My Team Did WHAT?!

OK readers, we have all been there before, the GM of our favorite team decides to make a roster change that leaves us the fans completely baffled and enraged saying "Oh no he di'in't!" Whether it is a rookie draft pick that we all know is way too over-hyped (Michael Olowakandi anyone) or a monster trade/free agent acquisition that brings some prima-donna superstar to your team that you absolutely hated watching play before and cannot possible imagine cheering for. Say goodbye to your team's young prospects and hello to higher ticket prices. We have all been in this "glass cage of emotion. The bad man punted baxter!" Sure, it is easy to second-guess and nobody likes monday-morning quarterbacking, BUT some of these things really are no brainers (how does Adrian Peterson slip to #7 in the NFL draft?!) And how come it always seems to be the same GM's making the right moves? Is it simply a case of OVER-thinking much like most fantasy football GMs do every week? Or is there something else going on here? I want each of us to play GM for the day and make a roster decision based on the current big free agent move pending in Major League Baseball right now, Mr. Clean himself, Alex Rodriguez. What do you as fans think of this guy and would you go after him as the GM of your team?

My answer, speaking as the GM for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Orange County or whatever we are called these days, would be a resounding NO. Do NOT go after A-Rod. I repeat, Do NOT SEEK THE TREASURE! Why do I not like him so much? Well, you certainly cannot argue against his business acumen (about to sign the biggest contract in sports history breaking the old MLB record held by, ummm let me think, oh yeah HIM) or his ability to play baseball. Someone is willing to pay him that much money, so he is going after it. Does he value winning and his fit with a team more than making a few more million each season? I think not, and as a business man you cannot fault that reasoning. But as a fan and teammate that does not exactly inspire. And no doubt the guy is a machine at the plate and can play D (as long as he is not in the NY tabloids). BUT he is not a clubhouse guy. He is not a team captain. He is not a leader. In fact, it is his sheer dollar and sense approach to the game that makes his teammates not want to hang with the guy, let alone follow him out on the field. And it has to be hard working with someone that is more worried about getting the right amount of gel in his hair than what's going on in his teammates' lives. The cohesion in the Angels clubhouse is strong, I enjoy watching this group play and I do not think bringing A-Rod in (strictly looking at intangibles) is a good decision.

Working as the GM for a club I think there has to be something said for that one intangible ingredient that you cannot pay for that is absolutely VITAL to a team's success, chemistry. Now don't get me wrong here, I struggled through chemistry in school (but I did learn how to distill my own beer-thank you Mrs Becker) but all athletes have been on teams that have chemistry and teams that simply do not and there is a huge difference. Most of us can even point to lesser successful teams that maybe had MORE talent than other teams but achieved less because the team lacked any chemistry together. Chemistry doesn't necessarily mean all the players have to go to the movies together or throw monday night Jenga parties (although that doesn't hurt, JENGA!) But it is chemistry on the playing field that is crucial, and the addition or subtraction of one or two players here or there can greatly effect that cohesiveness.

And what is the biggest chemistry killer? Egos. The bigger the ego, the greater the tendency for team chemistry to fall by the wayside. And the greater the number of egos the greater the death of team cohesiveness. Are there examples where this is not the case? Yes, but they are the exceptions. You need a special group and a special coach to make it work. And sometimes having just ONE big ego can work because the others can manage to work with it. Those egos have to realize that they NEED their teammates to win and they eventually give in to that fact and value winning a championship over personal accomplishments. The Spurs are a great example of a group of selfless teammates willing to put egos aside for the common goal of winning titles. They have four bona fide superstars in the league and yet they all sacrifice and it starts with Tim Duncan who is not about me but rather about the team. A-Rod in my opinion is not one of those superstars, he wants to sign the biggest contract and put up regular season numbers so that he can sign an even bigger next contract. He is a member of the Wu-Tang financial group, CashRulesEverythingAroundMe.

