His kingdom for a triple (OK, probably not)
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- September
- 11
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Alex Rodriguez can hit the ball far. That’s a given. He also runs well, as his 22 stolen bases would indicate.
But here’s some statistical weirdness for you: A-Rod has not had a triple since May 31, 2006.
That’s 244 games and 896 at-bats. Since then, nine teammates have had triples including such unlikely candidates as Jorge Posada, Hideki Matsui, Bubba Crosby, Andy Phillips and Miguel Cairo.
Triples – while one of the coolest things to see in baseball – take some special circumstances. You either have to be somebody with Olympic speed like Jose Reyes or Curtis Granderson. Or you need a park with some weird angles. The best way is for an outfielder to dive at a line drive and miss it.
For whatever reason, the three-bagger has eluded A-Rod. So root for somebody to fall down or a funny hop. It’ll be worth to see A-Rod slide into third, fist-bump Larry Bowa and rotate that shoulder.
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 11th, 2007 at 12:16 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Calling a bases clearing triple in tonight’s game for Alex
I’m just hoping the Yanks won’t get blown out by the Jays tonight.
I bet that zero in the triples column is gonna cost he the MVP, knowing the prejudice against Yankees players.
shhh. Don’t tell Steve Phillips, he’ll make up some bullcr@p.
Well as long as we don’t see Benjie Molina hitting any triples, Alex is good.
Maybe it is because he hits the ball so hard the outfielders are able to keep him to a double…
I was thinking about it last night. Boras will NOT be able turn down a Cashman’s reasonable offer for ARod. Lets say Cashman’s budget for ARod is X millions. So Boras is looking at X + 30 M. If Boras pulls ARod out of the contract, that means he is expecting more than what the yankees are willing to spend on ARod (yes there is a limit), which means yankees will be out of ARod sweep stakes even before they start. Which is a complete loss of Boras’s leverage. Boras is just another agent if the yankees are not in the bidding. Especially in this case, because there are only 2 other teams that can afford more than what yankees offer and still address other areas of need. Redsox and Mets. Also, Arod and he will have a fear in the back of their minds that if they turn down yankees offer and the free agency brings them only marginally more or even a marginally less money than what yankees were offering, that will hurt ARod’s reputation AND his chances of winning it all multiple times without getting a lot more money. The only teams that are almost guaranteed to succeed consistently is the yankees and may be the redsox. No, not even the Angels are in this class.
Now considering numbers. I am almost certain that Cashman will consider ARod at a price of $150-$160 M out of his pocket for 6 yrs is a great deal. That allows him to give ARod a 180-190M for 6 year contract, at the end of which ARod will be months short of 40. I would think the contract would be like $35M per for first 3 yrs and 25-30M for the next 3. No sane agent will turn down that contract for a 32 year old player, unless he is guaranteed more money by somebody else.
When I said succeed consistently in my previous post, I meant getting to post season consistently.
It’s because when A-Rod hits, the outfielders position themselves in the mid-bleachers and work their way in accordingly.
is it his fault he hits it so far
frankly I’d love a bases clearing triple being saved come playoff time for Alex 
When you’re hitting that many homeruns, who needs triples????
i think it’s because when he hits the ball well
it normally goes out!!!
What’s really ironic about Arod’s lack of triples, is that Will Nieves hit two in one game in Scranton this month.
Yanks26 that’s good how many did he translate to the MLB
If I was a Yankee’s fan I really would not be bothered by the lack of triples by Arod especially with him hitting home runs almost on a daily basis lately. Even David Ortiz hit a triple this season and we all know he is a speed demon on the bases. Just kidding.
If it were the old Stadium, with those dimensions, there’d be less HR and more triples for him.
What did Georgie use? A motorized wheelchair?
Regarding A-Rod’s lack of triples, I was actually thinking about this topic about two weeks ago. I think there are several reasons that he’s not hitting a lot of triples:
1) Triples are generally line drives hit to the gaps or over the CF’s head. The OF all play so deep, nothing is in the gaps for long, and if he hits a ball over the CF’s head, it it a HR.
2) A-Rod gets a lot of “lift” when he’s hitting the ball well. He is so strong, that a ball hit with a one-handed swing has no where to go but one of two places:
a) a pop-up/ground out, if he happens to “miss it”;
b) a HR
3) Due to his “timing mechanism” (leg-kick), he tends to pull the ball when he hits line drives. If he doesn’t get lift, because he it out in front, it usually goes in the 3B/SS hole, or a groundout to SS;
4) When he hits the other way, and he doesn’t “miss it”, as in 2) above, the results are usually one of those “it is high, it is far…” jobs to RCF.
Bottom line: the guy is just so strong, that it either goes out, or falls in front of the deep-playing OF when he “misses it”.
Just my two cents.
If you also look A-Rod doesnt hit many doubles either. He hasn’t hit over 30 since 2001. And I think it all comes down to what Bobcat says. If A-Rod actually hits a ball well its gone.
Although it’s probably mostly a statiscial oddity, I agree with the notion that if the outfielders are already scratching their backs on the wall when you hit the ball, it’s hard to get a triple. You aren’t going to hit it over their head (unless it’s HR). And, it’s kind of hard to have someone dive and miss a line drive and have the ball roll far, far away when they’re already at the warning track.
Career-wise, A-Rod seems to have at least about as many triples as Sheffield, Manny, and other sluggers.
As others have said, is there anyone in baseball that the outfielders play deeper, this cuts off all chance of triples, but gives him some singles that other players wouldn’t get
I must say, I could not agree with you in 100%, but it?s just my opinion, which indeed could be wrong.