Unsolicited, Orioles GM Andy MacPhail offered his choice Thursday night for the worst free-agent signing, ever. Two of my favorite candidates are Barry Zito and Mike Hampton, but that's just a start. You know, guys who were signed to mega-deals and simply didn't perform well, at all.
MacPhail has someone else in mind ...
"Alex Rodriguez to Texas was the worst signing in the history of baseball in my view," MacPhail said, according to The Baltimore Sun. "Why? Because he played as well as you can possibly ask the kid to play. He had great years. And the needle didn't move at all. ... The team didn't improve. Attendance didn't go up. But hey, they got the lead story on ESPN. Well, if that's what motivates you, you're going down the wrong path. You want to put 35,000 people in the ballpark, win the games. That's what (fans) are there to see. That's what the Orioles need—to win some games."
Gee, Andy. You had me right up until the end there.
I wasn't there. Geographically, I mean. But I'm going to guess that when the
Rangers signed Alex Rodriguez, they figured 1) attendance would go up, 2) TV ratings would jump, with a corresponding increase in revenues, and 3) the club would win more games.
Somewhat bizarrely, none of those things happened.
Without Alex Rodriguez in 2000 -- and with Royce Clayton's .242/.301/.384 line at shortstop -- the Rangers won 71 games.
With Alex Rodriguez in 2001, the Rangers won 73 games. In his three seasons there, he hit 156 home runs and the Rangers averaged 72 wins per season: 73, 72, 71. That last season came after the arrival of manager Buck Showalter, who had done great things in New York and Phoenix, and would later do something great in Baltimore.
In Texas, though? He couldn't move the bar, either. Not with Alex Rodriguez in the house, anyway.
Same thing with the attendance. There was a slight bump from 2000 to 2001, but in both seasons the Rangers ranked fifth in the American League. In 2002 they dropped to sixth, and in 2003 to seventh. And that was a bad seventh, barely more than two million customers.
But wait, this story gets even better.
In 2004, the first year without Alex Rodriguez? The Rangers won 89 games and attendance jumped a full 20 percent (and yes, I know those things were probably related).
The entire affair just defies explanation. Would the Rangers have been better without A-Rod? It's hard to see how they could have been, considering how brilliantly he played. Could they have been much worse without him? That wouldn't have been easy, either.
The easy explanation is that when the Rangers had Alex Rodriguez, they also happened to have a whole mess of lousy pitchers on the roster. In 2003, for example, Texas starters combined for a nifty 6.24 ERA. Was that A-Rod's fault? Well, only to the extent that his salary might have prevented management from signing better pitchers.
But you know, in 2003 the Rangers' Opening Day payroll was just north of $100 million, leaving something like $80 million for the non-Rodriguez portion of the roster. It wouldn't be easy today, but in 2003 $80 million could get you a pretty good pitching staff.
It's not as much fun this way, I know. And yes, that contract certainly didn't work out for the Rangers. But in my mind, if you spend a lot of money on a player and he performs exactly as you'd hoped, it's your fault if all the rest of your plans don't come true.
Speaking of plans not coming true, I'm still trying to figure out how
Vladimir Guerrero moves the needle. But that's just me.
10 comments
Comments
Attendance isn’t the only way to make money although it is the best one. I wonder how many A-Rod jerseys the Rangers sold. I don’t remember seeing that many around that time, but I also wasn’t paying as much attention.
by David Huzzard on Feb 11, 2011 12:37 PM EST reply actions
People always forget all the bad contracts on A-Rod's Texas teams
If you look at those three seasons for Texas, they punted millions on bad seasons for people like Chan Ho Park, Rusty Greer, Ismael Valdes, Todd Van Poppel. The list goes on.
If you had taken A-Rod and his contract, and simply added it to the A’s from the same period, their payroll wouldn’t have been higher than Texas’ was, and they would have been easily the best team in baseball.
A-Rod gets blamed for a lot of mistakes made around him.
by aap212 on Feb 11, 2011 12:38 PM EST reply actions
Chan Ho Park
I recall soemthing about ARod/Boras throwing some weight around to add him. Am I misremembering?
by faketeams on Feb 11, 2011 2:40 PM EST up reply actions
Both teams Rodriguez has left fared better the following year.
Don’t forget that the year after A Rod left, the M’s won a record 116 games.
by rdt on Feb 11, 2011 12:39 PM EST reply actions
Correlation isn't causation
A-Rod’s departure didn’t make Olerud rebound or make Bret Boone have a fluke career year or make Freddy Garcia break out. or make Mike Cameron have his career year in 2001. His departure also didn’t give them the money to get Ichiro any more than Buhner’s departure did.
Same in Texas. A-Rod leaving didn’t make Teixeira and Michael Young break out the next year. It also didn’t make Blalock and Mench have career years.
by aap212 on Feb 11, 2011 1:11 PM EST up reply actions
Did you really just compare the A-Rod signing to the O's signing of Vlad?
by John Stephens on Feb 11, 2011 2:07 PM EST reply actions
He’s not comparing them. I think he’s saying that it’s odd for someone to say it’s about winning games and then pay $8 million for someone who probably won’t help in that regard.
by rogeret on Feb 11, 2011 2:43 PM EST up reply actions
Vlad isn't a long term solution for the O's though
Nor are the O’s really ready to win a lot more games this year. They are still missing 3 or so key pieces.
by John Stephens on Feb 11, 2011 2:57 PM EST up reply actions
But Vlad moves it, moves it...
He can’t run, but he will smash in that AL East. If he gets time, he’ll hit 40 this year…
"We are not on an austerity program," Arte Moreno
by thebigtizzle on Feb 13, 2011 12:20 PM EST up reply actions
A-Rod
What people are forgetting is that the Yankees stupidity in 2007 saved Texas $27M. They were on the hook for $9M for each of his last three years. If A-Rod hadn’t opted out, the Yankees could have just added years on the back end. But by opting out, it took Texas off the hook. And the Yankees didn’t make A-Rod eat the money.
by gyaris on Feb 11, 2011 3:04 PM EST reply actions
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