Yes, I'm grasping at straws here.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=olney_buster&id=3589629

I don't think people realize that even with some mistakes, Cashman has saved this franchise. If George et al had been at the helm for the last 3 years, we would really be in a deep hole.

And on the 'List of 10', check out the top 3. Pretty sad.

When Kay AND Leiter started talking about how hallow ARod's numbers are, if you've actually watched the game, then I believe he was speaking for a great many Yankee fans.

If one looks purely at ARod's numbers then yeah, he's had a decent year, but when you watch the games and look at the numbers I know I am left dumbfounded and confused as to when he delivered THAT production.

Consider this excerpt:

From the fall of 2001 through 2005, the Yankees sacrificed nine high draft picks to sign free agents

OK, so what did the Yankees do during that period? They won an AL pennant and won the division all 4 years. Isn't that the point? Over that period, the Yankees had more success than all of the other teams cited in the story, including the Red Sox (who used high priced free agents/veteran trades to win their World Series in 2004). There is such a disconnect of logic in this article that it is bewildering how one could write such a long piece without realizing the flaws.

Now, regarding signing big name free agents this off season, Olney writes, If they take that approach, of course, there will, again, be a high-end cost. They probably will lose their first-round draft pick, and their second-round draft pick, and further retard their player development system that was, in the early '90s, the best in the major leagues.

First off, I don't believe you can lose your 2nd round pick. Secondly, this analysis fails to recognize that the Yankees stand to gain picks from losing their own big name free agents. Drafting poorly retards your player development system; not building a food team that wins too much.

Also, there's this gem: "The bottom line is that there is a lot of value, in the big picture, to have a down year now and then," said a rival GM,

Hopefully, that rival GM is in the AL east. The Yankees have already proven that there are many ways to build a winner. The notion that you have to exclusively rebuild with youth is a myth. For 15 years the Yankees have used both approaches in varying degrees of proportion and had more success than any other team.

Finally, by focusing on the draft, this article conveniently ignores the international free agent market, where the Yankees have come up with Wang and Cano, for example. Ignoring this facet completely destroys the remaining credibility of the article.

I look at the Yankee record and I can remember more games that ARod could have made a huge difference than I can remember when he actually did make a difference. That's the crux of the problem, you can get emotional if you want but I am hardly alone here.

I was hoping that dismal way the offense performed when Arod was on the DL would have finally dispelled the notion that Arod doesn't mean a ton to this team, but it seems otherwise.

Pettitte's move to Houston gave them Houston's 2004 1st round pick = Phil Hughes.

Gordon's move to Philly gave them Philly's 2006 1st round pick and a supplemental pick = Kennedy and Joba.

And you're right, william - Montero and Tabata are other excellent examples of international free agent signings by the Yanks. And Soriano and Juan Rivera too, if we go back far enough.

The problem isn't that the Yanks signed so many free agents and lost so many draft picks over time. Its that the people in change of the draft from 1999 to 2003 for the Yanks had no clue what they were doing.

Of course Arod failed more often than he succeeded. This is baseball! The fact that we are even discussing the fact that Arod did not come through more often than he failed illustrates how absurdly high we have placed our expectations for him.

http://tinyurl.com/4b8qea

Not his fault, as he doesn't write the headline, but the headline has nothing to do with the article.

That's what I remember, but I'm sure you have some stat that shows that my memory is incorrect. Once you do that, then you will only prove Kay and Leiter's analysis correct. What the numbers say and what Yankee fans have actually seen are two totally different perspectives.

BTW, it's even harder for me to applaud Kay for bringing this up in last night's game because I can't stand the guy.

I just don't get why so many people feel the need to completely throw objective analysis out the window in favor of a battle of memories. I guess blaming Arod is kind of a cathartic experience.

No, what's bewildering is that many will take such a flawed article as gospel.

Do you remember most driving into work everyday or the near accident you had because of black ice on a frigid January day? I bet you forget the mundane much easier and always remember that near accident. It's called human nature. Objective analysis says, "I went the entire year without even coming close to a car accident", your brain and what you saw is saying, "holy shit, I almost died on this January day".

People don't remember those 500 foot 3rd inning homeruns.

I also loved when ARod was being interviewed by Kim Jones on Sunday and she asked him what's his greatest personal memory at Yankee stadium and he starts off by saying, "That is so hard for me to do because I am so consumed with winning", then ARod does his bite the lower lip thing and says, "it has to be when I hit the 3 homeruns".

He always seems to be trying to prove how he's such a team player.

This is the fundamental flaw with all anti stat arguments. What the numbers say is exactly what the fans have actually seen. No more, no less. The problem is between what the numbers say and what the fans choose to remember most prominently. Human memory is incapable of producing a complete, accurate and unbiased account of everything a person has seen, hence the need for stats in the first place.