But enough with the intangibles (which clearly do not favor A-Rod in my opinion) and on to the tangibles of statistics and of course the very tangible salary that he is reportedly asking for. A-Rod had a monster season last year:
AVG .314
HR 54
RBI 156
OBP .422
SLG .645
MVP numbers. And his career stats are off the chart as well, with 11 full seasons played he has already hit over 500 homers and his career average is over .300. Of all baseball players at age 30, he was the first in home runs and runs scored. Can't deny the guys talent, although further analysis of his hitting in post-season play does show some weaknesses, especially over the past few seasons. Since joining the Yankees in 2004, he has hit .244 in the playoffs. And from 2005-07 in the playoffs his average dropped even further to an abysmal .159, hitting just one home-run over those three playoff years. The term CLUTCH does not come to mind when thinking of this guy and analyzing his post-season performance proves that to be true.

Now on to his potential contract, the terms are something in the ball park of $300-350 Million Dollars over the next 10 years. "Why make it millions when it could be billions?" That equates to a yearly salary of $30-35 Million Bones. That per season number is MORE than the combined salaries of 4 ENTIRE TEAM Payrolls last season. For that kind of salary, as a GM I would have to be getting more than just regular season numbers. And I'm sorry but I just don't see A-Rod bringing those intangibles like leadership to the table either. But who knows, maybe he can pitch, and who needs a catcher or outfielders or infielders anyways.
Let me know what you think.

World Series Preview

The Sox will win in 5 or less. It pains me to say it, but it’s true and everyone knows it. The Rockies have one, and only one, shot, and that is to somehow take one of the first two games in Fenway. Otherwise, they will realize their magical, mystery tour has run its course and that they are no match for this actual professional baseball team they are facing. Right now the Rockies have forgotten how they needed to win 21 of 22 games to make the playoffs and become the National League representative in the World Series. I don’t mean they have forgotten that they won that many games, rather I mean they have forgotten that they were playing in the lesser division occupied by AAAA teams with no discernible quality opponents. Now they are facing one of the best teams in the grown-up portion of the MLB. And not just one of the best teams, but I would say the best playoff team in the bunch.

Obviously, having Beckett pitch at least twice in a series gives a team an outstanding opportunity to win, but there is also the way this lineup confronts the playoffs and big moments in games that puts it above other playoff teams. They are baseball’s version of the Lakers between 2000-2002 (and it hurts me to no end to write that). During the regular season this group of guys got by on their talent against the lesser teams to get into the playoffs, ala the Lakers coasting through regular season discontent and boredom. Upon arriving at the playoffs, both teams woke up and turned it up to 11. Both teams have their Big Two (Shaq, Kobe v. Papi and Manny). One cannot win without the other, but together the pairing is capable of taking on all contenders. Manny coasted all season, living in his own world and vacationing for 24 games with a less than severe injury. However, once the playoffs started there hasn’t been a more locked in player. He is unstoppable right now. Papi is slowly crumbling and looks suspiciously like Mo Vaughn, but currently the guy is a wrecking ball dismantling opposing pitchers.

Plus, the Sox have their supporting cast members all of whom play to their strengths and know their roles. Mike Lowell is their version of Derek Fisher. Steady, smart, and only capable of thriving in certain environments (Fenway). Kevin Youkilis is Rick Fox. Although he probably could not pull off a threesome in a movie, Youk does the little things a team needs to win and is a grinder. Fox realized that he could build a niche for himself with the Lakes as a gritty tough-minded defender who knocked down the occasional three. Varitek is Big Shot Bob. Both are clutch and by this point in their careers seemingly on their last legs. Of course, now Horry is vying for his seventh title, so Varitek could have some more fuel in the tank. Coco Crisp is Devean George. Fans don’t know if either player has talent, but they swear they’ve seen flashes of something that could be talent. Finally, J.D. Drew is Glenn Rice, each a version of a worthless, high-paid player (for the sake of the other members of these teams, Lindsay Hunter is Pedroia and B-Shaw is Lugo. Madsen is Ben Affleck).

The key element of that Laker squad was its ability to flip the switch at important times in games, seasons, and especially during the playoffs. It was uncanny how they would appear utterly lost for vast portions of games. Then without much fanfare the momentum would swing and they would jump all over the opponent just when it appeared all was lost. Only during the 2001 campaign were they locked in for the entire playoffs as they went 15-1 and crushed everyone, yet even that season they needed a regular-season ending 8 game win streak to earn a solid playoff seeding. Boston has exhibited this similar ability over the course of these playoffs. In the Halo series they toyed with them in Game 2 until Manny homered to win it, and then systematically crushed their spirit in Game 3 for the sweep. Against Cleveland, the Sox fell behind 3 games to 1 and appeared to be finished. Yet, quickly, efficiently and ruthlessly, they won the next three games by a combined score of 30-5.

