Two days have passed since my recent post on contrast between the Sox and Yankees’ training camps, and things in Fort Myers are still going swimmingly. With the exception of JD Drew, the walking wounded seem to be on the mend. Big Papi has spoken out against steroids and ownership has announced they’d like to keep Fenway around for another 50 years. Yawn.
It’s still not smooth sailing up in Tampa Bay, though, where A-Rod’s press conference has not smoothed things over the way the team had hoped. For those of you who are interested in an analysis of the press conference and the new issues it raised, I recommend Jayson Stark’s article, available here. There have been numerous articles written analyzing the remarks, but Stark’s is the most in-depth. That being said, I’m not going to try to top Stark. But let’s analyze Rodriguez’s contributions and the possible effect of this drama on the coming season.
When The Slugger Formerly Known as Baseball’s Savior joined the Yankees in 2004, many thought the combination of a superstar and a dynasty (albeit a fading one) would make the Yankees unstoppable. Not so. A-Rod has hit .302 since joining the club, good but not fantastic. In the five seasons before A-Rod joined the Evil Empire (1999-2003), the team won the AL East all five years and reached the World Series four times. Their best record was 103-58, their worst 87-74. In the five seasons since, the Yankees have won the AL East three times but have not reached the World Series. Their best record was 101-61 (in 2004 - we all know how that turned out) and their worst was their 2008 record of 89-73 when they missed the playoffs entirely. The team has not advanced past the ALDS since 2004. To combine the numbers, in 1999-2003, the Yankees went 484-322, a ridiculous winning percentage of .600. In 2004-2008, the Yankees went 476-334, a still fantastic but more human winning percentage of .588.
What conclusions can we draw from this? The records are similar - too similar. Obviously, the A-Rod acquisition hasn’t bolstered the Yankees as much as, say, a certain dreadlocked slugger did for the Dodgers. Essentially, the club has gone from being an excellent team to being a very good team which hasn’t been able to keep up with the rest of baseball. Their 2008 record when they came in third in the AL East was better than their 2000 record when they won the Series. Simply stated, the Yankee Way does not cut it anymore. Their competition has improved more than they have, A-Rod or no A-Rod. They’ve been injured, yes. But, more importantly, they’ve been embroiled in too much drama off the field. They’ve had to deal with the long-awaited resurgence of the Red Sox. The AL East has improved markedly. Joe Torre, arguably one of the greatest Yankee managers of all time, left in a snit. And, perhaps most significantly, according to this Wikipedia article, there were 23 players named in the Mitchell Report who at some point have worn pinstripes. This is by far the most of any MLB team, with the Orioles a distant second with 18 players and most teams, the Red Sox included, in the 10-15 range. The list should not be entirely convincing, as players’ names are named multiple times (Jose Guillen’s name appears in the lists of eight different teams), including teams they played for while not taking steroids (Roger Clemens’s name is listed under the Red Sox, although his alleged steroid use did not occur until later in his career). At any rate, all this controversy has presumably affected the Yankees on the field, and this year should be no exception. They have signed three big-name free agents (though Burnett has been on the DL ten times in his career and is a question mark in my book) but have lost more than they have gained in off-field controversy. A-Rod is notoriously affected by pressure. Not all players are cut out to play in big markets (Edgar Renteria, anyone?) and we may soon add A-Rod’s name to that list.
The Yankees will get off to a rough start this year, and it’s possible Joe Girardi’s reputation rides on how quickly he can pull the team out of the mess it has gotten itself into. The Red Sox - and most other teams - are able to focus on baseball this spring, which should give them a head start over the Yankees, presumably giving them only the Rays to worry about in their division. It will be interesting to see if big names alone can carry the Yankees this season.
