Quote:
Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees
 What, is this a trick question?
Going by RBI's and assuming 2008 = 2007:
Rodriguez 3B 156 RBI's
Lowell 3B 120 RBI's
Any mutt or jeff 1B* 36 RBI's
I think we can assume that this combination will be less expensive than A-Rod, yes?
* Phillips and Duncan = 42 RBI's. Notice that I left out Giambi.
My point is, no one player is indispensable. It was nice having him here this season, but he was not the answer. It's not my fandom talking when I say the Yankees have a good team without him and that they would have matched up well with this year's playoff finalists, with Scott Brosius playing 3B! |
Phillips and Duncan are 42 RBI over half a season worth of playing time, so you need to pro-rate them over a full season (84) or add Mientkiewicz and Phelps into the mix (giving you 78). So to make up for replacing Rodriguez with Lowell, you need a first baseman who will give you 36 RBI
more than you're already getting there -- someone good for about 115. And that's assuming RBI are actually worth a damn in this context, which they aren't. Use something less lineup dependent like THT's runs created and you've got a 55 run gap between Rodriguez and Lowell, meaning you have to find a first baseman 55 runs better than the 72 the Phillips/Duncan/Mientkiewicz/Phelps combo gave you. There were exactly seven players (none of whom play first base and one of whom is named Alex Rodriguez) who created that many runs or more last season, and the only one even remotely available is Miguel Cabrera.
(For the record, only 12 players in the big leagues drove in more than 115 runs last season.)