You're on record, pal.

If the 1998 Yankees had ARod at third base instead of Brosius, then they'd have been even better:

"Why? Because an extended A-Rod absence would swing open a door of delicious opportunity, that’s why.

The Yankees could go back to being the Yankees. They could go back to being the team that won four championships in five years with reliable pitching and a harmonious band of position players that didn’t need a slugger whose favorite teammates are Me, Myself and I."

So ... the absence of a superstar third baseman will make the pitching staff more reliable?

How does that work?


Despite the comments by Tino Martinez (and just about everybody else), the '98 - '00 Yankees were filled with stars, especially on the pitching staff.

I understand that nobody hit 50 HRs, but the teams cumulatively hit 200 HRs. Lots and lots of very good players.

They weren't a bunch of Cody Ransoms.


"Seattle won 116 games the season after Rodriguez took $252 million to play for the Texas Rangers, who managed three consecutive last-place finishes despite the steroid-fueled rockets launched from A-Rod’s bat."

1) In Texas, it was the pitching staff's fault, you numskull.

2) In 2001, Seattle added selfish superstars like AL MVP Ichiro. They had a team ERA of 3.54. That is how they were able to win 116 regular season games.

3) In 2001, freed from the selfishness of ARod, Seattle lost in the playoffs. So, Ichiro is a choker.

4) Seattle won 61 games last year without ARod.


"But facts are facts: The Yankees haven’t reached the World Series in Rodriguez’s five seasons, and they reached six in the eight seasons before he arrived.

Coincidence, or guilty as charged?"

Ha ha. "Facts are facts." I suppose that's true. But interpretation of facts is your job and, I must say, you're pretty damned awful at your job.


Why did the Yankees lose in the playoffs recently? Is it perhaps a lack of "reliable pitching"?

Hmmm ... let's stop fixating on ARod for five minutes and examine some facts ...

• Chien-Ming Wang's 19.06 ERA in the 2007 ALDS.
• Randy Johnson's 10 earned runs in 2 early-exit starts.
• Big Game Kevin Brown.
• Joba blowing the lead in Cleveland.
• Mussina lasting 2 2/3 in the deciding Game Five of the 2005 ALDS.
• Etc., etc., etc.
  

Starting Pitching Depth is the most important component of a winning baseball team. Duh.

Hopefully, the words "2009 Yankees" will never be used in the same sentence as: Sidney Ponson, Darrell Rasner, Jeff Karstens, Matt DeSalvo, and Dan Giese.

With or without ARod, the cumulative efforts of Joba, Wang, Pettitte, Sabathia, and Burnett will decide whether or not the 2009 Yankees win a lot of games.

I shouldn't have to mention this because it's so fundamentally obvious, but maybe I should, since the entire world of sports journalism is ignoring Joba and Wang and focusing on you-know-who.

Pitching's not ARod's job. He's the third baseman.

If the Yankees are better in 2009 than they were in 2008, it will not be attributable to ARod's absence. It will be attributable to the additions of Posada, Joba, Wang, Teixeira, Sabathia, and Burnett. Duh.


We get it, Ian O'Connor: You don't like ARod. You foolishly assign some mystical attributes to Scott Brosius (.245 playoff BA) and Tino Martinez (.233 playoff BA).

But now you're on record. You really think the Yankees will be better with Cody Ransom at third base. You can't take it back if ARod misses the season, Ransom hits .215, and the Yankees win 79 games.

It's a "delicious opportunity," alright. A "delicious opportunity" for the Orioles to finish the season with a better record than the Yankees.