Has Father Time caught up to the Yankees 40-year old
designated hitter and what will New York do if Alex Rodriguez continues not to
hit in the middle of the lineup? These are questions that many fans are asking
after two weeks of the 2016 MLB regular season but none of them have been
doling out many answers unfortunately. Have no fear, and keep in mind small
sample sizes and the fact that I know no more than you, for I am here to attempt
to answer a few of those for you this morning.
First and foremost one must remember, and I know I’ve said
this a million times already this season but it needs to be beaten into some
people’s head unfortunately, that two weeks is a terrible sample size to judge
a player on. Some players still have eye popping numbers that are sure to come
back down to Earth while the exact opposite is true for some of the struggling
players that came out of the gate looking sluggish and behind. Of course you
have the players that start slow and never recover and you also have players
who start hot and stay hot, see Nolan Arenado’s stats in September of this year
for proof of this, but for the most part you generally don’t worry after two
weeks. Well unless you’re 40-years old and a player that will turn 41-years old
later this summer.
It is extremely possible that Father Time has caught up to
Alex Rodriguez and that he will be a former shell of himself and half the man
he was, statistically speaking, in 2015. The Yankees lineup looks a whole lot
thinner with some combination of Brian McCann, Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran
hitting in the middle of it than it does with a healthy and 30+ home run
producing Alex Rodriguez in the middle. If New York had to though they could
weather the storm if Starlin Castro keeps up his torrid pace. Having Castro hit
in the 5th or 6th hole and dropping Alex to the 7th-9th
hole is possible, although I would venture to guess Joe Girardi would give Alex
every opportunity to snap out of this funk.
I’m not down on Alex. I won’t be down on Alex after two or
three months let alone two or three weeks so don’t mistake this post as that. I
love to play devil’s advocate and I love to look at both sides of an equation
when I write on this blog. Maybe that’s why a lot of you come here, I’m not
sure. I look at what I think would happen if Alex were to hit 30 home runs
again in 2016 and the next week I look at what I think would happen if he hit
three all season long. It’s what I do and I hope you enjoy because I enjoy
putting the content out for you guys.
It just has been a slow bat this year, from what I have seen so far. With better luck he would have about 3 or 4 more hits but he just looks like he is slower this year and guessing wrong a lot. I am of the opinion he will come around with time but who really knows for sure...I just hope he will! We shall see!
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