A-Rod Not Being A Leader
Via Sam Borden -
Girardi professed his confidence in the Yankees’ ability to improve, but so far this year’s Yankees are also lacking a key ingredient the championship teams had in droves: clutch hitting.
To be fair, quantifying clutch hitting is one of the more impossible things to do, yet the feeling you have when a Yankee comes up with a runner in scoring position surely isn’t the same now as it was back then, and the numbers bear that out: From 1996 to 2000, the Yankees hit .293, .298, .299, 292 and .273, respectively, with runners in scoring position. After going 2 for 9 yesterday, they’re at .256 in those spots this season.
The most glaring failure was Alex Rodriguez’s groundout with the bases loaded in the seventh inning. Trailing 6-3 and with Sox starter Josh Beckett out of the game, Rodriguez took two pitches from reliever Manny Delcarmen, swung and missed at a curveball and then grounded out to third base to end the inning.
Rodriguez refused to be accountable for the second straight day, blowing out of the clubhouse without talking to reporters.
I find this distressing.
You make $28 million a year. And, you’re going to be with the team for another nine seasons – making between twenty-something and thirty-something million, thereabouts, per year. Basically, you’re now the face of the franchise.
The team is in a rough patch. The manager just called everyone on the carpet. The media is on the players – big time.
What do you do? You bolt from the clubhouse – two days in a row – and leave your teammates to deal with the media. That’s weak.
It makes me wish that someone on the Yankees would pull a Billy Wagner and call-out A-Rod for his lack of clubhouse accountability.
Its just A-Rod being A-Rod.
Why is this a surprise? A-Rod has always been and always will be a “ME” player, not a teammate. Who do you calling him out? This is the team’s problem, they are a group of players, no vocal leader in the bunch.
With the whole Madonna thing going on did you really expect him to talk to the media?
KVC hits it on the head. The news about his wife not wearing either ring she’s usually seen in has made the whole situation with her and Madonna something he’s not ready or willing to face. So he’s running out the side door to avoid the whole thing.
He’d show a lot more sac if he just stood up, and made a Bonds like statement – I will answer baseball questions only. Then he could show some level of accountability – like how Varitek and Delcarmen got him out by taking a new approach against him. From what I’ve read they out-thought him by approaching him in a completely different way than in the past, and Delcarmen executed the pitches well enough to get him out. Throwing offspeed stuff to A-Rod with the bases loaded took some guts, but MDC made it work.
~~With the whole Madonna thing going on did you really expect him to talk to the media?~~
At some point, he has to face the media on that, no? I mean, you can run, but, you can’t hide…not for the next 3 months…
The whole Arod mess is ridiculous. This guy shows up early to prepare and work out for each game. He is an exemplar of how to train and play the game. The idea of being clutch is so overrated. Yeah this guy is making 28 mill a year,but one man doesn’t make a team. Arod is not the only guy stinking up the joint.
He also has this Madonna scandal around him. Does he really want to talk to the media in these circumstances? MOst people certainly wouldn’t.
~~He also has this Madonna scandal around him.~~
Hey, it’s a situation that HE CREATED. No one forced it on him. It’s not a stroke of bad luck. It was all HIS DOING.
Therefore, he should man up and face what follows, IMHO.
Nine more years to go!
And it will grow evermore about A-Freud.
But, but, I thought Jeter was the leader of the team! I mean, he’s the Captain, isn’t he?
Just because a guy is not the captain of the team, doesn’t mean he’s free from meeting with the media, etc.