Get it Together, Alex

I’ve tried to defend the guy, but something’s going on inside Alex Rodriguez’s head that I just don’t understand.  Granted, no baseball player is worth $25 million a year.  I defend Steinbrenner bringing him to the Yankees, because he got Tom Hicks to effectively pick up about 1/3 of A-Rod’s ongoing salary payments.  But at some point, Alex needs to start delivering something other than called strikeouts with runners in scoring position.

Somewhere A-Rod picked up a reputation for getting his production and numbers against weak teams and/or in blowouts.  While I haven’t gone back to prove this, it does seem that when he has games where he goes 4-5 with 2 homers and 5 RBI, it’s against the Royals when the Yankees win 12-2.  When he plays against Boston, Chicago, or other good teams or in close games, he chokes.

Last night was a perfect example.  In the top of the 7th against Washington and trailing 5-3, the Yankees had runners at second and third with one out when A-Rod comes up.  Jeter’s the runner on 3rd, so a decent fly ball should score him and at least get one run closer.  What does Alex do?  He looks at a called third strike.  Cano also struck out to end the inning.  I give Robinson a little more leeway here, since he’s only in his second year, and not making millions of dollars.

Then, in the top of the 8th, the Yankees manage to tie the score at 5-5.  The bases are loaded with 2 outs when Rodriguez comes up again.  Here’s yet another chance for him to get a clutch hit to put the Yankees up.  Heck, even a walk gives them the lead.  Instead, Alex strikes out again.

Thankfully, Bernie Williams hit a solo home run in the top of the 9th to put New York ahead (who added another run to win 7-5), but I’m hoping that Torre will give Alex a day off to try to regain his focus, because something is out of whack with him right now.  He’s already made 11 errors at third, some of which cost the Yankees at least a couple of wins.  His batting average has dropped from .303 at the end of May to .275 as of this writing, a mere 16 days later.  He’s struck out 10 times in his last 4 games.  With Sheffield and Matsui effectively out for the year, Alex needs to get his act together.  Between his play and Randy’s pitching, I have no idea how New York has managed to jump into first place.  At least for now.

Randy to the Pen

Alright, I’ve had enough.  I can’t stand to watch Randy Johnson pitch.  It’s not going to get better.  It’s time to move him to the bullpen.  He’s already walked 31 batters (as compared to only 47 for all of last season in 225 innings).  In six starts this season, he’s given up 5 or more earned runs.  He’s gone less than 5 innings in only 3 of his starts, but he’s had 4 others where he went exactly 5 innings.  In three of those 5 inning starts, he’s given up 5+ runs, so you know that Torre was just using him for innings.  This crap needs to stop.  Jaret Wright hasn’t been this bad.  When you have a guy in the rotation that makes you go “Crap, we’re gonna lose this one”, you need to get him out.

You’re probably asking yourself, “If Randy’s that bad, and there’s no hope for him, why put him in the bullpen?”  For one, they can’t trade him.  Nobody in they’re right mind, or even Rangers owner Tom Hicks, would take his contract.  Second, what I’m actually hoping is that he’ll retire.  You give him the option of working out of the pen or he can retire.  If he decides to retire, that frees up a truckload of money to go after someone else (can you say Barry Zito or Dontrelle Willis?).  If not, he can still probably be effective in short doses, so long as he doesn’t start giving up homers.

I hate the fact that I’m even saying this about Randy, but for Yankees fans like me, it’s just become too painful to watch games he pitches.  You’re just waiting for him to blow up.  So I’m encouraging Brian Cashman to work with Torre to stop creating this stress in our lives and turn Randy into a setup guy for Mariano.  Please.