All A-Rod talk here

bankshot1

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http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/13193510/alex-rodriguez-new-york-yankees-settle-dispute-bonus-payment
 
and the bonus payment gets settled in the quiet of a long holiday week-end
 
 
 
NEW YORK -- Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees settled their dispute over a marketing payment with a deal announced Friday that gives $3.5 million to charitable groups, saves the team $5.5 million and gets A-Rod the home run ball from his 3,000th hit.N
our long national nightmare is over.
 

mauidano

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I would really like to hate this guy but he's doing and saying all the right things.  So I'll just dislike him and hope he can fade a little more quietly in the background that he seems to avoid regardless.
 

Mugsy's Jock

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I would hope MLBPA would raise a question here about the MFY skating their responsibility to make this payment. A-Rod is entitled to the money, whether he wants it or not...just as A-Rod was not allowed to reduce his salary to join the Sox in 2004, whether he wanted to or not.

Yankees should give all $6MM to Rodriguez, who can then decide to donate as much of it to charity as he sees fit. And the luxury cap should take a hit.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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The whole thing is BS. The Yankees marketed ARod at will in 2009, and it's not like they can pretend they didn't know he was using steroids. 
 
Then they put him in a bind here by offering the money for charity. If he says no, then he looks like the villain. Unless the Yankees are giving back all the wins and the World Series they won thanks to ARod, they should have to pay him his money. 
 
This stuff drives me nuts. 
 

Average Reds

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EvilEmpire said:
Hard to tell how strong of a case ARod has when we don't have access to that marketing agreement.
I think it's safe to assume that they Yankees would have lost had the case gone to arbitration/litigation, but I will tip my hat to the Yankees for leveraging A-Rods insecurity and getting him to agree to the compromise.

An artful solution.
 

InsideTheParker

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  About 90 minutes before Friday night’s game in the Bronx against the Tampa Bay Rays, Zack Hample, the fan who grabbed the ball from Rodriguez’s 3,000th hit after it soared into the right-field stands for a home run at Yankee Stadium on June 19, pulled the ball, secured in a Ziploc bag, from a black backpack and handed it to Rodriguez, who said he would give it to his daughters.
 
 
In exchange, the Yankees assured Hample, who has achieved some fame for snaring baseballs hit into the stands, that they would donate $150,000 to a charity, Pitch In for Baseball, that aims to distribute baseball equipment to deprived areas in the United States and abroad. The Yankees said Hample had supported the charity for years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/sports/baseball/two-deals-for-alex-rodriguez-one-for-ball-one-for-bonus.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Baseball&region=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=false&pgtype=article
I thought this was worth posting as a number of Soshers were quick to dump on Hample (in a game thread, go figure).
 

Meff Nelton

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Madmartigan said:
Does anyone think he's NOT on something?
 
Barry Bonds hit MUCH better than A-Rod is now during his walk year in 2007, and was still blackballed out of the league despite never receiving any official sanction from MLB in his career. Nobody is offering a 42 year-old A-Rod a contract to play in 2018, and certainly not for any money he would view as significant. If he's caught again, he will almost certainly be banned for life, and have his contract voided.
 
In short, A-Rod might have less incentive to do PEDs than any athlete in the history of professional sports. I have no idea what he's doing, but if he's doping, it could be viewed as the most selfless, team-first decision he's ever made.
 

Sampo Gida

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Madmartigan said:
Does anyone think he's NOT on something?
 
He is unlikely to be taking any banned substance and risk 60 million .  Has to be tested frequently and is under a microscope.
 
I do wonder if he managed to get his Therapeutic Use Exemption for synthetic testosterone reinstated. It was reported and confirmed he had one in 2007.  Perhaps this was offered as part of a deal for him dropping the lawsuits, or a bone to the Yankees who remained on the hook for his salary when the lifetime ban attempt was aborted.   Bosch had testified that Arod had testosterone levels that were below the average for a man his age. If true this would likely be enough to support a TUE for testosterone.
 
