A-Rod? No Gracias!… On the Mind
By Adrian Garcia | Sports on the Mind, Los Angeles Dodgers, ColumnHe’s big, he’s bad, he puts up gigantic numbers. He plays a position where the Dodgers would have upgraded in talent by miles. 
Now he’s gone.
A-Rod is back with the Yankees. Well, pull your nose from your hankies, because I have news for you.
A-Rod staying out of SoCal? Call it a blessing.
Both of SoCal’s baseball teams need help, but A-Rod wasn’t the answer. Especially for the Blue.
Yes, he’s the biggest slugger in the game, and unless A-Rod pulls a Barry Sanders and hangs it up half a dozen years too early, he’ll break Barry BALCO’s home run record. But it’s not about booking tickets for the circus a few years down the road. It’s about winning now.
His selfish ways and “I got its!” to opposing infielders wouldn’t have helped the Blue. He’s no ambassador for the sport or whatever team signed him. MeRod is that Hollywood actor who looks good on camera promoting a film, but on set he’s a pain in the rear. And it’s that set time that gets teams to the next level, not the shiny PR push to sell the product. Worse, when it’s time to open the big movie and earn his paycheck- I’m working for a postseason metaphor here- Rodriguez usually can’t.
The Dodgers had the cash set aside, right? Green must grow on trees at Elysian Park, or why would they have thrown so much of it at Juan Pierre? But all A-Rod would have done was poison the minds of James Loney and Matt Kemp. Make them think that a superstar is supposed to be a cash chasing prima donna who bats .150 in the playoffs. L.A. Dodger fans know baseball, and they will back up anyone who puts on the uniform with pride and plays hard every night (see Russell Martin). They don’t need a pampered overpriced millionaire (could he be a billionaire at this point?) who at some point would probably have demanded only green M&M’s at the postgame spread among other princess demands.
And forget the Battle for la Ciudad. The Dodgers don’t need A-Rod’s star power to be L.A.’s team. They already are. Or haven’t you noticed the record setting crowds?
L.A.A.’s marketing department can say what they want, but the Dodgers still own Los Angeles. Put a John Lackey Billboard in East Los…all your gonna get is ‘Little Puppet’, ‘Miklo’, and ‘Whispers’ tagging a Dodger hat and beard to make him look like vintage Eric Karros. The Dodgers own Hollywood. The stars come to see the Blue Crew. Heck even attention mogul Victoria Beckham knew it would be smarter to be seen at a Dodger game. I have a lot of respect for the new “Angel Way” of Arte Moreno, but even great ownership in the O.C. doesn’t change decades of history.
The Dodgers are Los Dodgers. They didn’t need A-Rod to prove that.
Call me crazy but the Dodgers would better off persuading Boras to let Andrew Jones sign a big one year deal, giving him incentive to jack up his stats for the bigger and better payoff in ’09. Or snag Torii Hunter and his all around skills. Plant either one in center, move Juan Pierre to left, and finally let Andre Ethier (who we all know is a true ballplayer) play every day in right. Then package Matt Kemp, Jonathan Broxton, Tony Abreu, and Jonathan Meloan to Minnesota for Johan Santana, or Oakland for Danny Haren.
It’s hard to part with Kemp, who will be a star, but if it brings you one of the top three aces in baseball, do it. Or the Dodgers can almost certainly get Miguel Tejada for less than that. Maybe Broxton and Abreu. Of course the Azules are in the thick of the Miguel Cabrera Sweepstakes. Maybe Ned Colletti can just pull the trigger on that, already.
In fact, here’s my dream scenario for the Dodgers: First, say goodbye to Kemp, Broxton, Abreu and Meloan for Santana. Then send Clayton Kershaw, Andy LaRoche, and Ivan Dejesus to Florida for Cabrera. Crazy? NO! It would have been crazier to sign A-Rod, who would have only improved one position and ticket sales. If they can sign Jones or Hunter, trade the blue chips for Santana (or even Haren, at a slightly lesser price) and Cabrera, the team would look like this-
Furcal- SS
Martin- C
Loney-1B
Cabrera- 3B
Jones/Hunter- CF
Kent- 2B
Ethier- RF
Pierre- LF
SP- Santana (or Haren), Penny, Lowe, Billingsley, Schmidt
RP- Saito, Brazoban, Proctor, Beimel, Hendrickson, Loaiza
Bench- Garciaparra, Valdez, Repko, Young, Hu, Whatever backup catcher they find to play seven times in ’08
Now that’s a roster than can celebrate 50 years in L.A. in style. All without that $275 million price tag the Steinbrenners will shell out. No home run record, sure, but no circus either.
I’d rather have the rings, anyway.
Adrian Garcia currently serves as a reporter for the Dodgers on FSN/Prime Ticket, to go along with his duties as play by play announcer for Fox Baseball in Espanol. Garcia is also a frequent guest host on 710 ESPN radio.
