Afternoon Baseball

It's been roughly 20 months, I might be off by a little. But this comment on this earlier post asked my opinion of the legendary A-Rod deal.

I think that it's worked out in the long run, and that it's the other deals that have been made, or not made, that have put the Yanks in the position that they are in. From the idiotic Kevin Brown trade, to destroying the psyche of the NL's 3rd best pitcher in 2003 (Vasquez), to overpaying for a guy with one good year (Pavano, Wright, Womack, post-knee surgery RJ), to destroying Quantrill's knee, to going back on a smart decision (letting Stanton walk after 2001), to not realizing Bernie was shot and Beltran was necessary, to letting Pettitte go (and not offering Clemens arbitration even though he never filed retirement papers), to not firing Mel Stottlemyre, to trading Halsey and that catcher prospect cause oh my, Posada is 34 already...

These are the decisions that have crippled the Yanks. Thankfully, they've done slightly better this year by promoting Wang and Cano, trading for Chacon, having faith in Small and even Leiter (just because he's desperate enough to give his all).

I liked Soriano. But he while he was often explosive, when he wasn't hitting he stopped the lineup cold. And if the best player in the AL, if not the game, is available, you've got to grab him. It's unfortunate that the SS/3B thing is like it is, but it could be worse. Without A-Rod, I don't see how the Yankees would be above .500. Sheff and Matsui would be picking up a lot of walks and not getting fastballs or RBI-opportunities, teams could afford to not throw Soriano anything but junk and watch him chase, Cano would be on some other team, God knows who would be playing 3rd, and if the Yanks were under .500 this late, the team and its coaches might be radically different.
I wish we could have Soriano too. But I'm willing to live with what happened in that deal, if not any of the others mentioned.