I understand their motivation too: When are you gonna see another guy hit a round number like 600 homeruns again? Not for a while though there are some people on with a great chance to do so. But I hate them as the people I’m sharing my baseball experience with because I am a temperamental crazy sorta snobby baseball fan.

Last night there were throngs of people wearing brand new A-Rod jerseys who seemed to have no idea what a baseball is. The rows around me in the bleachers emptied out between A-Rod at bats. People who were familiar with this baseball thing complained a lot about Lance Berkman being the the most horrible acquisition the Yankees have ever made. Apparently he is a terrible baseball player, maybe even the worst in MLB and it’s not close.

In 2007 when Alex was closing in on 500 homeruns a lot of the same idiocy was around, of course. Much like now whenever he hit a ball into the air, thousands of people went nuts even if it didn’t leave the infield. I was aggravated then too but wasn’t going to as many games. The game before he hit 500, I actually was driven nearly insane by the yell at all fly balls crowd. It was not pretty.

If the team could harness the alleged wind tunnel and just push a lazy fly ball over the wall tonight at some point, I would appreciate it. Not because I’m going to be there but because I’m tired of hearing about it, and being exposed to people who think every pop up is outta here, and because if I stab someone I’m probably going to jail which I don’t really want to do.

The world has gone mad on us all.

This approach has mixed results, and the Yankees themselves recently were burned by doing this with Jorge Posada last season. Now, that was his shoulder but last year Mike Lowell and Chase Utley also had the same injury (minus the cyst!) and underwent the same surgery. Utley was able to play through it all season and nobody even had an idea that something was wrong until the procedure was announced, but Lowell had his season cut short in September when they were unable to put it off any longer. My personal preference is that A-Rod undergoes the procedure before the season, and returns by latest around the time of the All-Star Break. Missing the beginning of the season does suck, but it is Spring Training right now and you can take a look at internal options rather than trying to fill the position suitably through trade when other teams know how desperate you are.

And no, a combination of Cody Ransom and Angel Berroa is not acceptable for more than maybe two games.

In any case, bloggers and newspaper journalists everywhere are throwing their ideas around so I am going to jump on that train.

• Mark Grudzilanek is an interesting option, as he has a decent glove and bat and would be cheap. However, he is 39 and has a bad back that sidelines him pretty often. It’s entirely possible that he would be hurt for the whole time he is “filling in” for A-Rod.
• Xavier Nady was originally a third baseman coming out of college, and still played the position for a while in the minor leagues. It’s been a long time, and he doesn’t really have any experience at the position in the Major Leagues but it’s Spring Training and A-Rod is out so why not just have him playing there as much as possible from here on out. If he’s not completely terrible, he is a far better option there than Ransom/Berroa.
• Nick Swisher is a very versatile guy, maybe he can play some 3B as well? I’d prefer him in Right Field as he seems to be very good there by eye and by numbers like UZR. Nady is pretty average there, but Swisher is a bit better. Maybe a platoon/switch off situation between 3B/RF if both seem suitable would be possible. Pure speculation/best case scenario.
• There are some rumors that teams will be salary dumping once the season rolls around, which the Yankees could take advantage of but picking up another 3B for anything useful is something I don’t really agree with. If they could get Adrian Beltre for cheap, that would be amazing. He is makes a decent amount of money and could end up on the dump list and is a free agent at the end of the year, and is a simply fantastic defender. He is incredibly undervalued to the general public (and media), but not to the (current) management of the Mariners. This scenario falls under “pipe dream”.

All in all, I am very disappointed and upset about the inevitable absence of Alex Rodriguez from the Yankees lineup, but I do honestly think the team can weather this. They upgraded the team significantly this off season by signing CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, and I am thanking everything around that they jumped in and signed Teix now. If the Yankees can find someone who is not an automatic out to plug in A-Rod’s place when he does miss time or needs a rest (I am thinking he can play 4 out of every 5 games or something similar, feasibly) then they’ll be in pretty good condition. I don’t know if they’ll be better than the Red Sox or the Rays but I feel like they’ll be in the fight.

