Sunday, March 1, 2015

Riddle Me This, What if Alex Rodriguez Can Still Play Baseball?


What does it mean for the New York Yankees if Alex Rodriguez pulls a 2009, a year where he started the season late because of his first hip surgery and still finished with 30 home runs and 100 RBI on the nose, and can still play baseball in 2015? We all know the stories of the Yankees third baseman being suspended for all of 2014, missing almost all of 2013 with various lower leg injuries and another hip surgery and the fact that he is 40 years old this season but what if? New York plans on having him spend the majority of his time as a designated hitter and a first baseman which can take some wear and tear, fatigue etc. off his body this season which could conceivably keep him fresher at the plate.

What if? I know it’s a terrible thing to bank on a question mark but I don’t think the Yankees are doing that. With the Chase Headley signing and the Garrett Jones acquisition Rodriguez basically has to play himself into the starting lineup most days. Alex showed opposite field power in his limited at bats in 2013 and I find that encouraging that he can still time a fastball and hit home runs after the second hip surgery and without PED’s. Will he hit 50 again? Lord no, but I don’t think 20 is out of the question and 20 home runs and 60-70 RBI out of the bottom of the lineup is a huge improvement over what Yankees DH’s have done over the past two or three seasons.


If Alex can do what I went over above and the team can get the rest of the team to live up to the back of their baseball cards this team is a playoff team. I didn’t say World Series winner, I didn’t say division winner, I said playoff team so keep that in mind before sending hate mail. New York had lesser teams each of the last two seasons and barely missed the second Wild Card in the American League. A lot of what if’s, I know, but this is the time for what if’s, hope and maybe a little bit of luck for Mr. Rodriguez and for the Yankees, finally. 

2 comments:

  1. It's not crazy. ARod has natural ability.

    And you shouldn't have to worry about hate mail for being optimistic. While it's true, it's still ridiculous that you even have to worry about that.

    ReplyDelete

Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)