Yanks Want to Talk to A-Rod

[Gom]

It will be funny if suddenly the injury bug catches up with him - say like Ken Grieffy Junior.

You have to wonder if the revenue from homeruns is enough to motivate him. He already has secured enough money to support next 3 generations of his family. What happens if he now regresses to 2006 form? The Yankees will still have to pay him for 10 more years - right?

Umm...yeah. Hence the term "contract".

[Mr Crunchy]

i think he will have a nervous breakdown by next october.

[VA Sox Fan]

The view from New York

Posted by Matt Porter, Globe Correspondent August 27, 2008 09:41 AM

 

Last night's loss dropped the Yankees six games behind the Red Sox in the wild card chase. Here's a quick roundup of what the New York media has to say about it:

 

NEW YORK POST

 

George King says that even A-Rod thinks A-Rod stunk last night:

 

If Alex Rodriguez had been in a Yankee Stadium seat last night, he would have booed the third baseman and cleanup hitter.

"Tonight I [stunk]," Rodriguez said. "Tonight put it on me."

 

Watching Rodriguez during a devastating 7-3 loss to the Red Sox in front of a sold-out gathering of 55,058 that included Tiger Woods and Fred Couples, then listening to him, Rodriguez let himself off easy. He was that bad.

 

When the desperate Yankees New York Yankees needed their superstar to deliver he failed miserably. No hits in five at-bats. Two double play ground balls, one that came in the seventh with the bases loaded. A fielding error. And no hits in two at-bats with runners in scoring position.

 

No wonder the crowd started booing Rodriguez in the third and didn't stop until Jonathan Papelbon fanned him to end the miserable evening.

 

"No one is more frustrated than me," said Rodriguez, who admitted hearing the boos.

 

 

Mike Puma chastises Jason Giambi for gift-wrapping a run for the Red Sox in the fifth inning:

 

You snooze, you lose.

Or maybe Jason Giambi Jason Giambi really was awake and just afraid a throw home might produce an uglier result than holding the ball.

 

 

Joel Sherman tells how A-Rod once again drew the ire of Yankees fans:

 

We will remember Rodriguez dallied with Boston, didn't go there, came to the Yankees instead in 2004, and in his time here the nature of the Red Sox-Yankee rivalry has reversed to Red Sox champs, Yankees chumps. Rodriguez is the face of that historic flip-flop. He has bought into that role twice now, first when he forced his trade here, then last offseason when he accepted the largest financial package ever to return through the backdoor. He is all outsized. His greed. His lust for attention. His insecurities.

The big man on the big stage, and so when he comes up small as often as he has this year, he becomes most culpable.

 

So here he was in the bottom of the seventh. Late August. Red Sox in the opposing dugout. Bases loaded. The season teetering toward extinction. A loss meant a six-game wild-card deficit, a hole becoming an inescapable canyon.

 

However, on an 0-and-1 count, Rodriguez rolled a sinker to short to initiate a crushing double play. That dropped him to 1-for-10 this season with the bases loaded. Rodriguez was again Bronx Enemy No. 1, booed even in the next half inning when he fielded a grounder.

 

 

NEW YORK TIMES

 

Tyler Kepner says that A-Rod is in October form in August:

 

 

Rodriguez went 0 for 5 with two double plays, two strikeouts and a throwing error in the Yankees’ 7-3 loss to the Red Sox on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees fell to six games behind Boston for the American League wild card, and Rodriguez, their marquee player, was booed heavily by the crowd as he fanned to end the game.

 

“It was an awful night,” Rodriguez said. “I pretty much screwed it up every way you can screw it up.”

 

The Yankees are 11-12 in August, and Rodriguez has grounded into nine double plays in the month while hitting .238. If they cannot depend on Rodriguez in the clutch, the Yankees have little hope of a monumental comeback.

 

 

Kepner's notebook has a Joba Chamberlain update:

 

Chamberlain, who has been out since Aug. 4 with a rotator cuff problem, said he felt fine after Monday’s session and would not need to face hitters before returning to the team.

“I don’t think the hitters are going to be any different,” he said. “Just to see them? I don’t know. You’ve still got to attack them like nobody’s there.”

 

 

Jack Curry has Kevin Youkilis batting away suggestions about the MVP award:

 

 

 

“If I’m putting my bet up there, I think Carlos Quentin or Josh Hamilton right now,” Youkilis said. “I don’t think I’m in there.”

 

But Youkilis is in there. He is definitely in the conversation about the M.V.P. Although Quentin, a Chicago White Sox outfielder, is probably the favorite and Hamilton, a Texas Rangers outfielder, is having an excellent season on a losing team, Youkilis has been superb, too. He may be gaining on them.

 

 

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

 

Mark Feisand points the finger in his game story, calling it one of the worst games of A-Rod's career:

"It was an awful night," Rodriguez said after making the final out by striking out against Jonathan Papelbon. "For me, personally, it was a long night. I pretty much screwed it up any way you can screw it up."

Rodriguez's inning-ending, bases-loaded double play in the seventh ended the Yankees' last hope to get even with the Red Sox, although it shouldn't have come as much of a surprise. For the year, Rodriguez is now 1-for-10 with the bases juiced, including an 0-for-7 mark with less than two outs.

 

"Terrible; there's absolutely no excuse," A-Rod said. "My team expects me to get big hits and make big plays. Tonight, I didn't do that."

