ARod the Angel?

[dannahann]

Rodriguez won't come cheaply. The Yankees figure to ask for no less than Ervin Santana, Scot Shields, Chone Figgins and a high-level prospect.

Not sure that I what I would think about that trade. I don't think I would be against it, but I'm just not sure what kind of package a guy like ARod should bring.

Thoughts?

Is it me? This package would seem like WAY too much? Are the 'fortunate son' Yankee fans just so spoiled by always getting everything and anything they want that they see this as not enough.

[raiders_umpire]

Rodriguez won't come cheaply. The Yankees figure to ask for no less than Ervin Santana, Scot Shields, Chone Figgins and a high-level prospect.

Not sure that I what I would think about that trade. I don't think I would be against it, but I'm just not sure what kind of package a guy like ARod should bring.

Thoughts?

Is it me? This package would seem like WAY too much? Are the 'fortunate son' Yankee fans just so spoiled by always getting everything and anything they want that they see this as not enough.

If I were the Angels GM, I would give up Figgins, Shields, Santana, and a top prospect in a heartbeat to get Arod.

[Tavish]

No way the Angels trade the future of the rotation or lineup for A-Rod. When Moreno says he guarentees a big bat I would expect that Soriano becomes the #1 target in the offseason.

[bravo369]

i'm a yankee fan and i think angels are giving up a lot for arod. i might do that if i'm the yanks. you get a quality starter, a quality utility/3rd baseman, and a prospect. part of the reason angels always seem to beat the yanks is because figgins has a field day and always seems to get on base against yankee pitching. it would be nice to see him out of their lineup and into ours.

speaking of which, i wonder how the lineup would look. damon and jeter would probably stay at the top and i doubt they'd do damon, figgins, jeter and then the power hitters. figgins might end up batting 8th or 9th. that would probably work out well in the 9th if figgins was leading off from the 9th spot and yanks down 2 or 3 runs. figgins, damon and jeter...3 guys who can get on and steal a base before the power comes up.

[Geek]

My guess is that the Yankees keep either A-Rod or Sheffield, but not both.

That lineup DOES need righthanded bats.

[BritSox]

They don't need to trade arod for hurlers. There are much better SP than 3B options in FA this year. Don't forget that the difference between Wright's option and buyout is only $3m or so, he's not that bad a pitcher to make that a poor investment.

[slomo007]

Arod's contract is going to be near impossible to move. Remember the hurdles that had to be cleared just to ship him to Boston, I mean, NY?

It won't happen again, IMO. If it does, expect it to take several months.

[thomasps3]

So here is what we have:
The race card played
The most popular team card played
The smartest and most beautiful player card played

The no-trade portion of the contract is the last thing ARod is thinking about. He is looking a less-pressurized scenario, a la LA, where the Angels are important, but not nearly as important as the Yankees are to NYC.

And if the Red Sox are willing to get .70c on the dollar to deal Manny, then a $16MM ARod is not going to warrant $1.2 on the dollar to deal ARod, no matter how much better(?) ARod is.

Remember, the Red Sox offered Manny to the Angels last year, asking for essentially the same deal and were rebuffed. No way they give up that much for ARod this year.

[gfantasy]

Tom Verducci's A-Rod Article
(not sure how many of you guy's saw this...

In The Papers yesterday:

The New York Yankees wrapped up the American League East title last night, learning shortly after their loss to the Toronto Blue Jays that the Minnesota Twins had beaten the second-place Boston Red Sox. That caps a remarkable run to the title for the Yankees, who beat the Bosox rather easily despite losing sluggers Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield and second baseman Robinson Cano for large stretches of the season.

It's been an impressive season, but also a strange one: Some well-earned champagne flowed last night, but good luck finding a column about that this morning. Instead, the Bronx Bombers are once again facing questions about behind-the-scenes doings.

The latest distraction? An article2 by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated, a baseball writer with sit-up-and-listen stature, portraying Alex Rodriguez as a lonely figure in the Yankees clubhouse, neither loved nor supported by his teammates. (One anonymously suggested A-Rod get his eyes checked; another actually wondered if he might be afraid of the ball.) As Mr. Verducci's piece unfolds, A-Rod is challenged by manager Joe Torre, counseled by Yankee legend Reggie Jackson and confronted by teammate Jason Giambi. His responses vary from tepidly corporate to vaguely combative -- like this quote, destined to be the latest tin can attached to A-Rod's bumper: "[Mike] Mussina doesn't get hammered at all. He's making a boatload of money. Giambi's making [$20.4 million], which is fine and dandy, but it seems those guys get a pass. When people write [bad things] about me, I don't know if it's [because] I'm good-looking, I'm biracial, I make the most money, I play on the most popular team...."

Oh my. With the Verducci column front and center, cry havoc and let slip the columnists of war.

In the New York Post, Mike Vaccaro reviews3 A-Rod's juicier (translation: "dumber") quotes, concluding that "Alex Rodriguez still can't get out of his own way. … The only thing [the Yankees] need from A-Rod is to blend in, to fit in, to not be a diva, a distraction, a disruption. And now, less than two weeks from the playoffs, less than two weeks away from A-Rod's latest litmus test, he not only fills all three roles, he systematically starts throwing teammates onto the train tracks, too. Just for kicks."

In the Bergen Record, Adrian Wojnarowski takes aim at Mr. Giambi, quoted as saying that "Alex doesn't know who he is" in SI.

"Alex Rodriguez doesn't know who he is?" Mr. Wojnarowski asks4. "Really, Giambi, huh? Well, he knows who he isn't, and that's a fraud who souped up his body on steroids and HGH. A-Rod knows that he never shot himself up like a junkie, turning his ordinary, spray-hitting swing into a slugger's stroke. … As long as there are no tests for HGH, for instance, it's hard to believe that Giambi isn't still a chemistry project."

On ESPN.com, Bob Klapisch's reflections end up with the man at the center of this Bronx soap opera.

"All Giambi was doing was filling a conversational void created by the one Yankee who could have -- and perhaps should have -- confronted A-Rod," writes Mr. Klapisch5. "That would be [Derek] Jeter, of course. … But anyone hoping for a Jeter-Rodriguez summit shouldn't hold their breath. The cold war between them is even more pronounced than the one with Mussina. Jeter reportedly has never forgiven A-Rod for the disparaging remarks he made in Esquire in 2001, and as one Yankee official said, 'There is no coming back from one of Derek's grudges. Once you're gone, you're gone.' "

And there's the real story. In the Verducci article and its spinoffs, A-Rod comes across much as he has all year -- a nice guy with a sense of honor (he didn't claim he was misquoted, the low road typically taken by athletes), but also a guy who's pathetically insecure and weirdly tone-deaf. (The anecdote about him meeting with Red Sox officials at 1 a.m. in a natty suit and tie is creepy, and when he decides to curse he sounds like a too-young executive trying not to get kicked out of a dockworker bar.) Mr. Giambi comes across as rather brave, refusing to let his own issues render him mute in a clubhouse that needs voices. But the eye of the storm is Jeter, icily and obviously letting a teammate suffer over foolish words said five years ago.

And so on a morning when the talk should have been of champagne and steely resolve and masterful managing, Yankee fans get "Heathers" in pinstripes. Again.

[acsguitar]

Sports writers know everything. I'm sure glad that they interview these guys so we see an actual true picture of the person. Athletes are always honest with sports writers because they respect them so much.

Sports writers are also really good at telling us how the athlete needs to perform.

Sports writers know because once they played a sport, on nintendo, and they almost won.


This is a pipe dream Arod is not going anywhere. Especially not to the angels who have been a thorn in the yankees side.