In any event, when a guy has a year like this at 40, something he has not had since he was 32/33, you have to wonder if its real
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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He was one of the most unique and special physical specimens ever to play the game. Yes, he took steroids to elevate himself when he didn't need to, but I don't find it hard to believe that he can still perform without them. I tend to be a bit cynical about how much PEDs actually improve performance, but there's obviously no way to gauge that, so it's a fools errand to get into that debate. But if Ted Williams can hit 39 HRs at age 41 I don't find it all that shocking that a 39 yo ARod can.

And that's really kind of the most depressing or frustrating thing about him. He didnt need it. Just like Bonds or Clemens, they likely were already inner circle greatest ever players. But the same competitive drive that got them to their peak drove them too far.
 

Average Reds

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Williams had a remarkable bounce back season at age 41, but he didn't hit 39 HRs.

What ARod is doing at his age (after missing a full season) is without precedence. Draw your own conclusions.
 

jon abbey

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I obviously have no idea if he's using again or not, but a few things I do know:
 
1) He seems like a wildly different guy in interviews, so much more relaxed and natural than ever before. One could easily extrapolate this and say that he came back this year determined to make the most of what he knew was his last shot, and a shot that he wasn't even sure he'd get until the season actually happened (all of the talk about NY just eating his deal and releasing him). 
 
2) He is a full-time DH now, and doesn't have to worry about playing the field or anything but hitting, and can avoid all of the nicks and bruises that come along with that. 
 
3) His full year off allowed him to fully heal any lingering issues from previous seasons. 
 
4) Average Reds said what he is doing at his age is without precedence, but hasn't his entire career as a power hitting shortstop and then third baseman basically been without precedence? The other seven guys who have 600+ HRs were OFers (6 of the 7) or a 1B/DH (Thome). FWIW, as was mentioned above, Barry Bonds put up better numbers than this in his age 40, 41, and 42 seasons before being forced to retire because no one would sign him. 
 

Average Reds

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jon abbey said:
I obviously have no idea if he's using again or not, but a few things I do know:
 
1) He seems like a wildly different guy in interviews, so much more relaxed and natural than ever before. One could easily extrapolate this and say that he came back this year determined to make the most of what he knew was his last shot, and a shot that he wasn't even sure he'd get until the season actually happened (all of the talk about NY just eating his deal and releasing him). 
 
2) He is a full-time DH now, and doesn't have to worry about playing the field or anything but hitting, and can avoid all of the nicks and bruises that come along with that. 
 
3) His full year off allowed him to fully heal any lingering issues from previous seasons. 
 
4) Average Reds said what he is doing at his age is without precedence, but hasn't his entire career as a power hitting shortstop and then third baseman basically been without precedence? The other seven guys who have 600+ HRs were OFers (6 of the 7) or a 1B/DH (Thome). FWIW, as was mentioned above, Barry Bonds put up better numbers than this in his age 40, 41, and 42 seasons before being forced to retire because no one would sign him. 
I actually agree with a lot of this. We often say that people have nothing to lose, but ARod really did have nothing to lose and he's proving that he still has talent.

At the same time, it's something of a circular argument to say that ARod's career has been without precedence, because we now know that he was cheating for most (if not all) of it.

I have no idea if he's clean or not. But he's lost the benefit of the doubt forever.
 

cheekydave

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You are all way too kind. He has spent his entire career amplified. He has NEVER been caught just ratted out a few times. He could easily use a daily HGH spray that is undectectable. There is no reason at all to believe he is clean, and every reason to believe he is using hamburger helper just as he has done his entire career. The whole thing actually makes me want to puke.
 

StuckOnYouk

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I finally saw the replay of his 3 HR's. 
 
I'm with cheekdave. 3 freakin bombs. absolute no doubt bombs. And that's after he hit a 460 foot bomb in NY the other day.
 

