When will A-Rod get walked?
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Apr 21, 2007 
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Alex Rodriguez has not drawn a walk since April 14. How is that possible?
On Thursday, after A-Rod beat Cleveland, I blogged that I thought the Indians should have walked him to get to Jason Giambi.
I was immediately called an idiot by assorted people. Which is certainly possible.
Then I saw this Q&A on ESPN.com:
Buster Olney: When Alex Rodriguez hit his latest walk-off homer against the Indians Thursday, where were you, and can you describe the scene?
Mike Myers: I was in the players’ lounge with Brian Bruney, Luis Vizcaino and Darrell Rasner, and we were debating what the Indians were going to do after the wild pitch in the ninth. It was unanimous that they would walk Alex intentionally and go after Giambi.
Joe Torre said the same thing on Friday, as did Derek Jeter and Giambi himself.
With the way the guy is hitting, I think you have to pitch around him. Alex is hittting .371 and Giambi is hitting .271. It ain’t rocket science.
Beckett got bombed DESPITE the Yanks missing 3 All-Star regulars and DESPITE a very generous strike zone…and he gets a standing-O because Karstens was worse
It’s not that cut and dried. Otherwise the Indians would have done it. It didn’t work out for them, but I can’t kill them for their decision.
Any chance Matsui bats 5th when he comes back and they move Giambi down? I know it’ll never happen, but it continues to be feast or famine with him.
Ok I retract my earlier statements in the season.
Okajima is lights out, maybe he should close and Papelbon goes back to starting to protect his arm.
At least it saunds like what they should do.
so what your saying pete is that 1 time in 10 arod gets a hit when giambi doesn’t?
Yeah that 1 in 10 chance sure justifies adding another base runner.
*eye roll*
It’s obvious that teams don’t fully respect A-Rod yet… they have that “not a clutch player” media creation still stuck in their heads.
Darkstrand: You’re the manager, you want ARod swinging the bat or Giambi right now?
Why is Sean Henn taken out?
Giambi,
but if the price of having giambi hit instead of arod is an excellent extra base runner magically appearing on first its not worth it.
The way you’re looking at it doesn’t make sense. You can’t choose who to pitch to.
Typical Scott Proctor. Ahead 0-2 and then promptly falls in the hole and….gives up the walk.
“Giambi,
but if the price of having giambi hit instead of arod is an excellent extra base runner magically appearing on first its not worth it.”
In the Cleveland scenario to which Peter was referring, A-Rod couldn’t possibly have scored from first. The winning run was on second.
“Why is Sean Henn taken out?”
In case Wright gets hammered tomorrow in the early innings.
Wow, great catch, Eye Chart.
I assume we’re stuck with Nieves in the 9th?
I am with Pete on this one, the way Alex is hitting, it doesn’t matter who is behind him, you walk him.
I honestly think the media storyline that “ARod isn’t clutch” prompts teams to pitch to him.
Ryan
I too would love to see Matsui batting ahead of Giambi.
Giambi has been tearing the cover off the ball the past week. And managers know hes impossible to pitch to because his eye is unreal. And most relievers dont throw a ton of strikes hence why they are relievers.
Giambi had a HR and a double in Thursday’s game AND was something like 3 for 5 with 2 HRs against Borowski so I can see why Wedge decided to pitch to A Rod even though he had been hot coming into the game. He was 0-4 up until that point. It’s not that hard to comprehend.
That extra base runner was MEANINGLESS. A single wins the game when you down by one with 2nd and 3rd. Putting A-Rod on not only takes the bat out of his hands and puts it into Gimabis (who hasnt hit extremely well) but it also sets up a foce at each base making it easier if a ball is hit in the hole or a diving play. If I were the manager, seeing how hot Alex is, I owuld walk him every time to face Giambi especially with first baseopen. Right now, there would be no difference between Giambi v. a righty or A-Rod against a righty
Stacey- Much of Alex’s 0 for 4 was against a pitcher he has never gotten a hit off of.