The Sox have successfully followed the Lakers format of dominating when it matters and barring the Rockies pulling off a Piston sized upset, the Sox will win another title. Hopefully, the Sox will also follow the Laker blueprint for rebuilding after the glory days have passed.

Get Ready For More Yankee/Red Sox Madness

According to a report in the Washington Times:

The four games [of the NLCS] on TBS drew an average rating of about 3.0, including a new record-low of 2.2 for Friday night's Game 2, according to Nielsen Media Research. The previous record-low for an LCS game was 4.9. Each ratings point equals about 1.1 million households.

Ordinarily, I could care less about the ratings for a playoff series. However, these ratings mean a great deal to any fan of a team not in New York or Boston. These ratings tell the networks, ESPN, and all other sports media outlets that the only way to attract readers and viewers is to focus even more on the Yankees and the Red Sox, which is why we are currently inundated with stories like: will A-Rod opt out? Is Dice-K a bust? Will the Steinbrenner boys fire Torre? What is Manny smoking? And so on. Unfortunately for those of us more concerned about other teams, these ratings are going to give us even more of these stories over the course of the Series and through the offseason, while the rest of the league is pushed to the back pages. These ratings signal to the shortsighted fools running the networks and Baseball that the only thing the viewing public cares about is a series involving the Yankees and the Red Sox.

However, the problem is not that two teams from secondary media markets were playing in the NLCS; rather the problem is that baseball chooses to only market the marquee franchises in New York and Boston, thereby limiting the public’s knowledge of other intriguing teams. Now baseball sits on the precipice of a World Series featuring the Indians versus the Rockies, which no doubt will be a ratings disaster for Fox. Yet, it shouldn’t be a ratings disaster, as there are a myriad of intriguing storylines from such a series: the first World Series for the Rox, Cleveland hasn’t won a pennant since 1948, Todd Helton’s first trip to the World Series, the Rockies and their amazing streak of winning 21 out of 22 games to get to the Series, World Series games in the snow, World Series Games played in the thin air of Denver, Chief Wahoo, Rick Vaughan and Pedro Cerrano. The Wild Thing in Colorado, next on Fox.

An example of what Baseball should be doing can be gleaned from the NBA. The genius of David Stern and the NBA was their use of the stars in the game to generate fan followings and interest in the various playoff series’. Stern found a way to focus on players from nearly every team and especially the perennial championship contenders to ensure that each series was followed by fans all over the country (i.e. in the 90’s with MJ, Pippen, Stockton, Malone, Robinson, Kemp, Payton, Hakeem, Miller, Shaq, Penny). It should be noted that the players on this list all played for mid-market teams. Admittedly, this contributed to the one-on-one nature of the professional game today, but at the time it raised the public profile of the league to incredible heights. Baseball has attempted a similar push, but has focused solely on Jeter, A-Rod, Manny, Big Papi, and to a lesser extent Pujols and Vlad. What about Matt Holliday, a near-Triple Crown winner this year (he led the National League in RBIs and Batting Average and was in the top five for home runs with 36)? What about Troy Tulowitzki, the rangy shortstop who should win the NL Rookie of the Year award? C.C. Sabathia? Pronk? The list could go on, but you would not know it if you merely followed the MLB commercials or ESPN highlights over the course of the season. Baseball’s exclusion of stars from mid-market teams puts it at a severe disadvantage in terms of generating fan interest for this upcoming World Series.

By ignoring the rest of its teams, by focusing on these two admittedly legendary franchises, Baseball has guaranteed that any series involving other teams will turn off casual fans. Good, interesting baseball will be played in a series involving these two teams. Newsworthy sports stories will come out of this series. Moreover, a number of talented, exciting players will be making their World Series debuts. And all of it will be missed, because the general public has been conditioned by Baseball, ESPN, and Fox to only care about the Yankees and Red Sox.