The drawbacks: Dodger Stadium is another pitcher's haven. The NL West is deep in quality pitching

The second part is true enough - the first part hasn't been true for several seasons.

The big problem is whether he wants to come to the NL. Otherwise, the Dodgers have the money, and have the hole at third AND in the middle of the lineup.

A-Rod at short is one of the 5 best players in history. A-Rod at third is the best player in the game. A-Rod at first might be the third most valuable player in the Mets lineup. Not worth it.

"A-Rod, A-Rod, la mitad de mi botín por A-Rod?"

Actually, Rosenthal suggests that A-Rod could play third and Wright could slide into left field. Which makes no sense, because he says that right after saying that moving Reyes to second would be "counterproductive." I'm not sure why, if moving Reyes to 2B is counterproductive, moving Wright to left isn't. If anything, taking a plus bat at third base and sticking it in left devalues it far more than taking a solid, but not necessarily exceptional bat at short and moving it to second, especially when you have a relative bargain of an option ($7.5M) on Moises Alou in left.

I say the Mets should pass on A-Rod, take a flyer on Marcus Giles or someone else off the scrap heap for second base, exercise the option on Alou and see what can be done to address the rotation, which is the real problem.

Castillo > Giles

No?

What a terrible headline for this article. How does an article that mentions the 5 teams that ARod would fit best with, including full sections on three of them, become "Mets could fit Rodriguez in the infield?"

A-Rod at third is the best player in the game.

That's probably not true considering that his defense is below average and he's not going to hit like he did last year consistently.

I say the Mets should pass on A-Rod, take a flyer on Marcus Giles or someone else off the scrap heap for second base, exercise the option on Alou and see what can be done to address the rotation, which is the real problem.

Why should the Mets take a flyer on Giles? Even if 2007 was a fluke season, his OPS+ of 87 in 2006 isn't encouraging. The Mets are not broke. Why not just sign one of Castillo, Iguchi, Eckstein, whoever is cheaper? Iguchi isn't going to cost picks, I believe, so that is a bonus.

What a terrible headline for this article. How does an article that mentions the 5 teams that ARod would fit best with, including full sections on three of them, become "Mets could fit Rodriguez in the infield?"

Page hits, I presume. It's been my experience that whenever I write about the Mets/Yankees/Red Sox that I get way more of them. Which, obviously, tells us a lot more about why we get so much coverage of those teams as opposed to some simple east coast bias. I mean, it is an east coast bias, but for a rational reason as opposed to fanboyism on the part of programers/editors/etc.

That said, I actually know Rosenthal's editor at Fox.com. Maybe I'll shoot him an email and ask if that's his motivation. I bet it is.

Why should the Mets take a flyer on Giles? Even if 2007 was a fluke season, his OPS+ of 87 in 2006 isn't encouraging. The Mets are not broke. Why not just sign one of Castillo, Iguchi, Eckstein, whoever is cheaper?

I wasn't trying to make a strong case for Giles, really. The point was to solve second base with a lower cost option, keep the left side of their infield intact, and worry about the pitching woes rather than try and get Rodriguez. Any of those options you name may make much more sense than Giles. I haven't looked at it.

A-Rod at third is the best player in the game.

That's probably not true considering that his defense is below average and he's not going to hit like he did last year consistently.

This brings up an interesting problem. How much longer IS he going to the one of/the best player(s) in the game? If he gets his $30M he's going to be the highest paid player in baseball for several more years at least and may soon may not be amongst the highest performing. If his 'd' at 3rd is getting worse you can't expect him to move to SS. He'd be 'pasta-diving A-rod'. When you moves to 1st in a couple years his output will comp with some guys making a whole lot less than him. It just seems like some team is going to pay for several years of the 'best player in baseball' when all they'll be getting is 'all-star' not all-world.

There are always cheap second baseman to be had around the league. Ronnie Belliard didn't even get a major league contract last offseason and Marcus signed for well below what people thought he was worth. I wouldn't sign Eckstein or Castillo for 8 million a season or so.

I got a chuckle out of

His agent, Scott Boras, might already be commissioning wind studies and pondering revisions to the dimensions of Citi Field, which opens in 2009.

Other than that....nothing here. Ken is much better when he has actually gotten a scoop on something. His analysis sans actual hard info is usually rather lacking though.

The only place ARod fits on the Mets for 2008 is LF, followed by a possible move to 1B after Delgado goes. He is not worth $30MM per year at either position. Pass.

