Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 09, 2004
Season Review

Blissful Knowledge offers a look at the AL after 2/3 of a season. I love his bit on Texas.


There is no team I am rooting against more this year (except for the Red Sox, of course). I should be grateful for their generous donation of A-Rod to the Yankees along with $67 million or so. And all Yankee fans will always root for Buck Showalter, and I hope Soriano does well. But the Rangers’ success this year (which even they clearly didn’t anticipate) feeds the common confusion of correlation and causation – i.e., their success will be attributed to the A-Rod trade, facts be damned (Soriano’s production is down from the last two years, despite moving to a better hitters’ ballpark, and how has the A-Rod trade contributed to the shocking and sudden competence of the pitching staff?). That must be stopped, for the good of all that’s logical.

If Texas had not made the A-Rod deal, they'd be a better team. Rodriguez has earned 20 win shares through August 1. Soriano has earned 10. That's three games. With A-Rod, Texas would likely be leading Oakland by 1 1/2 games, rather than trailing by that margin. While this deal might be better for the future, in that it frees up a little money, I don't see any moves the Rangers made after the trade that they couldn't have made with A-Rod on the team.

Correction: Link added.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:15 AM | Team Evaluation | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Why wasn't the Blissful Knowledge site linked in the article? What's the URL?

Posted by: sabernar at August 9, 2004 09:20 AM

http://www.blissfulknowledge.com/archives/000678.html#000678

Posted by: Jen at August 9, 2004 09:58 AM

My favorite explanation is that all the other Rangers have improved because they aren't relying on A-Rod to carry the team anymore, that he actually made everyone around him play worse than they would otherwise. Just so very silly.

The Rangers are pitching much better, and playing great defense. The emergence of their rising infield stars is the real story in Texas, and the suggestion that A-Rod has anything to do with their success this year slanders their developing talent.

Posted by: Dave S. at August 9, 2004 12:59 PM

maybe the pitchers are better because arod isn't calling pitches any more. or positioning the fielders any more.

Posted by: lisa gray at August 9, 2004 07:10 PM