Is Pudge Rodriguez through as a hitter?

He can still catch and throw but I haven't seen swings as feeble as what I've seen from Rodriguez in this Yankees series. I've seen better swings from Little League kids, seriously. Not having seen much of the Tigers during the regular season, has he been better than he looks now? He really looks to me like he has had it as a hitter.

 

The guy did hit .300 this year. I'm not saying he's a great hitter (OPS of .769 makes him about an average American League hitter), but I wouldn't write him off because he looks bad this series. Heck, I've seen Bernie Williams look like a Hall of Famer and a Little Leaguer during the same postseason.

 

I agree. He rang up the weakest .300 I've seen in some time. Looks like Brett Boone disease.

 

Batted .300 with 13 homers in regular season. I'm not ready to call him done because he's gone 0-for-8 against Yankees two best pitchers/bullpen. Is he worn down a little at this time of year? Maybe. He's also 3-for-27 over the last three years at Yankee Stadium, including 0-for-10 during the regular season this year.

 

[kickingolddeadhorse] Wait, are we talking Alex or Ivan?[/kickingolddeadhorse]

 

He was through as a hitter last year.

2005: .276/.290/.444
2006: .300/.332/.437

OBP went up cuz his walks more than doubled -- all the way from 11 to 26. Five less doubles, one less triple, one more homer. 17 more singles.

So in his last 1,100 or so plate appearances, he has just 97 extra-base hits. This year alone, Grady Sizemore had 92 xb-hits.

 

When you account for his home ballpark, Rodriguez is a league average hitter. Considering he's a 34-year-old catcher, that's not bad.

 

EENNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNHHHHHHHH!

Pudge has hit better at home than on the road all three years in Detroit.

 

Maybe it's just fatigue at the end of a long season.

Two former catchers, Charlie Lau and Smokey Burgess, were pretty good pinch-hitters at the end of their career. That always made me wonder whether the physical demands of being a catcher affected their offensive production. My theory was that if they would pinch hit, they would have more knowledge about what pitchers would throw and what to do.

 

Well, golly. I wonder. He's shrunk so much his nads are probably the size of California raisins.

 

Looked pretty decent last night.

 

And how embarrassed am I for writing this stupid jump-the-gun opinion?? After two days of feeble swings in Yankee Stadium, Pudge comes home and looks pretty good. I should have just kept my opinions to myself.

What I wonder now is this -- was it hitting at YS as opposed to Comerica; was it hitting against Randy Johnson; or was it just to make me look bad?