A-Rod
 

Each of the last 2 years A-Rod has hit less than 20 HR's and his career total is 647 dingers. He has admitted to using PHD's for 3 years. A few years ago he was penciled in to go over 700 HR's, maybe contend for Aaron's record (until Bonds). Now I read that he may no longer be the starting third baseman next year.

Are his playing days coming to an end? Will he make 700 HR's? Will the public look the other way about his PHD usage? Is/was he the best HR hitter of this era? vs. Bonds? Can you compare the two? Will he be considered better than Griffey Jr.- my pick as best natural talent of this era? Does the public have a respected sweet spot for Griffey Jr. and his no PHD usage?

That's a lot of questions....I think A-Rod will be able to contribute something, maybe even do a little better than this past year if he stays healthy. His dominant years are behind him. He very well may not hit 700 HR's, and Aaron and Bonds surely look out of reach. He can still hit .275 with 20 HR and 80 RBI, which for most players would be of value to their team. But of course given A-Rod's monster long term contract those would be disappointing numbers. He's overpriced and damaged goods but the Yankees have to get something from him so they will continue to play him. I don't think he's quite ready to hang up his spikes, so I'm thinking maybe 2-3 mediocre years and he's done.

I forgot the other questions.

He does great against left-handed pitching. A .308 avg. and .410 obp against lefties vs. .256 avg and .326 obp against righties.

if im not mistakes hes got 4-5 years left on his current contract. I think he should be around 20 hr a year. 700 is deff in his reach, even though hes been injured hes in good shape if that makes sence. The more they use him at DH the better off he should be.

If he gets close at anywhere near 20 a year he'll stick around for 700.

I don't think he's the best HR hitter of his era at all. Maybe not even top 5 definetly not top 3.

I'd put the top3 as
Bonds -Yeah, I know, PEDs, but from looking at his record and assuming a PED start fairly late I think he'd have got to 700 anyway, and probably passed Aaron too. If he'd been a bit nicer guy that also would have helped.

Griffey Jr.- 630 and supposedly clean. I'll go with that, but the quick breakdown is sort of typical for guys coming off the juice.

Thome- 600+ and not a hint of PEDs.

I know the Yankee fans will hate me saying so, but I haven't liked A-Rod for years. He seems to me to be a guy who brings losing with him wherever he goes. Before him 5 WS wins in 8 years. after him- 1WS win in 9 years. Adding in losing trips to the WS makes it even worse. 6 trips in 8 years without and 1 in 9 with. Gaudy numbers, but for some reason he makes his team worse.

Steve B

Past two years were injury plagued, this season before he got hurt, he was off to a pretty darn good start. If he can stay healthy, I can easily see him hitting 30+ homeruns for a few more years. Bonds and Aaron still aren't out of reach, but he needs a great comeback season, which I know he has the skillset to do.

In regards to greatest hitter, I place Bonds as the greatest hitter and player of all-time. If A-Rod gets the HR's and RBI's to supplant them, I will go with A-Rod. Both he and Bonds are close. They could hit for power, average, score runs, get on base, drive in runs, tremendous runners and excellent threat on the base paths.

Im a met fan who hates the yankees but I love AROD, wish he had signed with the mets when we had the chance

Steve, while I respect your opinion, I disagree with Griffey and Thome. Thome definitely not top 5, maybe not even top 10 IMO. Gotta look past the HR totals my friend.

