Verducci: What To Do With A-Rod?
Via Tom Verducci today -
Does Yankees manager Joe Girardi need to find more down time for Alex Rodriguez? Or does the New York manager keep running Rodriguez out there hoping the third baseman, who turns 34 next month and is coming off hip surgery, simply needs more at-bats to find his groove? Those questions have become more acute as A-Rod continues to slump, and Girardi will not have use of the DH option for the next nine games as New York plays in NL parks.
Girardi initially indicated he would ease Rodriguez into playing shape when he returned from surgery. But Rodriguez hasn’t missed a game yet, and his fielding and hitting have worsened. He’s down to .212 for the season, is stuck in a 13-for-74 slide (.176), has hit one home run on the road all year and has slugged only .462. The last time he slugged that low for a season was when he was 19 and played in 48 games. Get him out of the Yankee Stadium bandbox, and he has the same road slugging percentage as David Eckstein of the Padres (.373).
Age and health have come into play. Since Rodriguez turned 33 last July 27, he is a .246 hitter over 93 games.
Man, if A-Rod does go on to hit .246 over the rest of his Yankees career, I hope Hank Steinbrenner comes out of hiding and admits that he screwed the pooch on this one.
Maybe the two day rest that Girardi is now giving Alex will help A-Rod come around a bit?
if A-Rod does go on to hit .246 over the rest of his Yankees career
==============
This will not happen.
No, it won’t happen. But it was still a stupid contract; the Yankeees were bidding against themselves, and Hank blinked. The fact that he has been eased out of the picture and is no longer calling the shots speaks volumes about how ineptly he handled his moment in the sun.
Scout, Hal was calling the shots not Hank from what I’ve heard. Hank was the face of the organization BUT Hal was/is the puppetmaster behind the scenes so to speak. Jon Heyman and assorted talk radio hosts love to mention the fact that Hank was told to shut up! Yeah, Hank was entertaining with his over the top Georgisms, that were even more over the top than even George would make BUT that had to stop.
[...] A-Rod ripped in his hometown / What to do with Alex Rodriguez [...]