66 Games Into HIs 2012 Season, A-Rod Has A Slugging Percentage Of .412
Posted by Steve L. on June 20th, 2012 · Comments (38)
Paging Dr. Galea…
Paging Dr. Anthony Galea…
Lowest SLG% in A.L. through yesterday’s games, for players sans catchers and middle infielders, min. 200 PA:
| Rk | Player | PA | Age | Tm | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Casey Kotchman | .351 | 222 | 29 | CLE | 59 |
| 2 | Michael Young | .353 | 284 | 35 | TEX | 66 |
| 3 | Carlos Pena | .365 | 287 | 34 | TBR | 67 |
| 4 | Justin Smoak | .366 | 267 | 25 | SEA | 64 |
| 5 | Brennan Boesch | .368 | 268 | 27 | DET | 65 |
| 6 | Eric Hosmer | .370 | 268 | 22 | KCR | 64 |
| 7 | Ichiro Suzuki | .378 | 297 | 38 | SEA | 68 |
| 8 | Delmon Young | .389 | 238 | 26 | DET | 59 |
| 9 | Alex Gordon | .396 | 301 | 28 | KCR | 66 |
| 10 | Michael Brantley | .397 | 272 | 25 | CLE | 64 |
| 11 | Adrian Gonzalez | .398 | 290 | 30 | BOS | 67 |
| 12 | Denard Span | .398 | 277 | 28 | MIN | 61 |
| 13 | Jeff Francoeur | .405 | 268 | 28 | KCR | 64 |
| 14 | Alejandro De Aza | .406 | 294 | 28 | CHW | 67 |
| 15 | Wilson Betemit | .412 | 205 | 30 | BAL | 55 |
| 16 | Alex Rodriguez | .412 | 284 | 36 | NYY | 66 |
.
And, Alex Rodriguez plays his home games at Yankee Stadium. Then again, I guess it could be worse. Check out that Boston Red Sox first baseman this season…
But, still, just because someone else sucks, it doesn’t mean that A-Rod should get a buddy pass here…
When someone as big as Alex Rodriguez is slugging close to four hundred, you have to wonder what’s going on.
Steve L. wrote:
If he were slugging .600, you’d accuse him of being on PED’s. But because he’s simply showing the obvious signs of age and decline, you have reason to suspect him? That’s completely illogical.
Rodriguez turns 37 in about six weeks. It’s hard to see why anyone would be surprised that he’s not as productive as he was even two seasons ago.
What’s Derek Jeter’s SLG% this AM?
Steve L. wrote:
Jeter’s SLG is .419, according to B-R. That’s a three-year high for him but it’s only that high because he slugged an uncharacteristic .579 in April. He’s at .339 since May 1st, which is far more in line with both his age and his abilities.
In any case, by your logic, Jeter’s SLG% as compared to Rodriguez’s is the more suspicious one (and, to be clear, I’m not accusing Jeter of anything, merely pointing out the double-standard in your thinking).
Is it written somewhere that every player ages in the exact same way, at the exact same time? I guess I don’t see why you brought Jeter up since, first, he’s been atrocious since May 1st, and second, why you’d compare one player to another as if all players decline at the same rate.
I am not saying that A-Rod’s SLG% is suspicious. I’m just saying that it sucks for a player with his size and history. And, if I were the Yankees, I would be very concerned about it.
What’s going to happen when he can’t even slug four hundred?
You going to keep him in the middle of the order then too?
Steve L. wrote:
His size has nothing to do with it and neither does his history. Players age and decline. Happens to everyone. We can’t expect players to play at a Hall of Fame level forever.
Steve L. wrote:
Where he bats in the order isn’t A-Rod’s issue, it’s Girardi’s. If we want to bitch about poor performance, take it up with the guy whose job it is to make the lineup card.
MJ Recanati wrote:
I’m not asking for a SLG of .600 or even .500. But, com’on, at least give me .475 and not something that’s closer to Denard Span than it is to Raul Ibanez.
MJ Recanati wrote:
Com’on. Let’s not act like this is 1950. We all know what happens when you move A-Rod to 7th or 8th in the line-up. Because of his history and salary (and ego), it’s going to be a major deal. Girardi doesn’t want to bring that on the team. The only way A-Rod moves down in the line-up, without fuss and muss, is if he goes public and tells Girardi “Move me down for the good of the team.”
Steve L. wrote:
Funny, when Joe Torre did that in a critical playoff game in 2006, all A-Rod haters praised the move. Now we’re too touchy to approach this subject? Putting the burden on Rodriguez to do what is clearly in the province of the manager? Nonsense.
Of course, A-Rod could take the burden off the manager by not sucking.
I guess I just don’t give a shit.
