Yanks Miss A-Rod's "Tack On" Runs

During the Yankees loss against the Orioles Friday night, on YES, Michael Kay made note that the Yankees have wasted so many good pitching performances this year. This was nothing new to hear for Yankee fans however. John Singleton added that Jack Curry had said shortly before that the Yankees were actually ahead but were not able to add on to their 3-1 lead. Unfortunately for the Yankees, these “tack on runs” are something that the Yankees have missed all year and will likely be the reason they do not make the playoffs for the second straight season.

Alex Rodriguez

Whether you love, hate or somehow don’t have an opinion about Alex Rodriguez, for years Yankee fans would say that A-Rod didn’t hit them when they counted and they were just “add ons.” Well, I hate to break it to the A-Rod haters but if you don’t continue to add runs on throughout the game, you have seasons like the Yankees do this year, which is just mounting frustration surely for fans, players, coaches and management alike. I admit to maybe being a bit biased as a long time A-Rod fan who feels he was tried unfairly by Major League Baseball and was given penalties that did not fit his “crime” per se but I’ll put my biases aside if you put yours aside… at least for the remainder of this article. Deal? Ok, good.

In 119 games this season the Yankees have played in 35 games that ended in a one run difference. The Yankees record, much like their regular season record, is very pedestrian at three games over .500 with 19 wins and 16 losses.   While the expanded standings does not include the win loss record with games decided with a two run differential, I count another nine losses, making it 25 games of two runs or less that the Yanks dropped. Considering that they have 58 total losses, we are talking almost half their losses come from games of a two run differential.

Ok, back to A-Rod. Even as someone who is an A-Rod fan like myself or has seen him play day in and day out has to admit that he has never been a super clutch guy although he surely gets extra heat for his contract size which nobody could every live up to. He will never be Derek Jeter clutch but the guy can hit. He has played in 10 seasons and has 979 RBI’s as a Yankee. Obviously that averages to about 98 RBI’s per season which is not too bad to say the least. When you factor in that he has not had 600 plate appearances (PA’s) in a season since 2005 when he had 605 PA’s and has only registered 500 or more PA’s in one of the past five seasons with 522 in 2010, you realize how productive he is when he is in the line-up.

Former Yankee Yangervis Solarte

Now take a look at what the Bronx Bombers third baseman have done this year… According to fangraphs.com production has come in the form of Chase Headley who has knocked in eight, Yangervis Solarte who drove in 31, Kelly Johnson who brought in 22 and had Scott Sizemore, Zelous Wheeler and Martin Prado combine for another nine RBI’s from that position. That is a total of 70 RBI’s out of seven players after about three quarters of the season. That is not very impressive coming out of a power position of third base along with the massive inconsistency and necessary roster changes that it takes to see seven players at one position.

If A-Rod can come back and be three quarters of the player he was earlier in his career, he can be the difference between the Yankees making or missing the postseason again next year. If the Yankees decide to part ways with the former great, fans should take notice, despite this historical asterisks that will forever be linked to his name for his PED use, that A-Rod didn’t have to be overly clutch to be important. He did a lot of his best work during the regular season driving in a ton of runs that didn’t seem important all the time but really were.

Since stats can be twisted and turned to try to get ones point of view across, especially in today’s world of analytics, I will make this statement: At the end of the day it all comes down to wins and losses. I follow that statement with this question: Do you truly think it is just coincidence that the Yankees who had made the playoffs every year except 2008 since 1995 are on the verge of missing the playoffs in two consecutive years, despite the extra wild card, in years when A-Rod was suspended and didn’t play and missed all but 44 games the year before?

Whether you consider the majority of A-Rod’s hits and RBI’s clutch or not, 100 RBI’s a season is a lot and contribute to many wins. It seems fair to say that the Yanks and their fans have missed all those “tack ons” that so many people complained about for years.