We’ll be here. The team’s going to be here. We’re going to support him. We’re like family in here. You guys know, I’m big on relationships. I feel like I’ve built up a good relationship with Alex. I care about him. I’ll try to help him get through it as much as I can.

No surprise here, the two seem to have become good friends last year and if anyone was going to stand by his side it would be the guy who was in a similar place last season. Plus, if you recall, Andy was the cause of the greatest A-Rod quote of all time. If you don’t, here it is again because it will never stop being funny and strange.

Andy is one of the greatest human beings I’ve ever met. I have two daughters — well, I have one and one on the way. If I had a daughter, I would want ‘em to marry Andy Pettitte. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today’s day and age anything is possible.

Surprisingly that is not the most bizarre thing to come out of A-Rod’s mouth ever, but it’s pretty clear at this point that he lives in his own little crazy world. Those of you who watched enough Yankee games might (like me) still be scarred from Michael Kay talking about Andy Pettitte being tired because “Alex kept him up all night”.

Looking relaxed, smiling and carrying a plastic bag full of fruit, Rodriguez strolled into the Hecht Athletic Center gym at the University of Miami for a workout that lasted about 90 minutes.

But what kind of fruit was it and does this still count as proof that A-Rod is still juicing??

After his workout, Rodriguez skipped his normal practice of running and throwing baseballs at the campus, and drove off in his car after calling university police to shoo away reporters and photographers.

Hmm interesting it’s sort of like he wants to workout without being hassled. That’s very thrilling this is an exciting article. What else did he do today?

Rodriguez then headed to the home of his ex-wife Cynthia, where he spent several hours. Afterward, he drove in his Maybach to a downtown Coral Gables building, where his real estate company has offices.

A-Rod appears to have a pretty boring everyday life. Thank you NY Post stalkers for letting me know his snoozefest itinerary, what car he is driving and that he had a bag full of fruit. Please tell me where he goes shopping for his groceries next time!

It only took a few minutes (2 minutes and 55 seconds or something deadly exact), which isn’t a big deal for the TV audience but it must have been very confusing at the game since Major League teams don’t show replays and such. Anyway, it won’t be happening a lot as it’s very limited in its current incarnation and maybe in the future it will be as amusing as managers and coaches suddenly running onto the field and shouting about things most of the stadium can’t figure out.

For the record I argue it was clutch because it gave an old man another night off, though I would definitely have preferred Mariano Rivera in that inning even with the 5 run lead over Jose Veras. Veras really needs to get traded in the offseason in some sort of package before he has no value left at all. Clutch hitting is probably the stupidest argument ever in baseball though, so it doesn’t actually matter.

Not sure what a shortstop has to do with runners never reaching second but hey, it’s cute.

                IP      H       R      ER      BB      SO      HR
Mussina 	2.2	2	1	1	2	5	1

His fastball was hitting 88/89, which is typical. His curveball looked very good, but it’s always been his best pitch so when it doesn’t that means bad things. I don’t like the idea of Mussina being #3 in the starting rotation, but I will acquiesce that the team doesn’t really have a choice since Joba is starting in the bullpen. Ideally, he’ll get moved into the #5 spot in late May or early June and Joba will get put into that #3 spot. As a #5 starter, Mussina would get additional rest which I think would make him valuable to the team but with a regular workload I’m very nervous.

…

Jon Heyman has an interesting piece about Alex Rodriguez and the days that led up to his re-signing with the Yankees. While Heyman is not a guy I like (especially because of his ridiculous anti-Bert Blyleven stance), it’s a good read.

Joe Girardi is really serious about “fixing” Kyle Farnsworth. I don’t know if it’s possible, but if Farnsworth improves just a little bit it will be helpful for the bullpen.

Matsui will be making his debut tomorrow, this probably means unless his knee really flares up he won’t be starting the season on the DL.