FanPost

There Should Be An “A”-Rod in Oakland

It will never happen, but after reading yesterday's defenses of A-Rod, I thought it’d be good to finally throw out a crazy idea that AN might actually help make an argument for, you know, even if it will NEVER happen.

Here’s my reasons why it’d be worth it (and by it, I mean 10 years @ $30M with an Ichiro-type pay out) for Wolff and co to give the baseball world a heart attack and sign one of baseball's all time best.

1) No line up in baseball NEEDS A-Rod more than the Oakland A’s
Chavez and Swisher have had 30/100 seasons and Cust is capable.  All are lefties and with the exception of Cust, all had career seasons with a right-handed power bat aiding or protecting them.

By inserting A-Rod into the three hole, you instantly make Barton in the two slot ROY and Cust in the four spot a major league level legend.  Add Swisher at five and Chavez at six and you have the potential of your 3-6 hitters to average .270/30/100 seasons among them with Barton and Buck at the top of the order, both capable of 400 OBP type of seasons.

Hunter, Jones or Rowand can’t do that.  They’re upgrades of current players, but in themselves do not upgrade the team the way A-Rod would.  No one’s going to pitch around Hunter to get to Cust, throw fastballs to Barton because Jones is on deck or fear a line up where Rowand bats third.

A-Rod’s presence also makes a Kotsay/Denorfia CF easier to take in the eight hole, allows Billy to find a way to keep Ellis or transfer Crosby to 2B and places Suzuki in a position (9th) where he can focus on the pitching staff first and foremost.

2) No Market NEEDS A-Rod more than the Oakland A’s
Barry is bye-bye and San Fran doesn’t have anyone capable of filling his shoes.  A-Rod is a superstar among superstars in the Canseco-McGwire-Henderson tradition who will transform the morally questionable Bonds followers and resurrect the fabled Bash Brothers followers into Oaktown fans.

Rodriguez’s arrival will do for Oakland (and f*cking Fremont) what Bonds arrival did for SF and with the length he’s looking for, will give the Oakland fans and franchise the All Time HR King (sticking it yet again to SF!)  The only difference, really, would be with us A-Rod would win a championship where Bonds and the ‘Aints didn’t.

I can see the green and gold foam "A"-Rods being waved around now as A-Rod steps up and hits a walk off K-Rod to win the division.  

3) A-Rod NEEDS no team more than the Oakland A’s

With the exception of the Tigers, no team is ready to turn there season around quicker than the 2008 Athletics.  One true superstar player (there’s only about eight in the league) could come in and right this ship all the way to a World Series Title.

The major markets will always hound A-Rod.  Oakland won’t.  Oakland can’t.  Bay Area press can and will only make A-Rod a West Coast god ala Bonds, Giambi, Tejada (none of whom could capture that glory in bigger markets)

An A-Rod lead A’s team, with stronger seasons from Chavez, Cust, Swisher, Buck and a pitching staff of Haren, Harden and Blanton could easily go into NY, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles or Detroit and win it all, giving A-Rod his Elway championships.

4) No Team can AFFORD A-Rod more than the Oakland A’s

Crazy talk?  Even at $30M a season A-Rod would keep us under the $100M mark (behind Seattle and Los Angeles).  We’ve already started creeping up the list (Colorado, Arizona, Cleveland, San Diego, Milwaukee and Minnesota are already doing more with less) and by 2010 over half the league will be at the century mark.  We get there a little sooner and reap the rewards now.

The three to four year run we could put together with A-Rod starting next year (4/5ths of the pitching staff, Street, Buck, Swisher, Cust, Chavez, Barton and Suzuki are all under club control until 2010) could be one for the books.

5) Boras vs. Beane

Need I say more?

6) Karma

Giambi, Tejada, Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Damon, Dye.  We’ve lost our share of MVPs and superstars.  Karma would demand that we go out and get one!

In closing, yes we could get a few good players for the cost of A-Rod and it is easy to spend someone else's money.  I happen to like and think we've got a lot of good player we're paying $60M for and of course it's easy to spend someone else's money--that's what America is build on.  So bring me some new arguements why this is a bad idea or tell Wolff and co some more reasons why signing Alex would be a win-win situation for us all.