I agree that you have to look at how ARod has done against each pitcher on those teams. He hasn’t had much exposure to Liriano or Santana this year, but he’s absolutely killing all of the other starters on contending teams.

Buehrle – .500, Contreras – .667, Freddy Garcia – .667, Garland – .333, Radke – .333, Silva – .556, Bonderman – .429, Robertson – .429, Verlander – 0 for 1 but .667 OBP, Kenny Rogers – 0 for 0 this year but .526 lifetime, Zito – .286 (both hits were HRs), Haren – .375, Saarloos – .500, Harden – .667…he’s killed everyone. And while he’s only had 2 ABs against Santana this year, he’s hitting a robust .250 lifetime with 2 HRs in 16 ABs. That’s better than most.

That Daily News article is so ridiculous.

Looking at the way he hits against certain playoff-contending teams can give you some interesting stats (his numbers against the A’s, Tigers, Twins, White Sox and Mets are important), but looking at a hitter versus a team is also slightly pointless. It has to be individual pitchers to mean anything. Say a player sees the Twins twice. But he missed both Santana and Liriano. Or just saw one of them once. Do his numbers mean anything? If someone plays against the Yankees, but only gets Wang and Mussina once, but Wright, Ponson, and Wilson twice each, what do his numbers mean? Nothing.

A more interesting study would be if you looked at everyone A-Rod has faced this year and broke down how he did against “good” pitchers — “good” being someone established, someone who’s winning currently, someone whose stuff is universally considered above-average.

I pick the latter and here is why, AROD is actually getting hot at right time now especially when it comes after the team has the lead at the end of games. The reason I think this is important is that The bullpen needs rest before we go into the playoffs most importantly MO, and what better way to give the bullpen rest than to start getting hot and blowing out teams as we head to the end of the season. Now whether or not Joe Torre will take advantage of this is a different issue. But I don’t mind him getting hot right now. Since supposedly everyone else has been picking up the slack all season, at least now he is picking up the slack. And what better way to put fear in the heart of the opposition than having the star player begin his hitting surge.

But the thing is, it isn’t just the Twins.

Arod has had excellent performances against the Tigers and A’s and White Sox…two of those teams lead the AL in ERA.

Not to mention how good he did against the Mets.

If the whole league pitched A-Rod the way the Twins did, he’d be the MVP again. The way to get A-Rod out — and it’s no secret — is to crowd him with hard fastballs up in the zone. He can’t get around on them. If you throw a fastball with anything on it above his belt, he will swing and miss.

But if you throw him breaking balls and keep the ball away, he will crush it. A-Rod has tremendous power to the opposite field, and if he can extend his arms he’s as powerful as anyone in the game. When someone has a long swing like A-Rod, you can’t bail them out by throwing breaking balls or giving him anything away.

I’m not taking anything away from A-Rod’s performance — I loved it and hope he continues to hit well — but the Twins gave him exactly what he wanted.

If the K.C. Royals or whoever else we play this year are able to bust him inside with hard stuff, he’ll probably struggle again. I don’t think he’s shortened his swing enough.

Arod did damn well against playoff bound teams this season.

Except no one seems to notice. I have the specific numbers posted on my blog.

Hmmm – the old “everybody hit well, so nobody hit well” theory. I guess A-Rod will have to go 5 or 5 in a Game 7 situation, while the rest of the team goes a collective 0 for 40.

I’m not sold on the Boston series – everyone hit very well in those 5 games.

Newsday rings in with an opinion:
http://tinyurl.com/q59xj
it’s stat padding to them.