When Girardi is good and ready to do his job, he’ll do it. Until then, you’ll just have to be punished watching the guy that you hate more than anything on earth hitting in a prominent position in the lineup.
Batting, not hitting.
Because, as his SLG% shows us, A-Rod is just batting and not hitting with any authority whatsoever.
Now, of course, this afternoon, A-Rod will go out and have a 3-HR game
@ MJ Recanati:
ARod should be hitting 7th or 8th. He’s just not that good, and the Jeter comparisons are valid because Jeter is not supposed to have a .007+ slugging % higher than ARod.
You can look at Jeter’s great April as a big contributing factor, but the final number is the final number. ARod sucks right now, and it seems the pattern will continue to trend downward. He’s awful, awful, awful. No other way to put it.
Lastly, I don’t buy the age argument that much because we have seen a precipitous drop, not a gradual decline, when you look at his numbers (including games played) from 2007 to now. It does seem like ARod was dished an ‘assist’ of some form that’s probably not legal. And, given his association to Galea, how he traveled with Angel Presina in 2007, his cousin Yuri, then I think Steve’s logic is every bit as valid and cannot be dismissed or refuted.
I’ll give ARod this, he’s been a solid citizen, and hasn’t said any whacked out shit of late but maybe we need him to be in love with himself so he can hit for a higher slugging %. Maybe that’s what makes the guy tick. Maybe if the pitcher was forced to wear a mirror so ARod can gawk at himself then he’ll be happier. I don’t know, just throwing out ideas.
Garcia wrote:
Factually inaccurate.
Alex Rodriguez SLG% (2008-present):
2008: .573
2009: .532
2010: .506
2011: .461
2012: .412
Looks to me like he’s been shedding about .035 points on his SLG% annually since 2008. If that’s not a gradual decline, I don’t know what is.
Isn’t it closer to 50 points, above, between this year and last year?
Steve L. wrote:
A 0.40, 0.45 or 0.50 point decline, it doesn’t matter as it’s all a semantic difference. If someone — in this case, Garcia — is going to call an annual decline at a relatively steady rate “precipitous”, then we’re simply going to disagree.
You want precipitous drop? Look at the difference in Mike Schmidt’s age-37 and age-38 seasons. He went from .293/.388/.548 to .249/.337/.405 and was out of baseball two months into the following season. .143 points in one season is precipitious. A steady rate of decline is not. Your mileage, as you like to say, may vary.
Steve L. wrote:
My math might be off but it looks like the annual decline was:
2008->2009 = (.041)
2009->2010 = (.026)
2010->2011 = (0.45)
2011->2012* = (0.49)
Hence, the average decline would be .040.
*As of this morning’s stats. Rodriguez’s SLG% is .422 as of this moment, thanks to a HR he hit vs. the Braves in the 6th inning.
From 2010 to 2011 it’s .045.
From 2011 to 2012 it’s .049.
I think from 2008 – 2010 he had a gradual decline, since 2010 not so much. That’s why I think Steve’s point about Galea is something that needs to be looked as being quite plausible.
I think what does it for me was his 2007 year, he was a monster that year, I was like…who the eff is this guy…then in 2009 we find out that Angel Presina was with him the that entire year. That reeks to me, and then when you see the numbers declining so rapidly. I mean from 2007 to 2008 it’s a delta of 0.072, that’s pretty significant.
Garcia wrote:
I don’t see how an average annual decline of .040 isn’t gradual. The decline from 2008 to 2009 was only eight thousandths less than the largest decline (from 2011 through this morning which is frankly absurd to calculate since today’s SLG% went up .010 with just one homerun today).
I’m not following your point. Moreover, no one is suggesting that Rodriguez didn’t use PED’s at one time. Re-read the thread carefully. I’m attributing Rodriguez’s decline to the natural process of aging. I don’t see how anyone could argue otherwise.
Cano is actually killing us more than A-Rod. His numbers with runners in scoring position are absolutely atrocious. They should move him out of the 4 spot until he gets his mojo back. The Yankees are so lefty heavy they can’t really move A-Rod from the 3-4 spot. I’d go with Jeter, Swisher, Granderson, A-Rod, Teixiera, Cano, etc.
Anyone who doesn’t think that A-Rod was on something in 2007 and from mid July 2009 through the post-season that year is not paying attention.
@ LMJ229:
I just fell out of my chair…I can’t believe I actually agreed with something you wrote. First time for everything, I suppose.
In any case, yes, Cano has been very bad with RISP this year.
Cano (career): .307/.348/.498
Cano RISP (career): .268/.320/.438
Cano RISP (2012): .148/.303/.246
Cano RISP (2009): .207/.242/.332
Cano has never been wonderful in RISP situations but his 2012 season is shaping up like his last awful RISP season back in 2009.