Here's what I find most shocking:

Cora, 42, graduated from Vanderbilt in 1985 with a degree in economics

Really? Joe Cora got an economics degree from Vandy? Wow. Impressive.

How much longer IS he going to the one of/the best player(s) in the game?

A good question and an oddly under-discussed one here. It seems that much of the discussion is not factoring in any regression at all.

Given what you say, I would guess that he has two more seasons as a top five player.

Even now, A-Rod's career OPS+ is 147. That ties him with Jason Giambi, Willie McCovey, Edgar Martinez, Mike Schmidt, and Willie Stargell. That number includes all of the decline years of most of the players with whom he's tied. The question is how much is his slightly below average defensive value at 3B is worth.

That's probably not true considering that his defense is below average...

By what gauge is THIS true?

A-Rod at short is one of the 5 best players in history. A-Rod at third is the best player in the game. A-Rod at first might be the third most valuable player in the Mets lineup

This is true in the abstract VORPy sense of things, but if you actually have the resources to put Wright, Reyes, and AROD in the same lineup, you should do it. AROD is a VORP monster at shortstop or third but not at first because for most teams it's impossible to find a SS or 3B who hits remotely like Reyes or Wright. But the Mets already have.

If AROD plays first base and hits 54 home runs with a 177 *OPS+ for the Mets, he is one of the top ten players in the league (at least), and if he is indeed still by some measure the third most valuable player in the lineup, all that means is that you've got three of the top ten in that lineup ...

This is all money-aside, of course: the money that has been invested in Delgado and must be invested in AROD is an enormous factor ...

By what gauge is THIS true?

I don't know, watching him, looking at the statistics, what professional baseball players say, just about any source you can find will tell you that A-rod is a below average third baseman and has been since 2005. He looked pretty good at the beginning of 07, but faded badly down the stretch, IIRC, the stats at the All-Star break and the ones at the end of the season showed the same progression.

Edit: I think Chone's projections have him a -7 for next year, I haven't seen any others yet.

Bob is right I think. Arod isn't as valuable at first than at SS or 3rd on your roto team, but in real baseball he's still a monster. At least for the next few years.

Even now, A-Rod's career OPS+ is 147. That ties him with Jason Giambi, Willie McCovey, Edgar Martinez, Mike Schmidt, and Willie Stargell.

Holy crap. So, Arod could finish with a worse career OPS+ than Edgar? Weird. That's a pretty good argument to use multiple sources of date when evaluating players, huh?

I'm not sure why, if moving Reyes to 2B is counterproductive, moving Wright to left isn't.

Presumably, the huge defensive hit. I believe in one of the other A-Rod threads, someone posted league average LF and 3B production, and they were pretty much identical- so Wright to LF wouldn't be a waste of his offense, though it would be of his plus 3B defense, especially if A-Rod is below average there next year. On the other hand, the upgrade from Alou to A-Rod is bound to be immense- not just an improvement in overall production, but the extra 50-80 games you get from Rodriguez in the lineup.

Antonetti chose to stay in Cleveland. Mozeliak is being named the GM today.

This is true in the abstract VORPy sense of things, but if you actually have the resources to put Wright, Reyes, and AROD in the same lineup, you should do it. AROD is a VORP monster at shortstop or third but not at first because for most teams it's impossible to find a SS or 3B who hits remotely like Reyes or Wright. But the Mets already have.

If AROD plays first base and hits 54 home runs with a 177 *OPS+ for the Mets, he is one of the top ten players in the league (at least), and if he is indeed still by some measure the third most valuable player in the lineup, all that means is that you've got three of the top ten in that lineup ...

This is all money-aside, of course: the money that has been invested in Delgado and must be invested in AROD is an enormous factor ...

Well, it's true in VORP, but it's also true in the specific case of the Mets, unless you think Delgado is toast. Delgado had a 119 OPS+ in the second half, so I think that while he's in decline, he still has some value. And you optimize that for a lot cheaper by picking up some righty bat to complement Delgado. Someone like Millar or Shelton or Ensberg. Alou is even a better hitter and getting a decent caddy for him would be much cheaper.

Now, A-Rod of course helps the Mets. He might improve them by 40 or 50 runs, but he helps them less than he'd help other teams like the Dodgers (replacing Nomar and LaRoche), Anaheim (I guess he takes Matthews Jr's at bats with Figgins going to the OF), Phillies (replacing Nunez/Helms/Dobbs), Giants (Feliz) or Cubs (Theriot).

Didn't Wright say he was willing to move to 2B at the beginning of the season?

The only place ARod fits on the Mets for 2008 is LF

Not anymore.