually finished behind the blue jays for 3rd place. So yes attitudes of players and not always huge stats that win championships.

by NDirishMV on Mar 21, 2007 1:29 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Character

Character and chemistry matters in so much that it keeps the individual happy to perform hit, field and pitch at his highest level. No one The Corporation gets to play 3B is going to hit better than A-Rod. The Red Sox didn't finish out of the playoffs that last year because of Chemistry, they struggled to get guys out in the rotation and in the bullpen in front of Papelbon. Renteria was essentially the same player in Boston that has been in Atlanta and St. Louis, and better than Alex Gonzalez and for that matter, Julio Lugo. The problem was that wasn't good enough for the Sox faithful and Renteria disliked the enviroment there and asked for a trade. The Chemistry issues had no effect on the his performance.

its a ground ball...trickling... its a fair ball, its by Buckner, rounding third Knight, the Mets will win the ballgame, the Mets win

by DoctorK16 on Mar 21, 2007 1:51 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

good players win championships

Character and chemistry has very, very little to do with it. Go see how well the 1972-74 A's or 1977-78 Yankees got along with each other on their way to multiple world series titles.

Yes, the 2004 Sox had some "character" guys. Those character guys also hit the tar out of the ball and pitched very well. The team had the 2nd best run differential in the majors and the best pythagorean record. I think the fact that those players were talented is a lot more important than whether those players "gelled".

And even if character is important, I think all the negative stuff said about A-Rod is a load of crap.

I'd love to have a player of A-Rod's talent level on the Mets.

Driving the Oliver Perez bandwagon!

by Greenpoint Ian on Mar 21, 2007 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

getting a new t3rd Basemen

I don't see why we would even need a new 3Bman. David wright is one of the best 3Bman in the league. Arod wouldnt take reyes job at short stop because we all know that him at second is not as good as him at short stop. Of course he played their when matsui took the short stop job.

And where would wright play. The OF? That would be just one more step backward for the multiple OF prospects we have waiting for their chance to play.

Our lineup is fine where it is now. The thing we need is for our pitchers to pitch good. The hitting will be there all year its just the matter of our pitching keeping us in ball games.

by NDirishMV on Mar 21, 2007 2:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

these perfectally good reasons

for not wanting A-Rod, note that Chemistry isn't among them. I agree with all of this.

its a ground ball...trickling... its a fair ball, its by Buckner, rounding third Knight, the Mets will win the ballgame, the Mets win

by DoctorK16 on Mar 21, 2007 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

moving Wright

By the way, because this has me thinking about it again: it's clear moving Wright to the outfield is suboptimal, and you made a good point in the last round of the A-Rod discussion about moving Rodriguez to 2B being a poor choice, too, because his sheer size makes avoiding the breakup slide hard. Why not move Wright to second instead? It seems like this would play to his strengths in the field: he's agile and reacts quickly, but perhaps has limited range for a third baseman. It's a small step up the defensive spectrum, but if Wright could make it, that might end up being the best-hitting infield ever assembled. (Granted that this is all in the realm of fantasy and there's no way A-Rod is actually becoming a Met.)

by anonymous on Mar 21, 2007 2:17 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

that works better

but I think Wright may struggle at 2B because for same issue he has at 3B sometimes, his lateral movement isn't great. It might be OK though because it does hide his really big weakness and that is his arm strength. It does make a lot more sense than A-Rod at 2b though.

its a ground ball...trickling... its a fair ball, its by Buckner, rounding third Knight, the Mets will win the ballgame, the Mets win

by DoctorK16 on Mar 21, 2007 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Position

Why not have ARod move to first as Delgado is a free agent at the end of next season. Alternatively, ARod could move to the outfield. He's already moved once, he'd probably be willing to move again.

by OronosFemur on Mar 21, 2007 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs