Wright and Reyes are still young and no one is hyping them as the big difference makers that some make A-Rod out to be.

Johann Santana has always played for a VERY small market club. And so has Barry Zito (until this year). So there are good reasons there why they don’t have rings.

The point is not that having a ring makes one a team guy. It’s that A-Rod for all his supposed extreme value hasn’t shown the ability to be a big difference maker to a team’s success. Or it’s only marginal.

the other 60% is deforestation and melting ice caps.

global warming is A-Rod’s fault.

It was only after they brought up the kids — Chamberlain, Kennedy, Duncan, Hughes, and others — that they went on their run.

I think it’s more appropriate to say without the kids, the Yankees don’t go to the postseason this year.

Before A-Rod came to the Yankees, they regularly got to the ALCS and WS. Not any more. They are chronic 1st round losers.

“He lead the MLB in win shares”

Sure, this year. Do you know last year A-Rod was just 27th in the majors in Win Shares? Beltran was #2 and he’s paid about 60% of what A-Rod makes. Last year even Jeter had more Win Shares.

“…without his production I bet the Yanks struggle to make the playoffs this year.”

I think it’s interesting that when A-Rod had his best months this year, the Yankees struggled as a team and sank below .500. But when they brought up the kids — Duncan, Chamberlain, Hughes, Kennedy — that’s when they finally went on their run! I think it’s more appropriate to say that without the kids, the Yankees struggle to make the playoffs this year.

This idea that A-Rod rakes in the money for owners is bunk. The Yankees were making bucketloads of money before A-Rod was a Yankee. And they were drawing droves of fans and winning too before he came aboard.

In Texas, attendance never rose when A-Rod was a Ranger.

But the winter of 2006/2007, which showed us the dollars given to Gil Meche, Jason Marquis, Chad Bradford, Zito, Suppan has really thrown things off kilter. Kind of like real estate about two years ago.

Is it his role to do either? His job is to extract the best situation possible for his client. And in most cases, the best situation = as much money as possible.

But to answer your question, I don’t know that he’s made baseball better or worse. He’s certainly had a more positive impact than, say, Bud Selig.

There is simply nothing that can replace the brand value of the players and both the union and management knows it. So long as there is money to be made in baseball, the players will get paid what they are perceived to be worth.

The pendulum should swing the other way with the ludicrous Zito signing and the success of smaller salary teams like the Rockies, D-Backs, and Indians and the failure of the Mariners, Yankees, and Mets. The fact is that when opportunity cost is taken into account, star players are not worth what they have been getting lately.