To Yankees fans, your jinx has been lifted

[Legion of DOOM]

Originally Posted by Russ

I can't believe this is even being argued. He's the best player in baseball by a comfortable margin. Pujols in a good year is the only one that comes close. It is impossible for a team to benefit by losing a player like A-Rod.

Only benefits from A-Rod - not winning World Series.

[1998 Yankees]

Originally Posted by Russ

It is impossible for a team to benefit by losing a player like A-Rod.

Not benefit. Nobody could be arguing that, not even here!

But, adjust and go in a different direction.

Look at it this way. Twelve full seasons in his career, and none of the teams that he has played for have gotten past the ALCS. As a matter of fact, only six made the playoffs and four of those lost in the first round.

In the meantime, twelve other teams have won the World Series without him. Heck, twenty-four teams have performed better just by reaching the World Series!

Nobody is saying he is not a great player. But the news coming out in the past couple of days of how much he and his agent want, and his not living up to what he said about wanting to stay a Yankee, makes this fan not overly concerned about his leaving. To me, the greed and selfishness are just too obvious to overlook now.

The Yankees can build a winning team without A-Rod.

[thomamon]

Originally Posted by 1998 Yankees

Not benefit. Nobody could be arguing that, not even here!

But, adjust and go in a different direction.

Look at it this way. Twelve full seasons in his career, and none of the teams that he has played for have gotten past the ALCS. As a matter of fact, only six made the playoffs and four of those lost in the first round.

In the meantime, twelve other teams have won the World Series without him. Heck, twenty-four teams have performed better just by reaching the World Series!

Nobody is saying he is not a great player. But the news coming out in the past couple of days of how much he and his agent want, and his not living up to what he said about wanting to stay a Yankee, makes this fan not overly concerned about his leaving. To me, the greed and selfishness are just too obvious to overlook now.

The Yankees can build a winning team without A-Rod.

Haha, GMTA.

I was just thinking 4 teams made it to the LCS this year without A-Rod, 2 to the World Series and one won the world series and none of them had A-Rod. So really, a team can do just fine without having A-Rod on it.

With his 350M Crap, I seriously hope nobody signs him and he has to come down in his demand.

Originally Posted by Russ

I can't believe this is even being argued. He's the best player in baseball by a comfortable margin. Pujols in a good year is the only one that comes close. It is impossible for a team to benefit by losing a player like A-Rod.

I disagree on two points but agree with your sentiment as well. If that makes any sense.

A) I'm a Cardinals fan so I'm more than likely biased. However, I feel metrics and traditional stats support that Pujols has been the best player in the MLB at least twice during his career. Yes, even better than A-Rod. If you wanted to make the position argument then eh, I guess you could give A-Rod a 3B > 1B bump but I don't see enough value in it. If A-Rod were still a SS then he's definitely #1. Too bad he's not.

B) While I agree it's ludicrous to suggest any team would be better by losing A-Rod I do see where it _could_ be beneficial due to the monetary demands. If the Yankees ditched A-Rod's salary and instead of paying him 350 million dollars spent that money on pitching acquiring guys like Jake Peavy of whom they could probably land 2 to 1 on A-Rod, I feel they'd be a much better team without him. The offense is there in New York. With or without A-Rod. The pitching has been atrocious the past several years. If they don't simply just lose A-Rod and instead focus that money on pitching I feel they will be a better team. But to suggest the Yanks are better simply because they lose A-Rod is stupidity at it's finest. It depends on what they do with that money they're saving, IMHO.

[mlyons]

That's what makes so little sense to me. The Yankees don't benefit from "saving money" the way other teams do. Their revenues are so high that they just don't have any sort of hard wage ceiling the way most teams do. So paying Alex Rodriguez $30 million wouldn't actually prevent them from paying some other players $30 million the way it would for Milwaukee or Anaheim. No team is better equipped to sign Rodriguez for the outrageous sums he's looking for than the Yankees.