The Toledo Mud Hens have reportedly thrown their hat into the Alex Rodriguez sweepstakes. That makes 6 viable teams for A-Rod to go to: the Chicago Cubs, New York Mets, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and the Toledo Mud Hens. As far as I know, the Mud Hens are the only team to actually offer A-Rod a contract so far. The monetary terms have not been disclosed as of yet, but it seems to be an incentive laden contract with A-Rod getting bonuses for hitting 75 home runs next season and leading the Mud Hens to 10 straight International League titles. The Mud Hens are right to offer A-Rod an incentive laden contract. Have you seen his performance lately? Sure the guy had an MVP caliber regular season (.314/54/156) but what about the playoffs when it counted? How did he do then? Try a lackluster .267/1/1. I don’t know about you but if I was performing that poorly I’d opt out of the remainder of my 10-year, $252 million deal too.
In the International League, where the Mud Hens play twenty less games than the New York Yankees do per season, each game means that much more. We all know how well A-Rod hits when the pressure is on (you already forget about that .267/1/1?). I wouldn’t want to pay A-Rod a bunch of guaranteed money only to have him flounder when it matters. The Mud Hens are a championship caliber team, having won the International League in ‘05 and ‘06. The last time a team A-Rod was on won a playoff series was 2004, an eternity in a what have you done for me lately sport.
So as you can see, it might not be in the best interest of the Mud Hens to acquire Rodriguez, especially when they already have the 3B spot filled by International League MVP, Mike Hessman. Why sign a player who most see as MVP but who hasn’t yet won the award for this past season when you already have a player signed, in that position, and who has been awarded the MVP award? If I was in the Mud Hen front office, I’d be re-thinking the offer to A-Rod or hoping that some idiot in another front office offered him a contract with a lot of money up front.
Josh
November 2, 2007 at 4:38 am
It took A-Rod 162 games to hit his 54 home-runs this season and the AAA Mud-Hens play a 140-something game schedule. This means that we can safely knock 6 or 7 homer off of his total at season’s end. Considering that his agent, Scott Boras, is looking for $30 Million a year… I don’t really think I could justify paying that kind of money to a guy that only puts up 48 home-runs a season.
Warren
November 2, 2007 at 2:32 pm
$30m is a bargain for an EqA of .340 from shortstop is a bargain, and pretty good from 3b as well. Hell, if he wanted to come to San Diego, I’d even let him fuck my sister for stats like that.