Cashman's talk with A-Rod

[Blue Jeans]

The dust will settle for a couple of days, and then Cashman could summon Alex Rodriguez to his office. And this might be what he says to arguably the greatest player of his time.

 

 

Alex, I cannot tell you how much respect I have for your effort, your willingness to do whatever it took to make this work. You changed positions, surrendering the chance to be considered the greatest shortstop ever. You showed up before every other player every day, worked extra hard on conditioning, studied film, took extra batting practice. You deferred to Derek.

 

 

Alex, it's not working. The situation is going to get much worse before it gets better. For the next four months, your statistics will be recited 79,994,236 times on every sports talk show in town, on every Web site: No RBI in your last 12 playoff games. Four hits in your last 41 at-bats in the playoffs. Sixteen consecutive at-bats without a hit with runners in scoring position with two outs in the playoffs, the worst such stat in the history of baseball. And I'm sorry to say, but you will listen to all of it; you will be hurt by all of it. Some players ignore the chatter, don't care about it. You do care about what others say; it's part of what has helped make you great.

 

 

You will be bombarded with questions from reporters for months, after you arrive in spring training. And you know what the sad part is? There's nothing that you can do to really silence all of that stuff until October. For the next 12 months, pressure will continue to build on you, and you will be booed mercilessly along the way. If you had Mariano Rivera's makeup, I wouldn't care. But you don't have Rivera's makeup. You hear all of it. It hurts you. You care. You will be affected. We saw it this year; maybe Joe didn't make the right decision to drop you to eighth, to mess with your mind before a playoff game, but that tells you what our manager thinks about you right now.

 

 

And next October, you will once again be judged on a handful of at-bats. And from where I'm sitting, I don't see a lot of evidence that you can handle this.

 

 

Maybe it's best for you and for us if we were to trade you, Alex. We'll consult you through the whole process, and you will have choices. The Angels would love to have you, and we could work out a trade with them. The Padres need a third baseman, and they're going to spend a lot of money. Maybe the Cubs would want you -- you could be the shortstop there. Maybe you could be the shortstop for the Astros; imagine swinging at those seats down the left field line. You will be able to relax and you can break Hank Aaron's record and you know what? You'll have fun doing it. It can't be fun for you here.

[fringe]

The best thing that could ever happen to A-Rod is a trade to an NL team where he could play short, bat 3rd, be respected. The only reason Yankees took him was so the Red Sox couldn't have him. Not the makings of a healthy marriage

[so-cal dub]

The best thing that could ever happen to A-Rod is a trade to an NL team where he could play short, bat 3rd, be respected. The only reason Yankees took him was so the Red Sox couldn't have him. Not the makings of a healthy marriage

You're an idiot. The Yankees took him becuase we know how to get things done(Talent wise). The Sox had there shot long before the Yanks even looked his way and at the time we had a 3rd basemen out for the up coming season.

[420]

You're an idiot. The Yankees took him becuase we know how to get things done(Talent wise). The Sox had there shot long before the Yanks even looked his way and at the time we had a 3rd basemen out for the up coming season.

 

[fringe]

You're an idiot. The Yankees took him becuase we know how to get things done(Talent wise). The Sox had there shot long before the Yanks even looked his way and at the time we had a 3rd basemen out for the up coming season.

Well, you would know an idiot when you see one so I can't argue there. However, this idiot thinks there were better fits for the Yankees at 3rd (considering he's not even a natural 3rd baseman). They did it to show they could. It's a terrible fit, any idiot can see that.