ATLANTA – You know it gets bad when you have lost your intimidation factor to the point where teams are openly willing to pitch to you and have no problems doing it.
When you continue to make the other teams decisions look right, it only makes sense that they put the onus on you to prove them wrong.
Such is the current plight of Alex Rodriguez whenever he strolls to plate over the last few weeks.
On Tuesday night in the third inning of the Yankees game against the Braves, highly touted rookie Tommy Hanson had a runner on second base (Derek Jeter, who led off with a double) and one out with Mark Teixeira at the plate with first base open.
In colonial times (more like one month ago), walking Tex would not have been the smart thing to do, as it would be inviting trouble to bring A-Rod up with a chance to do serious damage to the game. During that span, Rodriguez was in a stretch where he had hit seven homeruns upon returning May 8 in Baltimore and had turned Tex into the American League Player of the Month.
His presence had a tremendous effect on the entire lineup. As he was going well, so was the team. Yet, almost by coincidence, A-Rod (like the team) stopped hitting the moment they arrived in Boston. In being swept out of Fenway, Rodriguez went one for 10 and that began a slump that has seen him look lost at the plate, stranding runners, hearing boos, feeling tired (missing two games) and seeing his batting average slowly declining toward the interstate.
So Braves manager Bobby Cox, who’s obviously been watching the highlights, reading the papers and knowing the numbers, decided to instruct Hanson to walk the Yankees third place hitter to pitch to him.
The result: Strikeout
He appeared overmatched at the plate much as he has the last month. When the Yankees dropped a 4-0 decision to the Braves to lose their ninth game in their last 13, Rodriguez had now seen his slump reach an abysmal 4 for 44 (.090) after taking another 0 for 4 to see his average fall to .207 and reclaiming his “whipping boy” status.
June has not been the best of months for the third baseman. It has been more like the month from hell and the swooning appears to have no end in sight. Rodriguez looks lost at the plate, swinging at balls and watching strikes go by. When he is getting a pitch to hit, he is either fouling it off or making weak contact. He is being given plenty of opportunities to drive in runs, but with each popup (when its not being dropped by Luis Castillo), groundout, weak fly or strikeout just puts himself in deeper and deeper hole.
The recent four for 44 is part of his 14 for 87 (.160) period he has undergone since May 25 when he went 2 for 5 with four RBI against Texas. One reason for his near month long struggles could be his health after returning from hip surgery in May. It was amazing that before Friday night’s game in his hometown Miami, he had played in all 38 games since his return.
Why this was the case is anyone’s guess. The doctors that performed the surgery informed the Yankees he would need to be rested periodically due to the nature of the surgery and to prevent lingering fatigue. Joe Girardi must not have read the same memo and allowed him to continue going out to third base each night as his contributions were helping the team win 19 of 25 games.
As the Yankees started to lose, Rodriguez’s struggles became highlighted and suddenly, he once again became the focus of booing at Yankee Stadium. His inability to hit with runners in scoring position made him an easy target. All the while, many of wondered why he yet to receive a day off, if even to just clear his mind for a game to recharge himself.
Girardi said that he would like to give his star a rest during the series against Washington, but could not because the team was in an important stretch of games against National League opponents.
This was odd.
If you are not able to give him a breather for a day or two against mediocre to bad NL teams, then when can you rest him? It made no sense. He certainly is not going to be resting against divisional and potential wild card opponents because those games are too important.
In other words, there is no good time to rest him.
This begs the question of whether Rodriguez’s struggles are directly linked to fatigue. Girardi may not have believed it (Rodriguez told the manager “I’m fine” each day, thus allowing him to play) however, upper management disagreed. He was benched for two of the team’s first three games against the Marlins with what the team called “fatigue reasons”.
He returned to the lineup on Sunday and in his first at bat hit a looping single into left field to drive in two runs. Perhaps it was going to be that start of good things again.
Unfortunately, the at-bats that followed that day and in Atlanta last night showed that he is still in the same funk that has plagued him for the last month. Pitchers are throwing hittable pitches to him right in the strike zone and he appears overmatched. In the at-bat against Hanson where he struck out, he took one fastball for strike one,
His downfall has also affected the way teams are pitching Teixeira again at the plate. Teams are pitching around him and less pitches to hit, much as it was in April when he hit under .200 before Rodriguez showed up.
After all the drama with the steroids in the off-season, the hip surgery, the recovery and now the problems at the plate, it was very clear that the 2009 season was to be the toughest of his career. Problem is that the Yankees are trying to win a world championship. To do so, they need him to be at peak efficiency despite his inability to get the clutch hit on occasion.
If they are not going to get a healthy A-Rod, who on top is not producing, then he is of little value to the roster this year.
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