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A-Rod Comes Home

I suppose I would be remiss if I didn't talk a bit about the now-inevitable acquisition of Alex Rodriguez by the New York Yankees. As other like-minded bloggers have already noted, the news of this deal makes me sick to my stomach, for so many different reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that, after cash and salaries change hands, the Yankees will only be on the hook for $16 million per year for A-Rod's age 29-35 seasons. In New York. Under the spotlight. Where everyone will fall in love with him. Playing for the Yankees.

Of course, my infatuation with Alex Rodriguez is no secret, which makes this news even harder to swallow. Unless by some miracle this deal falls through, I am going to be under the assumption that A-Rod will be the starting third-baseman for the Yankees in 2004.

You're probably asking yourself, "Why third base?" Derek Jeter is, by almost any objective measure other than 'making jumping throws to first base' and 'apple of Tim McCarver's eye', a lousy defensive shortstop, and may in fact be the worse defensive shortstop in baseball. Plus, Alex Rodriguez is, by at least some objective measures, a good defensive shortstop, and by almost every objective measure, aside from the two I just mentioned, a significantly better defensive shortstop than Derek Jeter.

Don't believe me? Using MGL's UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating), since 2000, Derek Jeter has cost his team an average of 28 runs per 162 games, which is worse than every other infielder in baseball. A-Rod, meanwhile, has saved his team a marginal 5 runs per 162 games which, while not excellent, is 33 runs better than Jetes. Not a fan of newfangled metrics like UZR? How about these:

2000-2003 DEFENSIVE STATISTICS (MLB RANK IN PARENTHESES)

               A-ROD     JETES
FIELDING %     .984 (4)  .970 (19)
PUTOUTS        1008 (1)   826 (8)
DOUBLE PLAYS    458 (1)   265 (18)
RANGE          4.50 (5)  3.77 (26)

Rodriguez has also won two Gold Gloves to Jeter's zero. Granted, such a move would hurt Derek's feelings something awful, but is that really worth 30+ runs per year? The one thing that Jeter actually has going for him in the field is his strong arm, which he could actually put to good use at third base, a position that would help to mask his slow feet and poor range. With a little practice, he might hope to develop into a league-average third baseman, as opposed to the crippling detriment he provides at shortstop.

In 2003, Alex Rodriguez had 146 runs created. Alfonso Soriano, the key piece coming from the Yankees in this deal, had 122 runs created. Aaron Boone, whose injury opened the door for this deal to happen, had 89 runs created in 2003. Together, the former 2004 Yankees 2B/3B combo created 211 runs in 2003. With the addition of A-Rod, the new Yankees second baseman would need to create 65 runs to match that production. 65 runs isn't impossible to find. 15 second basemen created that many runs in 2003. Newly acquired Mike Lamb could probably put that up in 2004, though Enrique Wilson probably would not.

If you're a Red Sox fan or a Mets fan, you really can't cry about this deal. Both clubs could have had A-Rod if they really wanted a deal to work. The Sox didn't want to give up money on top of Manny Ramirez. The Mets could have probably secured the same deal the Yankees will get if they were willing to part with Jose Reyes and Aaron Heilman. Heilman has shown nothing to this point that would indicate he is the prospect the Mets had hoped he would be. And I am as big a fan of Reyes as anyone, but the Mets can only dream that his upside is anything like what Soriano already is.

The Yankees have done well for themselves here, and I am left holding my proverbial junk. Here's to another long summer at Shea.