A-Rod Mania

Alex Rodriguez, New York’s favorite villain, has again inspired a slew of articles.  As always, MLBTradeRumors reads them all so you don’t have to.

Joel Sherman of the New York Post plays the greed angle, as if most baseball players, and people in general, shouldn’t want to maximize their earnings.  Sherman thinks Rodriguez is destined to play for the Angels or White Sox, wanting to stay in the AL.  Never say never, but the day Kenny Williams negotiates an eight-year deal with Scott Boras…well, let’s just say it’s a long shot.  But Sherman lays out a scenario I also expect: Boras asks the Yankees to extend his contract, they refuse, and that is the justification for the third baseman’s departure.

Sherman contributed to a separate article that suggests Rodriguez tampered by learning about the five or six interested teams from a channel other than the Yankees.

Bill Madden plays the greed angle too, complete with a cheesy picture of Rodriguez and Boras smiling.  Said Madden:

"A-Rod’s problem, from the moment he signed with Seattle as the first pick in the 1993 draft, is that he has never allowed his talent to do his talking for him – as, say, Derek Jeter has."

Is that so?  Jeter didn’t sign a massive ten-year, $189MM contract in 2001?  Did he take a discount to stay in New York, as Madden suggests?  Madden also criticizes A-Rod for craving attention. 

He did an interview.  He did not ask for 16 newspaper articles about it for the following two days. 

Johnette Howard of Newsday is more forgiving – she says A-Rod comes off much better if you simply listen to the interview.