From R.J. Anderson (FanGraphs):
With that in mind let’s address the topic before the headlines do.Alex Rodriguez does not hit well in the playoffs
His career wOBA in the regular season is .412. His career post-season wOBA is .368. Relative to his standards he doesn’t hit well in the playoffs.
He’s been the invisible man with the Yankees
Let’s drop wOBA for a moment and simply look at his playoff series lines in pinstripes:
2004 ALDS: .421/.476/.737 (21 PA)
2004 ALCS: .258/.378/.561 (37 PA)
2005 ALDS: .133/.381/.200 (21 PA)
2006 ALDS: .071/.071/.071 (14 PA)
2007 ALDS: .267/.353/.467 (17 PA)You have one great series and two awful, and two below A-Rod standards. Invisible? No. Not as good as his regular season self? Yes. The sample size isn’t big enough to say whether this is simply random fluctuation or a fear of the post-season stage.
What do you think? Will A-Rod show up this October or will we witness a meltdown? Were ’05-06 the products of bad luck or was A-Rod simply letting the postseason pressure get to him?
Speaking subjectively, I believe that ’05 was just an awful postseason for Alex—bad luck, perhaps—and then Joe Torre made matters worse in 2006 by bouncing A-Rod around the lineup like a spare part. It’s hard to rebound from a poor playoff experience when your manager makes it clear that he has no confidence in your abilities in the following playoff appearance. For that reason, I don’t blame A-Rod for his performance against the Tigers (he’s at fault, but it’s not all on him). Of course, that’s just my opinion.
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5 Responses to Let the clutch debate begin…
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TIQ IQ
1. Regular seasons stats are made against the entire league, padded by appearances against B-list relievers. In the playoffs, you should be facing the elite teams with, hopefully, better than average pitching. It is only natural that stats show some dip.
2.It is hard to judge A-Rod in a vaccum. As far as I can remember, few if any of the Yankees distinguished themselves in those series. If we are going to be fair, we should highlight the other players as well and see which of his teammates sank or swam.
1. Good point.
2. I believe most of the team struggled in ’06 against Detroit. Abreu, Jeter and Posada were the only players that had a good series. In 2005, A-Rod was hitting behind Derek Jeter and in front of Jason Giambi. While both of them had a good series, A-Rod did, indeed, struggle along with Sheffield, Matsui, and the rest.
As I have said before I think Arod went into those playoff series trying to justify the contract he has and trying to get the media off of his back by carrying the team to a world series ring, the motives were for Alex though not for the Yankees. I think from all the troubles he has gone through and the changes in the Yankee mind set has opened up a team first attitude and relieved some if not a lot of pressure on Alex, for the first time since being a Yankee he wont be the only one on the team with a history of “bad playoff” performances, those same questions will be asked of Sabathia and a lot of pressure and questions will also be on first playoff participant AJ Burnett, and fellow huge contract position player Tex. With all that coming into play I think you will see a relaxed Rodriguez who more than anything will be trying to do his job not the whole teams job and should pay huge dividends in the out come.
I will be shocked if Arod doesn’t have a good post season!
Me, too. I think he’s going to have an excellent postseason. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it just feels like it’s going to happen.
It is certainly my hope as well. The fact that ARod finally, FINALLY, seems comfortable in pinstripes is one of the great underreported stories of the season. If the spotlight stays off him in October, it may give him a chance to relax and do some magic.
Please note: ARod has 3 pies this year, and Jeter has none.