Discuss:
4 Responses to “A-Rod? No Gracias!... On the Mind”
- 1 Pingback on Nov 18th, 2007 at 5:16 am
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And when Santana walks after the season and Cabrerra walks in 2 years and we will have traded so much talent to never recover. we need to stop thinking of one year plans and think long term. i would rather have those 7-8 players, all making the minimum for next 5 years. teams that bild from within buld for the long term. it has taken the dodgers since the early 70s to have this much young talent and just as it emerges people like u and coletti i am afraid want to destroy it
First off, it’s Andruw Jones. Secondly, I thought Ned C. was an awful GM, but he’s Al Campanis compared to you. The Dodgers have spent years drafting talent under Logan White’s sure hand, and you’re now ready to trade most of that for two players and then sign guys well into or entering their thirties. I’d support a deal for Santana, but I think the Dodgers would be crazy to send off most of their young talent for both him and Cabrera. You’re willing to gamble the bullpen on Saito, a perennially injured Brazoban, and failed starters Loaiza/Hendrickson. If you watch a lot of Santana games, he doesn’t go all the way very often, as batters tend to foul his stuff off. Jones and Hunter are at the bottom end of their careers, both very physical centerfielders who have sacrificed their bodies in their 20s and don’t project to play at the same level into their late 30s. Andy LaRoche is a solid third baseman, as evidenced by his AAA, AFL and Team USA numbers this year. He’s an on-base machine, and he’s starting to hit for power. Cabrera’s defensive skills, or lack therof, are sending him to first base or back to left field sooner than later. Last I looked, the Dodgers have a glut at those positions. Cabrera is an enormous talent, but I guarantee you he’s going to demand $20M or so a year once he’s a free agent. At the rate that teams are locking their free agent possibles up with extensions, he’s going to get what he wants, too.
As for A-Rod, if I hadn’t been reading the same stuff all over the place, I wouldn’t believe your take on the guy. As a person, he comes off as a phony politician who tries way to be hard to be loved by the masses. I imagine with the money, looks and talent the guy has, he’s probably not the easiest guy to hang around with on a regular basis. However, he’s the best hitter in baseball and it’s not even close. I guarantee you the Dodgers would have made the playoffs this season if A-Rod was playing the hot corner for them. Do you know what Andy LaRoche and Nomar Garciaparra hit in the playoffs this year? Oh year, they didn’t, because they didn’t get there! A-Rod’s VORP was 13.7 this year - which means he was worth 13 more wins to the Yankees than a bottom of the barrel third baseman; the Yankees wouldn’t be complaining about getting booted from the playoffs, because they wouldn’t have made the playoffs without A-Rod. I think the guy is pressing more every year, but if you think he’s the only Yankee feeling the pressure, check out Derek Jeter’s stats from the ALDS this year: a very consistent .176/.176/.176; interestingly enough, nobody’s ripping him for being a choker, and if you think this is the only big series when he sucked, how about the 2004 ALCS vs the future world champion Red Sox: .200/.333./.233. Mr. November he wasn’t! Jeter has a career post-season line of .309/.377/.469, which is exceptional, but A-Rod’s line ain’t so shabby either: .279/.361/.483. He hit .267/.353/.467 in this year’s ALDS vs Cleveland, and he hit a late game homer in Game 4 that got the Yankees within striking reach of the Indians in that game. Face it, the guy is great, and prior to 2005, he was one of the best post-season hitters in the game. I’m sure he’ll have a big series again one day, and this nonsense about Choke-Rod will end once and for all. In case you think I’m a homer, I hate the Yankees more than the Dodgers (I’m a lifelong Reds fan), so this is as impartial an argument as you’re going to get.
I’m not sure if A-Rod would have been worth the money for a cash-starved team like the Rangers, but a big-market team like the Dodgers could have survived paying him $27-28M a year without mortgaging their future. The Yankees were smart enough to realize where they’d be without him, and A-Rod knew he belonged in New York (I guarantee you that if he’d moved out West, his favorite song would have become ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water’ by William Bell).
Here’s A-Rod’s Baseball Reference page for your persual. I guarantee you that you won’t find another player who has gotten it done as well for as long as he has.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rodrial01.shtml
First of the Dodgers suck and will always suck even if they had A-Rod. Second its useless to compete in the west against the SAN DIEGO PADRES the Padres wack GM Kevin “I take the credit for Randy Smith in 98″Towers will sign no one and still take the west why because of pitching. The Dodgers might as well trade their young talent away because they’ll never amount to anything playing for LA. Stats are over rated they dont show a choke ratio. A-Rod is gay and would have a perfect fit in LA for his lifestyle. Pathetic Dodger fans I hope you realize it takes more than one player to win especially when you can pitch around the best player to go after the scrubs.