Tuesday, May 1, 2012

A-Rod: where's the love?

THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011 Derek Jeter v. Álex Rodríguez

Jeter is about to become the first player to get his 3,000th hit as a Yankee ... Jeter is getting more attention from media and fans here in New York than teammate Álex Rodríguez got for hitting his 500th home run as a Yankee.  More than Rodríguez got for hitting his 600th home run as a Yankee ... it's pretty obvious that Álex Rodríguez is a much better player than Derek Jeter ... I love Jeter but all this 3,000 hit thing has got to tone down.  It's not that big a deal.  Let's pay more attention to Rodríguez.

THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2011 Derek Jeter v. the big boys.

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Earlier this season Alex Rodriguez passed Ken Griffey, Jr. for fifth place on the career home run list and is currently 27 behind Willie Mays.

A couple of days ago Rodriguez passed Mays for tenth place on the RBI list.  48 more RBI will move  Rodriguez past Eddie Murray, Jimmie Foxx, Ty Cobb and Stan Musial into sixth place.  93 more RBI will move  Rodriguez past Lou Gehrig and Barry Bonds into fourth place.  96 more RBI will give Rodriguez 2,000.  Hank Aaron leads with 2,297.

Rodriguez is number 14 on the list for Runs scored.  Scoring another 50 runs will move  Rodriguez past Craig Biggio, Mel Ott, Tris Speaker and Lou Gehrig into tenth place.

So by the end of the 2012 season Alex Rodriguez should be #4 in home runs, #6 in RBI and #10 in Runs.

Derek Jeter's claim to offensive fame is that he gets on base, runs the bases well and scores.  Jeter is #17 in Runs (1,785) 53 behind Rodriguez and unlikely to ever catch him, especially considering that Jeter is 13 months older than Rodriguez:
Jeter born: June 26, 1974
Rodriguez born: July 27, 1975

BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+
Jeter         .314 .383 .450 .834 118
Rodriguez .294 .390 .548 .937 144

Rodriguez even has a higher OBP than Jeter and his SLG is almost 100 points higher.

Even on the Hits list Jeter is #19 (3,125) and Rodriguez #48 (2,795).  Rodriguez will probably get his 3,000th hit during the 2013 season.  Rodriguez may get his 700th home run during the 2014 season.

So where's the love, even from Yankee fans?  If not affection then how about some respect?  Is it his personality?  What has he said or done with the Yankees, for whom he has played his most games, that may have offended Yankee fans?  Nothing that I know of.

Is it his steroid use before he joined the Yankees?  Hasn't that stuff gotten stale yet?

Yankee fans, show some class and treat Alex Rodriguez the way he deserves to be treated: like an all time great baseball player who hustles at least much as Derek Jeter.




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