Verducci with a darn good piece about A-Rod

The story gibes with everything about A-Rod I have heard and read. Ken Rosenthal did an interesting story about him a year or two ago, which talked about how disliked he was in Texas--he'd talk to the young players like they were little leaguers and he was the coach. And when he got all ra ra, rightly or wrongly it was perceived as fake. It also touched on the dislike of him by opposing players.

Whether or not he's a phony, it's obvious that he has a problem related to how people perceive him. When Jeter is the first guy out of the dugout to greet a guy who's just hit a home run, it comes off as genuine. When A-Rod does it, people perceive it as him running ahead to try to beat Jeter out of the dugout, and they think he's a fake.

In a way, the Verducci story humanized him for me. I am suspicious of a guy who can rattle off his stats like that, in a clubhouse where the team has always seemed more important than the individual. But I am not so sure that it is that A-Rod is selfish, as it is that he doesn't know how to deal with his emotions, and that is his coping mechanism. As a result, he becomes too calculating and tries too hard to remain cool. And you can see the effort behind it, and it makes him look fake. But the reason he is trying so hard, is that he really DOES care and he doesn't know how to show it.

The quotes in Verducci's story were stunning, particularly from the Yankees, who typically keep the dirty laundry hidden well. My bet is that Giambi, Torre, and the few guys who were quoted anonymously, weren't breaking ranks. They made a calculated decision, and they weren't stabbing A-Rod in the back, as much as they wer trying to prod him and get him angry.

If ever a guy needed to just get angry, it seems like it's A-Rod. If that is the case, they chose the right guy, in Verducci, to be their messenger. He handled the story perfectly.

 

The guy is a Hall of Famer. But this isn't fantasy baseball. There are no points for statistics. Yes, there are many guys in that clubhouse who are "all about winning" (not words I used, but still...). That's how the Yankees get judged. By championships.

A-Rod is a fantastic player for that team, because you need to beat up on the bad teams all season long and win 95 games during the regular season to even get to the playoffs. Obviously a guy putting up the numbers he does, contributes to those wins during the grind.

But in a championship season, there are a handful of statement games, there are also usually a handful of more important pennant race games and then there are playoff games. Those games take on more importance.

During A-Rod's slump, I was watching one of those games out in Anaheim. He looked sick. It was as if the pressure had sapped him of all of his ability--and the guy has more ability than anyone in baseball. They were feeding him only sliders out of the strike zone (there was no trickery going on), and he was lunging at the ball over and over again and missing it badly. He looked as overmatched as I have ever seen a major leaguer.

If he was turned into that much of a wreck because of the pressure he was feeling during those relatively meaningless games, as a teammate, how confident are you that he is going to produce in those games that have more importance? Because, yes, it is only about winning there. That is how Yankees players get judged. They earn those gaudy paychecks and their owner and fans expect World Series titles.

Different guys handle pressure and failure differently. It's obvious A-Rod has not figured out his way yet. It's, in part, because he is so damned good. He hasn't experienced much failure, and with Seattle and Texas he was never faced with the kind of pressure you get when you play for the Yankees. For a lot of guys, anger is what works. Paul O'Neill, for example.

So yes, those "punks," as you call them had a purpose in that story. They are trying to light a fire under the guy to see if that works.