Richie Sexson -1
Xavier Nady -1
Derek Jeter -5
Wilson Betemit -6
Robinson Cano -13
Jose Molina -16
Melky Cabrera -16

3 of your starters have a negative RCAA (4 if you want to count Molina), two of them in double digits (3 if you want to count Molina).

Alex Rodriguez 38
Jason Giambi 21

Those guys aren’t the problem.

You guys are making too much of one at bat. The bigger issue over the last few weeks is that the big ‘RBI guys’ (Arod and Giambi) have not produced. It’s costing us games and why we’re dropping in the standings.

Hey, at the least, be in 2-strike mode. Protect the plate. Foul it off. Is that too much to ask from the greatest player in the game today?
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He saw slider outside. The same pitch he swung through for strikes 1 & 2, and took for ball 3. He let it pass. It was a changeup that caught the outside corner. It just happened to be the only pitch thrown for a strike, it happened to be the only changeup he threw in the ab. If you’ve seen fastballs and sliders through the whole at-bat, you’re not going to look changeup. C’mon, you’ve played. You’ve caught. I’ve pitched. No way are you going to look for a pitchers 3rd best pitch on 3-2.

If you can’t admit that it was a hell of a pitch in that situation, then we’ll just have to agree to disagree.

But, that’s facing all batters. If K-Rod faced the greatest player in the game, all the time, would his numbers be the same?

Steve sometimes you just get beaten.
The pitcher has the advantage about 70% of the time and someone like K-Rod has the advantage 82% of the time ( BAA of .181 ).

Using that logic, every batter who’s ever faced a hard thrower who also has a change, would be caught looking on a 3-2 pitch…every batter in the history of baseball who’s ever been 3-2 in that spot…right?

But, we know that’s not true.

Hey, at the least, be in 2-strike mode. Protect the plate. Foul it off. Is that too much to ask from the greatest player in the game today?

Scouting report or not, no one’s going to sit changeup on a pitcher with a 95 mph fastball. Even more so on 3-2.

So, if the greatest player in the game had managed to take one of those who pitches, would he then have walked in the AB and not went down looking?
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Who knows. He could’ve grounded out, he could’ve struck out swinging, he could’ve lined one off the pitcher, he could’ve hit one out. Any number of possibilities could’ve happened. Hell, given umpiring this year, it’s possibile that one of those sliders taken could’ve been called a strike.

~~And who would be looking changeup on 3-2 with a guy known for his fastball?~~

Add on, FWIW, I was watching a game recently – ESPN I think? – where the Angels were playing and the announcers were going on about K-Rod…how he became unhittable this year once he developed a change-up this spring…

…so, the knowledge was out there. Don’t the Yankees have scouting reports? If I knew that K-Rod had a change, from watching ESPN, should Alex have known that it’s now an out-pitch for K-Rod?

~~two swinging strikes were gotten with sliders that were out of the zone~~

So, if the greatest player in the game had managed to take one of those who pitches, would he then have walked in the AB and not went down looking?