Steve L. wrote:
Did anyone say he wasn’t?
I’m sure he might’ve been through 2008. I highly doubt that, after his 2009 admission of PED use, Selena Roberts’s book, and the scrutiny both brought, that he’d use in 2009. However, supposing he did use in 2009, why would he stop thereafter? If your theory is that Rodriguez is a selfish stat-padder, why would he stop doing something that could help him pad his stats? Because of testing? Wasn’t he tested in 2009?
Bottom line, I don’t care if he used or didn’t use and I don’t care if he’s using now or not. You started this thread by asking what was up with Rodriguez and I’ve more than proven that Rodriguez is in a decline due to the natural progression of age. Beyond that, I don’t know what to tell you. Pointing to Jeter’s similar SLG% as of today’s date doesn’t prove that Rodriguez isn’t in an age-related decline phase and neither does talking about what his SLG% was six years ago. His SLG% should be lower today than it was in 2007. It wouldn’t make sense if it weren’t.
We can argue all day over the rate of A-Rod’s perceived decline, whether it is precipitous or gradual, but the fact remains that he is steadily declining and we have 5 more years left with the guy at a premium contract. It’s only going to get worse and there’s nothing we can do about it – nobody would want him or his contract – so we might as well just accept it.
The problem with A-Rod is he is just so damn unlikeable. He’s a known PED user, he’s narcissistic, and (IMO) he is very phony. You can root for him when he’s helping the team win but when he’s not playing well its real hard.
MJ Recanati wrote:
LOL hope you didn’t hurt yourself
LMJ229 wrote:
The problem you have with A-Rod is that he’s unlikeable. Please don’t make subjective statements and assume they are factually applicable to all Yankees fans.
LMJ229 wrote:
Exactly. Which is why bitching about it on a daily basis is pointless. The ownership of the Yankees decided to extend Rodriguez’s contract. This happened five years ago. Get over it already.
MJ Recanati wrote:
He sucks. He’s an albatross. And his lack of hitting for power will be our demise, and it frustrates the shit out of me.
That’s my point.
I’m sure he’ll have two weeks in July/August where he’ll hit the shit out of the ball, he’ll say he changed some things around, decided to look at film from 2007 and replicate his hitting stroke. Till two weeks later we find that he’s back to sucking again.
Garcia wrote:
You’re predicting that the entirety of the 2012 season will come down to the fact that Rodriguez can’t generate power in his AB’s?
I’ll put it this way, if any one thing sinks a team then that team wasn’t very good to begin with. So I guess you’re saying that the Yankees aren’t a very good team then, huh?
MJ Recanati wrote:
A team is only as good as the sum of its parts. True. However, some of those parts take on a bigger role than others. No? The sad reality is, he seems to find himself in the middle of why the Yanks fail more often than not.
So my prediction may be emotional right now, and I get that part, but it seems to get validated (and become fact) at a very integral moment. Except, of course, for 2009.
MJ Recanati wrote:
And that’s not what I meant. You can still be good, or very good, but you can still fail. Shit happens.
I’ve been called an awesome lover, probably the best, father of all men, lover of all ladies, but there are times I’ve only lasted 4 seconds. Not everyone bats 1.000 all the time, even our beloved Yankees.*
*=Using humor to illustrate a point. It was actually more like 8 seconds.
Someone please get Kate Hudson out of “retirement”. CamDi tried, but she wasn’t able to get ‘er done. Maybe Madonna can work her magic again. Calling Ms. Hilton. Ms. Paris Hilton (I know, that’s sounding desperate). Someone get this guy a new sarlet to jump start his bat.
man, A-Rod’s HR yesterday was a cheapie
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22443371&c_id=mlb
that’s a pop up in most parks
Steve L. wrote:
You mean it was a typical HR to right field/right-center at Yankee Stadium, just like all the ones Ruth and Jackson and O’Neill and Mantle and Tino and Giambi and Teixeira and Matsui hit? You mean to tell me that it surprises you when a ball leaves the yard in the smallest part o the park that very much caters to homeruns hit to the right of center field?
I’ve seen you discount wins by the bushels over the years but this was the first time I’ve ever seen you discount homers. I guess there’s always a new way for you to move goalposts though so I’m not at all surprised.
Steve L. wrote:
The Yankee fan who caught it sure seemed excited about that game tying homer.
Actually, I thought the fan and his girlfriend were somewhat classless the way they taunted Heywood.
Steve L. wrote:
I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The karma got leveled in the 9th inning.
@ Steve L.:
Yeah I was making fun of the fan.
Steve L. wrote:
Meh, this is a non-issue.