Doctor G

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ARod had a contract that the Yankees were trying to avoid paying.It is not accurate to say he has nothing to lose.He had evrry incentive in the world to seek out a state of the art PED regimen. I will not be sutprisef to see him get outed agsin in the next couple of years.
 

Average Reds

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Doctor G said:
ARod had a contract that the Yankees were trying to avoid paying.It is not accurate to say he has nothing to lose.He had evrry incentive in the world to seek out a state of the art PED regimen. I will not be sutprisef to see him get outed agsin in the next couple of years.
I think you have it backwards. He already has the contract, the Yankees have no choice except to honor it and the HR bonus mattered so little to him that he let the Yankees pay it to a charity rather than fight over it.

He's not getting another contract and he's going to be toxic to sponsors no matter what he does. He's just playing because that's all he has.
 

Lowrielicious

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Meff Nelton said:
Barry Bonds hit MUCH better than A-Rod is now during his walk year in 2007, and was still blackballed out of the league despite never receiving any official sanction from MLB in his career. Nobody is offering a 42 year-old A-Rod a contract to play in 2018, and certainly not for any money he would view as significant. If he's caught again, he will almost certainly be banned for life, and have his contract voided.
 
In short, A-Rod might have less incentive to do PEDs than any athlete in the history of professional sports. I have no idea what he's doing, but if he's doping, it could be viewed as the most selfless, team-first decision he's ever made.
 
This is a ridiculous statement. Which part of the entire Alex Rodriguez saga points to him ever being "team-first"?
He actually has a much more likely incentive to dope now that has nothing to do with his team.
 
As you and Average Reds say, he isn't getting another contract. He will get the Bonds treatment when this contract is up. That means the clock is ticking on his career and he is currently 85 Hr short of Barrys mark. 108 prior to the start of this year.
 
He wants to beat that before his time is up and the best way to do that (particularly at his age) is the only way he knows how. Get on the gear.
 
I agree that not having to play the field is helping keep him injury free and healthy, but the last time he hit HRs at this rate or better was in 2007 when he was 31/2 years old and was juicing then. He is now bettering that mark at 39-40 when clean? Come on...
 

Papelbon's Poutine

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Average Reds said:
Williams had a remarkable bounce back season at age 41, but he didn't hit 39 HRs.

What ARod is doing at his age (after missing a full season) is without precedence. Draw your own conclusions.
Apologies for the typo. Williams had a 190 OPS+ at age 41. ARod is currently at 152 as a 39 yo. He is by no means putting up an unprecedented season as far as production is concerned. If you assume that means he has to be using PEDs again, knock yourself out. As stated I think the year off did him well.
 

glennhoffmania

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Lowrielicious said:
 
This is a ridiculous statement. Which part of the entire Alex Rodriguez saga points to him ever being "team-first"?
He actually has a much more likely incentive to dope now that has nothing to do with his team.
 
As you and Average Reds say, he isn't getting another contract. He will get the Bonds treatment when this contract is up. That means the clock is ticking on his career and he is currently 85 Hr short of Barrys mark. 108 prior to the start of this year.
 
He wants to beat that before his time is up and the best way to do that (particularly at his age) is the only way he knows how. Get on the gear.
 
I agree that not having to play the field is helping keep him injury free and healthy, but the last time he hit HRs at this rate or better was in 2007 when he was 31/2 years old and was juicing then. He is now bettering that mark at 39-40 when clean? Come on...
 
I agree.  This is a guy who almost went to court against his team.  He couldn't give a shit about them.  Everything he does from now on is for his own legacy, and that's completely his right.  But to claim that he'd be acting selflessly if he was caught cheating yet again is kind of nuts.
 

rembrat

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I just think he's dialed in. There's enough season left where a slump can put a damper on his stats so let's see where he's at in 2 months before we start throwing around PED allegations.
 
As far as old dudes hitting jacks, it can happen. Raul Ibanez hit 34 at age 37 and 29 at age 41.
 

mauidano

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rembrat said:
I just think he's dialed in. There's enough season left where a slump can put a damper on his stats so let's see where he's at in 2 months before we start throwing around PED allegations.
 