Bonds: .298/.444/.607/1.051 HR:762 RBI:1996 SB:514 Games: 2986 PA: 12606 AB: 9847 R: 2227 H: 2935 BB: 2558 SO: 1539

Griffey: .284/.370/.538/.907 HR: 630 RBI: 1836 SB: 184. Games: 2671 PA: 11304 AB: 9801 R: 1662 H:2781 BB: 1312 SO: 1779

A-Rod: Games: .300/.384/.560/.945 HR: 647 RBI: 1950 SB: 318 Games: 2524 PA: 11163 AB: 9662 R: 1898 H: 2901 BB: 1217 SO: 2032

Thome: .276/.402/.554/.956 HR: 612 RBI: 1699 SB:19 Games: 2543 PA:10313 AB: 8422 R: 1583 H: 2328 BB:1747 SO:2548

Bonds owns, almost 1k more hits than strikeouts. Thome has more K's than hits. A-Rod has the best numbers almost on a per-game basis.

arod has three huge negatives, his post season play for the most part was subpar to awful, his roid use, and his personality

give me jeter any day

I do somewhat agree. His postseason has been atrocious, only with the Yanks, he was fine with Seattle. And his '09 practically won them the whole darn thing lol.

True on roid use, I don't necessarily care he used it, what saddened me was he was already a HOF player and one of the best ever before he used in '07, I was saddened by the 'why' factor, because he was supposed to be baseball's savior to overshadow Bonds.

And his attitude is bad, but he has been good these past few years, and (from a public perspective, I don't know what behind the scenes looked like) A-Rod took his benching like a class act in the playoffs and really won me over.

I always will and have been a huge A-Rod fan.

I don't recall the details now but his obnoxious demands when he was negotiating with the mets and yankees and his dissing of jeter said all you need to know about him. I admit he has faked some class of late but I don't think it is genuine, the way Jeter's is.

The question I was answering was the best home run hitter of his era. Obviously if the question is who's the better overall hitter or overall better player it's very different.
But for simple homeruns in the era it lays out like this. (from here) http://www.baseball-reference.com/le...n_career.shtml


1.Mark McGwire 10.61
3.Barry Bonds 12.92
4.Ryan Howard 13.51
5.Jim Thome 13.76
8.Sammy Sosa 14.47
9.Albert Pujols 14.57
10.Adam Dunn 14.60
12.Manny Ramirez 14.85
13.Alex Rodriguez 14.93
14.Juan Gonzalez 15.11
15.Dave Kingman 15.11
16.Russell Branyan 15.12
20.Jose Canseco 15.27

13th all time, not bad, but even removing the old guys as I've done he's still 9th. getting rid of Howard, Pujols and Dunn as being too recent only gets him to 6th.
Thome's a pretty solid 5th all time. He's also got about 500 more walks than A-rod, but that's a weak stat since it depends on overall lineup. But it does indicate maybe a similar willingness to pitch him carefully despite his strikeouts. (Overall lineup will affect HR total too, A player on a strong team will get more plate appearances, but that's getting too complicated)


Griffey - What a surprise! Only 24th. Ok, I can see the point about him

Of course Aaron was only 38th and Mays 40th. And I'd probably take either one of them over any of the guys we're discussing.

I don't really know what to make of McGwire. Kind of a very scattered career from injuries, a couple amazing years while juiced then gone. I think he'd be out of the top spot without the juice, but how far out I haven't considered yet.

And yes, I stopped at Canseco and left one old guy in. I just couldn't leave Kingman off. Lousy hitter for anything but power. But I don't recall any short homers from him.

Steve B

Yankees just announced that A-Rod needs major hip surgery and will not be able to play until at least June. So it appears his body is breaking down as his skills are waning. He may not have a whole lot left in the tank.

Don't fret. My 80 year old aunt had hip surgery and she gets to and from the car just fine.

Can she hit a curveball?

Who cares about A-Rod, it's the Blue Jays year! There's a new beast in the East!

I will trade you right now A-Rod for David Wright.

I wish the Mets had done that too.

A-Rod news
 

What a blow! Down goes A-Rod !

Down for the count, 1...2...3...4...5...6...7...8...9...10
Ding, Ding, Ding !

Its all over folks!

If ARod was on PEDs last year he needs to ask for his money back.

not bad HR per at bat either 15.39 or so

albert bell - 12 years in MLB, 10 full seasons 381 HR and .295 life time average, im sure he was on roids but also a good hitter in his limmited time