Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Funny Math



Really? REALLY?

This


















is now equivalent to this?














I kind of hate you A-Job, but tell me tell me you are less of a mental midget than Blauchhead.

No one else is excited for tonight, right?

12 comments:

Hops said...

I don't know if I hate A-Rod. How can you hate someone that uninteresting? I sports-hate the Yankees...but not necessarily their well paid 3rd baseman.

I'm sure someone I know out West will probably feel differently, however. Just for fun.

Hops said...

Is this real? Did ESPN really fire my man Harold?

Kaiser said...

Weird about Reynolds. I want to turn over to ESPN.com to see if there is a story, but somehow I get the feeling there won't be.

Smitty said...

What is going on? He was the best thing on Baseball Tonight. Great chemistry between them all. I bet he didn't get along with Phillips and said "Him or Me." Since Phillips is a former Met GM, they stayed with the east coast connection. Hopefully I'm full of bad speculation cause I've enjoyed Phillips. This sucks.

Don't hate A-Rod. Still having a heck of a year. I think he leads the league in game-winning RBI (not to be confused with "walk-off" RBI). $25 mill/yr makes it hard to do anything but .330-35-100 RBI in each half of the season.

Kaiser said...

Is there a way we can trade for A-Job where the Rangers will continue to pay like 7 or 8 million of his salary, the Yankees can pay 10 or 12, and we can just pick up like 5 to 7? Make this happen Terry Ryan you loveable yet somewhat curmudgeonly genius.

Hops said...

This is turning into way too much of an A-Rod love-fest (where is Pooh?).

I don't hate him...but he is a villain. He's the prototype for the absurd economics of professional baseball. And you can't really hold it against him...none of us would turn down a ridiculous raise from our employers. But that just adds to everyone's angst...probably his too. He seemingly has zero intangibles that people would find lovable. He's capable of dominating a game, but he plays somewhere (and for a team) where that's expected on a daily basis...so he'll never win. (Unless you consider winning to be falling asleep in a bed made of money while dreaming of money and waking up and having more money for breakfast)

Kaiser said...

So the location of the team he plays for is the major difference between him and say, KG?

Hops said...

No. KG allows the public to see a more lovable personality...and appears to be more "approachable". That goes a long way toward John Q forgetting that he makes more money than ten generations of his family.

But, yes, if KG played in New York, and was the same (lack of) clutch performer he is now...he'd receive infinite more criticism than he does now.

Kaiser said...

Agreed. Still it is incredibly bizarre, even sitting here with Minnesota Nice running through every vein, how quickly even I have forgotten that he was the freaking AL MVP last year. Granted, it was arguably not justified. But I also don't think he'll be giving it back anytime soon. KG has gotten a much bigger grace period since the MVP/Western Conference Finals run. I think personality is a huge part of that, to be sure. In fact, I don't think KG would be getting hammered right now, even if he played in New York. I get the feeling he would be beloved. I mean, Sprewell was a folk hero in NY. Come on now. I think the difference is the STRENGTH of their respective personalities. A-Rod is a kind of vapid and Al-Gore-2004-model automaton. I'm not exactly sure what causes this sort of personality to emote vulnerability and allow people to attack with more vehemence, but it does. It's like that guy won't defend himself (or herself--hmm..examples?) so my rips will have an effect.

Smitty said...

The real question is do I love Willy's picture more or less than A-Rod.

Agents and Owners have more to blaim than A-Rod for economics in baseball. Blaim Hicks for that one.

It's funny how A-Rod is having problems with being the man in NY. He is not bigger than the Yankees. I think only Ruth is bigger than the Yankees, maybe that's his problem. He was bigger than Seattle and the Rangers.

If you were Cashman, excuse me, Steinbrenner, would you trade him? Texas is paying $10 mill of the salary, but how do you get equal value for him. Why would you trade those numbers when you have a terrible pitching staff and two all-stars on the DL. Let's face it, they need him and can't do anything about this. Maybe NY needs to watch Ghostbusters II and start giving positive vibes to A-Rod so the emotionally driven pink slime goes away.

Kaiser said...

Yowza. A Ghostbusters II reference. That's almost as funny as thinking about whether or not Smitty actually thinks I was serious about an A-Rod trade as a reasonable possibility.

Back to my original point though (sort of), is A-Rod really capable of having a mental meltdown on the level of Knoblauch's? I would never have even entertained this possibility say...a month ago even...but some of the throwing and fielding errors he's had lately can NOT be due to physical errors solely. This is definitely connected to the pressure of playing in New York. Maybe he has feelings after all?

Anonymous said...

The errors are mental. But Knoblauch literally would throw away three to four balls per game. That was a specific block to own specific part of his game. A-Rod's just in a slump. If he would have stayed in Seattle, he'd be Pujols right now. He'll be "fine".