As far as old dudes hitting jacks, it can happen. Raul Ibanez hit 34 at age 37 and 29 at age 41.
I think this more closer to the truth as well.  Sure he's incredibly narcissistic.  He's the poster child for it.  He's always been a great baseball player with or without "assistance". I'd like to believe that he's learned his lesson but you never know of course. I just wish he wasn't having such a good year and the MFY's weren't in First Place.
 

Lowrielicious

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mauidano said:
I think this more closer to the truth as well.  Sure he's incredibly narcissistic.  He's the poster child for it.  He's always been a great baseball player with or without "assistance". I'd like to believe that he's learned his lesson but you never know of course. I just wish he wasn't having such a good year and the MFY's weren't in First Place.
He has always been a great baseball player no doubt, and (as with Bonds etc.) how much PEDs increased his performance is unknowable, but I don't think there is much of Arods career that can be marked as without assistance. Not much if any.
 

Average Reds

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Papelbon said:
Apologies for the typo. Williams had a 190 OPS+ at age 41. ARod is currently at 152 as a 39 yo. He is by no means putting up an unprecedented season as far as production is concerned. If you assume that means he has to be using PEDs again, knock yourself out. As stated I think the year off did him well.
Yes, it's true that the best pure hitter who ever lived (non-chemical division) had a bounce back year at age 41.

ARod is not the best pure hitter who ever lived. And he was forced to spend a year idle at age 38. There is no precedent for what he's doing at this age after a year away from the game.

As far as PEDs, I am assuming nothing, which is kind of the point. I have no evidence of any use, but then again we never did in the past. Regardless, he has not earned the benefit of the doubt.
 

Wake's knuckle

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On the other hand... he had a year and a half to heal up... and he hasn't been playing in the field. Maybe.... he's just moderately healthy for the first time in a long time?
 

jon abbey

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6-32 in August with no HRs and a .567 OPS, he is coming back to earth along with the rest of the NY offense. 
 

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My layman's opinion is that Alex saw a lot more fastballs in the first half of the season because he couldn't catch up to them in recent years. For whatever reason, he came back from the layoff with better bat speed. After he hit a couple 460-foot bombs off heaters, he is now seeing a softer approach from pitchers who have good breaking stuff. Alex is still a guess hitter and he just takes curveballs right down the middle for strike three, walking away almost before the umpire completes his call. He is also flinching at breaking balls the way hitters do with Betances. But Alex is flinching at anything that starts out inside from right-handers.
 
The book with Alex now involves fastballs out of his happy zone and breaking stuff when you get two strikes on him.
 

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I guess it would be premature for him to clear space on his mantle for a comeback player of the year trophy.
 

mt8thsw9th

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Well, he still has a 140 OPS+. However, the fact that it's a drug suspension he returned from, and not an injury, is good reason not to clear out a space. It's probably Prince Fielder's to lose regardless of what ARod does from here on out.
 

glennhoffmania

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I was kidding.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if he wins it, but if he does it would be a joke.
 

jon abbey

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mt8thsw9th said:
Well, he still has a 140 OPS+. However, the fact that it's a drug suspension he returned from, and not an injury, is good reason not to clear out a space. It's probably Prince Fielder's to lose regardless of what ARod does from here on out.
 
Teixeira is probably ahead of both of those guys by virtue of being a two-way player, right? Joel Sherman did an article about this a few weeks ago, and there are a ton of strong candidates. 
 
http://nypost.com/2015/08/08/a-rods-9-biggest-competitors-in-the-year-of-the-comeback-player/
 

bankshot1

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http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/a-rod-brother-in-law-files-100m-suit-yankee-article-1.2338509
 
