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What About the Other Guy?

© Harold Friend

With all the attendant pomp and hysteria attached to the arrival of Alex Rodriguez, Soriano, who was not exactly chopped liver in pinstripes, became a forgotten man. At the A-Rod press conference, Jeter, before answering a question, went out of his way to thank Soriano and wish him well. Superb gesture from the Yankee Captain. (Bob Raissman, New York Daily News)

It was just a wedding in June, that’s all that it was, but oh what it seemed to be. It was just trading Alfonso Soriano for Alex Rodriguez in February, that’s all that it was, but oh what it really might be (2).

The Alex Rodriguez trade has created more excitement, more resentment, and more hysteria than any sports event since Aaron Boone’s last home run. There is no doubt that Alex Rodriguez is an outstanding player who will help the Yankees. There is no doubt that he is superior to Alfonso Soriano at this time. There is little doubt that he will be rated higher than Soriano when their careers are over. But just HOW MUCH BETTER is Rodriguez than Soriano?

The trend in the last few years (read that as ever since Bill James published his various hypotheses) has been to emphasize statistics more and more. James and others have invented new statistics in attempts to discover what occurred (descriptive statistics) and of greater importance, in attempts to predict what should occur (inferential statistics). The days of Willie Mays, who was better than either A-Rod or Soriano, responding to a reporter who asked him what it was that makes him so great by saying “They throw it and I hit it. They hit it and I catch it” are gone forever.

This past season, A-Rod batted .298 with 47 home runs, 118 RBIs and a slugging average of .600. He stole 17 bases in 20 attempts. Soriano batted .290 with 38 home runs, 91 RBIs, and a slugging average of .525. He stole 35 bases in 43 attempts. A-Rod struck out once every 4.8 at bats while Soriano struck out once every 5.2 at bats. Rodriguez has been more “productive” or, as we used to say in the pre-Bill James days, Rodriguez has done better than Soriano. The Yankees’ batting order is stronger with A-Rod, but not that much stronger.

Alex Rodriguez is the highest paid player in baseball history and when he became a free agent, the Mets pursued him but didn’t get him and are reportedly now pursuing Soriano, the Texas Rangers pursued him and gave him the most outrageous contract in sports history, and then, yes, and then, it appeared as if he would go to Boston in exchange for Manny Ramirez, only the Red Sox did what they do best. They snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. And then along came George.