Comments on: Any truth to the A-Rod tips?

By: Maureen

Maureen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 14:20:03 +0000

A-Rod is blamed for everything from the fall of the Roman Empire to global warming..Slamming A-Rod has gotten old really quick..Hardly a days goes by here on this blog that this player is not talked about..

Referencing the tabloid book that sank faster than the Titanic has been refuted by many as a hatchet job filled with innuendo,speculation,and sources say–not a credible work of journalism.

By: Harley

Harley — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:07:23 +0000

First a brief apology. I assumed that Peter had not bothered to address the biggest hole in this story — the kind of pitcher that is most likely on the mound during a blowout game. On the other hand, it’s hard not to point out how weak his actual defense was:

“Actually, if you were a “garbage” pitcher being used in such circumstances, wouldn’t you try and pitch well to improve your status within the game? I would doubt you would just groove BP fastballs to good hitters.”

Garbage pitchers, your term, don’t have to ability to improve or impress at will. Garsh. That’s why they’re garbage pitchers. I don’t get it. A-Rod has many talents, but one of them is getting annoying. The ability to make sportswriters stupid. Now in fairness, a large number of them are — remember all the breathless and brainless chatter about the home run numbers at Arlington? AT ARLINGTON???? — but Pete is anything but stupid, and I’m not sure why he would, if nothing else, give further airing to a conspiracy as poorly founded as this one.

By: KO

KO — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:47:55 +0000

Extremely good point by like the 1st or 2nd commenter. Of course when the game is “out of hand” the pitchers are almost always going to be one of the worst on the staff. Down by a lot or up by a lot, late in a game, chances are there’s a mop up guy on the mound. A couple more runs and few more hits are probably pretty likely. Give me a break. If it’s true it’s screwed up because a baseball game is truly never over until it’s over. A team could be down by 6 in the bottom of the ninth, two out and no one on and still have a chance to tie up the game and eventually win it. It happens. Either way, even if Alex did take part in this I’m sure has already decided he wouldn’t do it with the Yankees, he is not that stupid especially with everything that’s happened to him lately regarding the steroids and such. He doesn’t have the stones to do shady stuff like that now, still. Give him more credit than that.

By: Bill from NJ

Bill from NJ — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:30:44 +0000

Ohh I forgot this brainstorm! What about the idea that if your up by 5 or more runs, it usually means your team is hitting well and the other team isn’t pitching well. What happens if your playing the Texas Rangers? A team who has all season allowed their pitchers to “pitch through” rough outtings. If you get tatooed for 5 runs in the first 3 innings, odds are your not going to do much better if you don’t get taken out. That pitcher just doesn’t have his stuff that day. Considering A-Rod is arguably the best hitter in baseball, I would have guessed his average was close to .500 in such situations.

By: howard

howard — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:26:47 +0000

Also, I don’t think this can be established without a person specifically coming forward and saying “He told me, here was our plan, look at this game and this game and this game and watch what we did.” This is what a good journalist would do – Roberts, of course, didn’t bother to do so to lend her story credibility – and could actually be proven by looking at eye contact and signals and signs made by players over the course of 3 year. All that stuff should be on tape. (Roberts of course didn’t bother to investigate any history or popularity of this, as negative gossip about A-Rod was all she wanted.)

Just a guess, but I don’t see Alex starting this conspiracy where he talks to a few complicit pitch-tippers to find games where it’s blowouts and get good calls to increase his homerun total by, what, 4 a season? I just don’t picture a mansion on a hill on a stormy night, with lightning striking and the wind making frightening sounds. Alex Rodriguez gathers a collection of starting MLB shortstops and second basemen into his basement and says, “Gentlemen, I’ve devised a scheme that will ensure all of us hit slightly better once the game is out of hand,” and proceed to get several players in on the corrupt bargain.

By: Bill from NJ

Bill from NJ — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:22:54 +0000

Hmmm… I guess Peter is once again dieing for website clicks now that the Yankees are on a roll and there’s no dirty controversial A-Rod laundry that he can talk about. Instead of allowing this story to die, he once again has to resurrect a reticules story and make himself look like a high school reporter once again. (First time Pete actually made me angry!)

First off you look like a total fool posting these stats and claiming that they actually mean something. First off, in your last thread about this, I went through exactly how many AB’s A-Rod had in such situations. Likewise, I elaborated on how many times in these situations he would encounter the same opposing players. Given such a small sample size it irresponsible reporting to even post a story like this.

“Seattle’s Carlos Guillen, a teammate of Rodriguez’s for three seasons with the Mariners, went from .307 to .318. in “out of hand” situations. Rodriguez, however, jumped from .264 to .391 against the Mariners in those situations.”

Did you ever realize that .264 is quite below Rodriguez’s career average and the jump may just have to do w/ the law of averages? Likewise, do you realize that the pitching is drastically different in blowout games? Dominant starts are retired for lesser caliber middle relievers. Moreover, its quite obvious that a pitcher in a blowout pitches much differently than they do in a high scoring game. They don’t pitch with the same intensity and they pitch for outs.

Peter, your turning into a tabloid reporter and your losing your credibility with these once a week idiotic posts that you make to get your blog going again. I can’t wait for you to start stalking A-Rod from a tree trying to get naked pictures of him. THAT would really get your blog going!!

The sad part is I’ve enjoyed your writing for years, but you’ve since turned into a disgrace when covering A-Rod. You may have lost a reader, and I am quite sure there are others much like me. I’ll subscribe to enquirer if I wanted to read this junk!

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:15:58 +0000

Peter,

Could you link the entry where you discuss the Times article? I’m having trouble locating it…

Thanks!

By: howard

howard — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:13:05 +0000

Hard to tell – you’re getting fastballs when the game is out of hand anyway.

By: Harley

Harley — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:06:28 +0000

This has been mentioned multiple times, but you — and Grant, of course — probably need to wear it on a tee shirt for a couple days. When the game is out of hand, that’s when the worst pitchers on the team go to the mound, both for the winners and the losers. It’s that simple. Add to the that the mantra that is ground into every pitcher when the score is lopsided — throw strikes! — and it would be weird if batting averages were anything other than higher.

But thus far, rather than address the latter, all you bring to the discussion is limp justification for your own bias.

Bias makes us stupid. This is nothing more or less than an example of that.

By: islesfan

islesfan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:57:30 +0000

There are some unsolved crimes that have taken place in the vicinity of Yankee Stadium. Based on ARod’s questionable character and the fact that he’s already admitted to other illegal activities, it’s only natural to assume that he’s guilty of those crimes as well.

I dare you to prove otherwise.