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I had an entirely random thought about the Yankees this morning, brought on by looking at the early season splits for Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and AJ Burnett. Looking at the numbers for all three, there were points during the 2009 season when Yankees fans could look at the stats on any of these three new additions and question the huge contracts given to the player. Teixeira was awful in April, OPS’ing .738 with just 6 extra base hits. Sabathia had a similar April, and exited his first start in May with an ERA of 4.85. He vacillated around the mid-3′s for much of the year, and had an ERA of 3.95 as late as August 2nd. Regarding Burnett, he started the season with a few good outings, but had an ERA above 5 for most of May and did not get below 4 until the very last start in June. In the past, Yankee signings who had struggled in the way these three did would have been booed mercilessly. These three saw, at most, a brief smattering of boos and some complaints on internet message boards and blogs. What was different?
I would suggest that the focus upon A-Rod by both media and fans has become so intense that the success and failings of other players tend to be obscured. In most cities, a player like Teixeira or Sabathia struggling would be the most important and most publicized story about the club in that day’s paper. In New York, even when injured, more stories were written about A-Rod than any other player on the club. Quite simply, there was such a frenzy surrounding Alex for much of the first three months of the season, whether it was about steroids, his injury, his lack of rest, or his personal life, that the media was not pointing out and exacerbating the struggles of the new players. And so my question for you, the reader, is this. Has A-Rod taken some of the pressure of playing in New York off his teammates? Does the focus on A-Rod allow new players enough time to adjust and get acclimated to the city and the media? I believe that it does. Do you?
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11 Responses to Has A-Rod Taken The Pressure Off His Teammates?
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TIQ IQ
im going to say no. tex and sabathia are historically slow starters. theres no reason to think that they couldn’t “handle the pressure”. they just have a hard time warming up in april, it seems.
That’s something you know as a educated fan. I would argue that the people in the ballpark are not as informed, and even when so informed, generally are not forgiving regardless. If a player strikes out 3 times in a game, I doubt the crowd is giving a pass due to it being in line with his career starts.
Complete opposite!.. Tex CC AJ Derek MO they all factored The WS win , and I also believe that him having the injury kept pressure off of himself knowing his #s didn’t need to be great because of it, strange opinion but he needed a plan in his mind to fall back on ,, steroid admission , plus injury..he looked very loose and had fun.. TEX was a hugh comfort zone for Alex. these guys really bonded..something he could not do with jeter, jeter would not let him in ..thats the way i see it.. pressure is now off Arod , not winning it all burden..look for a hugh year..40 plus 130 rbi..only draw back for his #s would be posada behind him.. Grandy or johnson need to be 5..
I would say no. CC had a similar start the year before in CLE (w/o the NY pressure) and has better 2nd half splits for his career. Burnett statistically had a slightly down year, but stayed healthy enough to make 30+ starts. Tex you can argue benefited some from having ARod hitting behind him, but he’s a notorious slow starter. Did Arod take pressure off the Yanks by being the center of attention, sure, but I think it was marginal in helping these players adjust.
Right. But I’m perceiving your point (maybe incorrectly) to be that ARod’s return lessened the pressure on Tex/CC/AJ, which in turn enabled them to adjust with ease and perform as they have for other teams in the past. I would argue, though, that they would have come around regardless of fan response (booing, etc). It was just a matter of time. .
I agree with that point, that they would have come around anyhow. My point is just that the fanbase was more willing to accept their early failures because the media and fans had their attention focused elsewhere. They wuld have come around, but there was less pressure on them to do so “RIGHT NOW.”
Fair point. And if we can reduce things like this:
“We’re going to Sal on the carphone in Staten Island, Sal…”
“yeah thanks for havin me on the show, ive been watching tex-share-uh for the first three weeks and i think we made a HUUUUGE mistake signing him, what do you think about trading him and going after an albert pujols type bat”
then the world will be a far better place.
That is all.
I would have to say no. Again, maybe it helped them slightly the vast attention A-rod received in that period of time, but that’s not the whole picture. first the yankees weren’t bad enough to start looking for a scape goat. by the way, the sox weren’t good till the end of april either. what I would argue is, that A-rod took of some of the pressure by coming back just in time, not by redirecting the media attention. It was starting to sound awefully bad just before he returned. who knows how the fanbase would have responded hadn’t he come back sooner.
(a bit off topic but…)The best part of having ARod comeback and dominate in the post season was having all those so-called “Yankee” fans calling the talk shows saying we were better off with Ransom at 3B b/c he was a team player and ARod was too “selfish” put to bed. Also, at the Stadium you could feel a negative vibe towards Arod from a large segment of the crowd. If he struck out the first 2 times up, you’d here a smattering of boos and people complaining about his contract. I noticed a subtle change towards Arod from the crowd as the postseason progressed, hopefully this season it continues towards the positive.
Hadn’t thought of how much A-Rod may or may not have taken pressure off the other guys. I honestly thought, it was the personnel brought in, that made a big difference…and Joe himself. The team really changed from a business as usual, to a more relaxed…let’s have fun and win a game today!
I would say you’re argument has enough logic. I do think there were other factors as well that helped the new guys out. For Tex I think his wrist injury cut him a little slack. AJ had that good start against the Rays and was the early season “stopper” for a few weeks. CC had that complete game shutout against the O’s just when he needed to. I remember watching the pre-game to that start and Kay and Singelton were bringing up the “he gets paid to win” argument and if he clunked there… I bet CC’s next home game would have been do or die in the boo category.