Ugh.

My favorite 'Stadium memories' from former and current players over the last few weeks have had more to do with the experience itself rather than the accomplishment.

I wanted to hear what the players were thinking, or if they were aware of the fans, or if their heart was beating out of their chest as they rounded the bases... Listening to Whitey and Yogi in the booth on Sunday night, you wonder if A-Rod will ever truly enjoy his time in baseball, or if he's just here to prove a point.

Reading that quote to Kim Jones, I almost expect his HOF speech someday to be a complete recollection of statistical milestones.

"Then in 2007, when I hit my 500th HR..."

Again ... ugh.

I don't think there's a flaw with that approach at all. You cannot remove the emotional investment that one makes when you root for a team. If you do, then what you want is a fanbase that's all drones and spews out numbers all day.

I am the first to admit that Arod has had a disappointing season by his lofty standards, but his relative underperformance is so far down the list of things that hurt this team that it seems gratuitous to mention it as Kay did, and many others do here.

To a degree, but what goes in the record books as a single or a double is very often a potential double or triple if a guy isn't hustling. And one error is only one error, but if it comes in the 9th and it costs your team the ballgame ...

So yes, technically it's what we've all 'seen' ...

Having said that, I realize that many people want to dislike for Arod. You can kind of tell that by the way that everything he says is micro-analyzed. So, in that instance, the old adage seems to apply: when the truth conflicts with the legend, print the legend.

So yes, I keep remembering that gigantic traffic jam. It's been Groundhog Day everyday this week.

The thing I love most about ARod is his hustle, he runs hard. That goes a long with me. I remember John Harper writing how the Yanks were losing in spring training by a pretty bad margin, the game was in the latter innings and ARod ran hard down the line and almost beat out a grounder to short. He said nobody noticed or clapped, but it says a lot about the person.

ARod ain't no Derek Bell, but he ain't no Pujols either.

I can understand why fans around the league would hate Arod because jealousy is a powerful motivator. I think it is kind of sad, however, that there is a segment of Yankee fans who also dislike him. I am just glad that I am able to enjoy one of the greatest players to ever wear pinstripes without worrying about how sincere he is.

The Yankee offense did decline this year, but all the stats declined. Relative to the league, they did worse this year than last in almost every offensive category. In particular, they went way down in walks, doubles and homers.

The major reason for that decline is obvious enough, and it has nothing to do with Rodriguez. For almost the entire season, the lineup had three spots hitting near or under replacement level: CF, C and 2B. You can't give up three spots in the lineup and expect to score runs.

Rodriguez seems to stand out for a simple enough reason: if he didn't do it, it wasn't going to get done. That magnified every at-bat, and especially every failure. but he wasn't the problem, the sinkholes at the bottom of the lineup were.

Of course, Cano, Melky, and Molina aren't all the things Raf said in 33 . Or the youngest to 500 HR. Or the one likely to break the all-time HR record, held by whats-his-name, the cheater. /sarcasm

Jay Jaffe has shown its damn near impossible to go to the playoffs with one "Replacement Level Killer" on a team - the Yanks tried to do it with three of them! And almost made it.

From that perspective, its astounding the Yanks did as well as they did, and a testament to just how good a player A-Rod is.

To be fair, there are few players that are universally loved by their team's fans.

I enjoy watching Rodriguez play, I really don't care whether he's sincere or not.

35 Now, now, now, that's just silly talk. The reason the Yanks did so poorly this year is because they didn't trade for Santana... :/

Seriously, it was a perfect storm of injuries and ineffectiveness that doomed the offense. I think the defense needs a bit shoring up as well.

Where it was bad with the bottom of the order was when the Yanks would lead off an inning with ARod/Giambi/Matsui/Xavier and those guys would get on base w/ less than 2 outs and Molina, Cano and Melky came to bat and sucked even more.

It's easier for me to overlook the bottom of the order than the middle of the order. Especially when considering the plethora of opportunities Giambi & ARod had. Yes, I am putting more blame on the combo of Giambi and ARod than I am at Cano, Melky, or Molina.

Why you ask? Because the difference between the Yanks and Sox is quite simply a few games. The Yanks weren't 20 games out of a playoff berth, it was just a few games and if in some of those games those guys would have done something or anything then I think we would be viewing October baseball.

Why am I not THAT angry at the pitching, I guess I got more than what I expected out of the starters and bullpen. It was, quite simply, the hitting - specifically the middle of the order.

He may not have had his best year, but he was fine. If it had been anything more than a 6-man lineup - at best - you wouldn't have noticed.