 

 

Mike Lupica chronicles Rodriguez's miserable night:

 

The people who came to the Stadium Tuesday night hoping for big hits and big things could have booed them all, starting with Pettitte. Could have booed Giambi for looking like such a fathead on that play. They saved it for A-Rod on this night. Booed him like he was Boston.

John Harper writes that A-Rod was bad, but Pettitte was worse:

 

 

 

And that's painful for any Yankee fan to admit. Pettitte will always be a favorite here for the same reason that Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera are beloved, as homegrown Yankees who won those four championships - heck, he was hardly booed upon being knocked out in the fifth inning of a 7-3 loss to the Red Sox that could truly be the beginning of the end for this team.

 

In any case, let's be honest, Pettitte is starting to look like just another Yankee who is a little too old, a little too past his prime to recapture the glory days.

 

And the coldest truth of all is if Pettitte has turned ordinary, no longer capable of the second-half dominance that has defined his career, then the Yankees don't have even a prayer of pulling off a September comeback.

 

 

Kevin Kernan writes that the Pettitte and the Yankees don't produce on the big stage anymore:

 

The difference between the Yankees and the Red Sox is obvious. Watching the Red Sox you get the feeling that their players will do anything to win.

For the Yankees to win, things have to fall their way. They don't get down and dirty. All these warrior images flash on the big screen, but this Yankees team is not a warrior team.

 

Pettitte could not handle the bottom of the Red Sox order, players such as young Jed Lowrie, Coco Crisp, Jeff Bailey and Kevin Cash. The Manny-less Red Sox put up six runs against Pettitte.

 

The Red Sox did not hit rockets, but they found holes, they grinded it out. They did what the Yankees big names Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi Jason Giambi did not do.

 

They battled. They produced the Big Game.

[VA Sox Fan]

From BDD:

 

Double Play-Rod* helps Sox take down Yankees

 

* - Headline gem courtesy of New York Daily News

[rician blast]

VA, shame on you. That's two consecutive posts in which you've highlighted ARod's struggles in the clutch. Given the boos he received, dontcha think the poor fella needs some support? Like, a little love, or a long-distance forum-hug?

 

Give 'em a break, for heaven's sake.

[VA Sox Fan]

VA, shame on you. That's two consecutive posts in which you've highlighted ARod's struggles in the clutch. Given the boos he received, dontcha think the poor fella needs some support? Like, a little love, or a long-distance forum-hug?

 

Give 'em a break, for heaven's sake.

 

 

 

You are right, how insensitive of me, what was I thinking? :dunno:

[riverside sluggers]

http://assets.nydailynews.com/img/2008/08/27/gal_back_08_27.jpg

[jmcc]

Not a good night for the NY baseball teams.

[yankees228]

Typical Yankee fans. Lets boo the teams most productive position this year.

[Gom]

Nope. At least it will give me some time to learn football. Seeing the young players Boston has brought up and who killed the Yankees just furthers my belief that Cashman is one of the worst GMs in baseball. Good job Brian.

[Mr Crunchy]

when your 27m guy leaves a small battalion on base and your 16M pitcher cant throw strikes or handle the crisps and the baileys and the cash's of the world its bigger than the gm.

[yankees228]

when your 27m guy leaves a small battalion on base and your 16M pitcher cant throw strikes or handle the crisps and the baileys and the cash's of the world its bigger than the gm.

 

No way man! Seriously?!?! I didn't know that the players could be held accountable for the teams success. Amazing.

[Mr Crunchy]

tuff being a proud yankee fan isnt it...sardonic wit isnt your strong suit.

[yankees228]

It was more in response to Gom's constant bashing of the general manager.

[Mr Crunchy]

mine too,cant blame the gm for 0-5s and bbs up the ass and jason giambi arguing a call while crisp scores from 2nd on a ground ball to 3rd...

they seem lifeless

damon is their spark and he did what he was paid to do last nite.

the rest of the club looked disinterested,heartless and sort of like the french army guarding the maginot line in the spring of 1940

girardi deserves some of the ire here

hes supposed to get the kids fired up and make the vets lead.

i dont think the vets like him as many played with him when the yanks were a team hard to dislike,even for me...the bottom line is the vets dont like him and the kids tuned him out long ago,theyve achieved a cool dance when they hit hrs up 12-3 but competing while its on the line hasnt been their strong suit.

[rician blast]

Go easy on Cash...he did have the sense to get rid of Nick Johnson who's injury history makes JD Drew look like Lou Gehrig.

 

Actually I always liked Nick Johnson, good 1B, good OBP with a ton of potential but can't stay on the field.

[Gom]

I can blame him for the team he put on the field. They are old, not very athletic, and feeling that a complete and utter idiot would have done a better job, I'm blaming him.

 

A GM's job is to put the best team he can on the field. He's failed miserably at it. Not even just a little bit. Completely.

 

Could have gotten Santana. Could have taken CC, but wanted the window. Watch Paul Byrd outpitch Ponson today. Could have given up something for Washburn to make Seattle happy.

 

I put this squarely on Cashman. Seeing how your team has done better with less resources, I hope this guy is out of baseball forever soon.

[TheKilo]

You weren't getting CC - Cleveland got four players, one of whom was Matt LaPorta. No way were the Yanks matching that offer.

[TheKilo]

Go easy on Cash...he did have the sense to get rid of Nick Johnson who's injury history makes JD Drew look like Lou Gehrig.

 

Actually I always liked Nick Johnson, good 1B, good OBP with a ton of potential but can't stay on the field.

 

And you like JD Drew - yup