 
ARod sued by ex-BIL (Scurtis) for $100M
 
 
On Wednesday, almost a decade later, Scurtis filed an explosive $100 million civil suit against Rodriguez in Miami state court, triggering an internecine legal war in which Scurtis, the younger brother of Rodriguez’s ex-wife, Cynthia, alleges Rodriguez used Newport Property Ventures Ltd., the Rodriguez/Scurtis real estate business, to commit insurance and mortgage fraud in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Scurtis also claims Rodriguez “wrongfully” forced Scurtis out of their company in 2008 and more recently filed a false tax return that triggered a $388,000 lien from the IRS on Scurtis’ Miami-area home.
Scurtis filed the 12-count amended complaint in Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County late Wednesday afternoon, accusing Rodriguez of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, civil conspiracy, unjust enrichment and tortious interference. Scurtis also filed for an injunction to prevent A-Rod from transferring assets in order to avoid a judgment.
 

terrynever

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Needed a place to vent here. A-Rod is holding the Yankees hostage this season, ruining the team at two positions. Hitting .145, he is the worst DH in the league and he blocks the job from Beltran, who plays RF like a guy who doesn't want to get hurt by running hard or diving for balls hit in his direction.

Rodriguez has been hitting .150 since last August so the idea that this is a temporary slump seems unlikely.

This is the ninth year of the 10-year extension signed off on by Hank Steinbrenner, who must be scrubbing horses and pitching manure in the family stables by now.
 

jon abbey

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No one is "holding the Yankees hostage", Boston just showed that a sunk cost is just that with Sandoval and Castillo, and if there are better baseball options, NY should take them.

I don't really see better baseball options currently for NY, though, A-Rod had 33 HRs last year and he's certainly not the only player in history to have a shitty 62 AB streak. Beltran was even worse last April (.481 OPS) than A-Rod has been this April (.515 OPS), then he proceeded to have a .862 OPS from May 1 on.

That being said, two weeks on the DL might be the best thing for NY, curious to see what position player moves they make if any before tonight's game.
 

terrynever

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No one is "holding the Yankees hostage", Boston just showed that a sunk cost is just that with Sandoval and Castillo, and if there are better baseball options, NY should take them.

I don't really see better baseball options currently for NY, though, A-Rod had 33 HRs last year and he's certainly not the only player in history to have a shitty 62 AB streak. Beltran was even worse last April (.481 OPS) than A-Rod has been this April (.515 OPS), then he proceeded to have a .862 OPS from May 1 on.

That being said, two weeks on the DL might be the best thing for NY, curious to see what position player moves they make if any before tonight's game.
More like 250 ABs if you take this "slump" back to last August. He hit .153 last August with 2 HRs. .230 in Sept. with 7 homers. .145 with 1 HR this month.

The MRI came back negative. So they have two players hurt but not bad enough to go on the DL. Something has to give. You can't have two players in limbo. Both RH. Swisher has to be coming to Texas. That would necessitate taking Heathcott or Gamel off the 40-man.
 
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jon abbey

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He had a .804 OPS in Sept/Oct last year, a shitty August and April this year I'll obviously give you.

And I agree that they should put both Hicks and A-Rod on the DL and let them heal fully, and activate Gamel and Swisher, but let's not entirely overlook the fact that Swisher was horrendous for all of 2014 and 2015 to the point where he had two teams give up on him entirely and release him. I'd still like to see him at DH tonight also, but there's a healthy dose of wishful thinking factoring in there in addition to his hot hitting in a week or two at Scranton.
 

jon abbey

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Swisher playing RF for the first time tonight in AAA, so clearly he won't be in TEX.
 

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The latest ESPN post within last hour makes it sound like Girardi favors at least starting tonight playing two players short in Texas, hoping to get Hicks back sooner than Wednesday. Seeing how the cortisone shot he got Saturday kicks in.
 

jon abbey

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Which mostly shows you how little they trust the current alternatives, since both A-Rod and Hicks have been awful at the plate so far (Hicks' defense has been superb, of course). If Cesar Puello was available, it might be a different story, as they really liked him in spring training, but he is on the concussion list in AAA currently.