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Al C.risafulliWhat bothers me about the whole A-Rod argument it this wacky idea that somehow his postseason performance negates everything else he's done in his career.
Yes, he's had a string of poor postseasons. And it looks like his 2007 postseason, despite it only being a few games long, isn't going to be any good, either.
That said, if you look at his postseason record, it's really only the last three series where he's put up poor numbers. He started slumping at the end of the 2004 series against the Red Sox, and wound up hitting .258 in 31 at bats for that series. In the 2005 postseason against Anaheim, he hit .133, and last year he hit .071.
Prior to that, in four postseason series (I won't count his two at bats in the 1995 postseason), his batting averages were .313, .308, .409, and .421. Not bad at all.
The guy puts up the best numbers of all-time as a shortstop, then moves over to third base and puts up the best numbers of all-time there, too. My suspicion, though, is that he gets buried by the press and by fans because he makes so much money, because of his ill-advised Esquire magazine article, and because he's a bit of a pretty boy.
Shame, though.
-Al