Well, I’m here to tell you that A-Rod is still baseball’s best hope, but there are several things that have just jumped out at me (some obvious, some not) over the past several days, and to me, those things, and how they are handled, will make all the difference.

• You Can’t Have it Both Ways, Alex.  After watching the Gammons interview, the first thing I noticed was the glaring contradiction whereby A-Rod starts by implying that it was a conscious effort on his part to take an active role in using performance enhancing drugs to “earn” his big fat new contract and cement his legacy as one of the greatest players of all time.  Then, later in the interview, he mentions that the “loosey-goosey” culture around baseball at the time was such that he just went with the flow, tried a few things, and could not even begin to tell you what he was on.  Well, which one is it?  I believe the scientific facts point to choice A, the one where he is a little less innocent.  He had the specific steroids and testosterone in his system, “stacked” in the specific proportions that would lead me to believe he was a habitual user, and knew exactly what he put into his system and when.  The sooner he admits this, the better off he will be…especially once the Feds come calling.  Bonds and Clemens and Tejada are going to jail.  A-Rod does not want to explore those kind of pinstripes.
• A-Rod’s Arrogance is the Most Damning Thing of All.  The first example of his arrogance here was during the Katie Couric interview.  I have included it below for easy reference.  After he says that he never used steroids and was never even tempted to do so, he goes on to say that it was because he has never felt overmatched on the baseball field and he is basically better than anyone else, not only because of how he plays, but because he did not take steroids.  I think perhaps a less egotistical answer may have served him well there.  Then, during the Gammons interview this week, he is trying to tell us that he thinks that the interview with Gammons is all that is required of him and he is ready to move on, so we should all move on as well.  In my opinion, he deserves everything that happens to him as a result of this…not because he used steroids when everyone else was using steroids, but because he was such an arrogant prick about it every step of the way.

• The New York Headline Question.  All in all, I think A-Rod did an excellent job during the Gammons interview.  Before piling on me for that last sentence, let’s remember that this is a guy that has seemed slick and coached during just about every interview I have ever seen…probably because he has 2 or 3 people on staff that coach him in those situations.  But not this time.  At least, it did not look that way.  It looked like he was genuinely not expecting any of the questions specifically, and he made an honest effort to be truthful without giving away the farm.  Let’s also remember that this dude is a ballplayer, not a Rhodes scholar.  I think he did well…except for the question about what he would like to be the headline in New York the following day.  I am trying to find it on YouTube and will change this text slightly once I do…but he basically dropped the ball and implied that the New York media was less than friendly.  The first time I saw it, as soon as the question was asked, I blurted out “A-Rod Apologizes to Fans”…think anyone might be thinking a little better of him if he had said that?
• Barack Obama is The Man.  I don’t care if you are the biggest racist redneck in the country, if you are a baseball fan, you have to know that we, as sports fans, finally have our President.  Sure, you could say it’s window dressing and he is just a brilliant orator, but take a quick look and listen below and let me know if you can think of another President since Lincoln that would have presented not only his feelings, but the feelings of an entire nation of baseball fans in such a nearly perfect manner.

• Tom Hicks Should Go Away.  For some reason, this rich guy that should have known better is on my TV talking about how he felt betrayed that A-Rod juiced up when he was with the Rangers.  Tom Hicks is way too smart to not know that at least half of his team, and every other team, was on the juice during that time.  I just wish he would go away…he has no dog in this fight, when you really look at it.  In fact, I think that A-Rod himself, or at least all Rangers fans, have been the ones that have been betrayed by Hicks.  So, let me get this straight…you had enough balls to give A-Rod the biggest deal in sports history, but not enough balls to extend yourself a little bit further and get him some teammates that didn’t suck?  How can some of these guys be so damn smart in their pre-baseball endeavors and so damn stupid once they own a team?
• Where the Eff is the Commissioner Hiding?  Speaking of stupid baseball owners, how come we have yet to hear from the Commissioner himself?  He is the single person in all of this that bears more responsibility for every inflated stat, wasted taxpayer dollar and dead-too-early-of-a-heart-attack former major leaguer that has happened and will happen in the future.  The blood is on his hands, and it always has been.  And how has he handled it?  Ignoring Barry Bonds during his run at Hank Aaron’s record.  Way to go, Mr. Commissioner.  What are you going to do now that your Ace in the Hole is dirty, too?  So far, to the surprise of no one, you have been absent from the public eye.  Every day that you have been commissioner has been an indictment against the entire league, but you are somehow getting worse at the time your game needs you to get better.  I am begging you as a baseball fan…can you please just have enough integrity and respect for the game you have destroyed to buy the Brewers back from your daughter and just run one franchise into the ground instead of the entire league?
• Conspiracy Theorists, The Line Forms Here. OK…I have no evidence of any of this whatsoever, but what if the “source” that leaked A-Rod’s name to Sports Illustrated was someone from the A-Rod camp?  Bear with me here, but A-Rod will forever be known as the first guy to come clean (Pettitte does not count) and has the potential to be known as the guy who brought baseball out of the steroid era…instead of Jose Canseco.  In fact, would you put it outside the realm of possibilities that this is all a creation of the Commissioner’s office, who would rather have A-Rod be known as the face of the steroid era and not Bonds and definitely not Ozzie’s brother…OK, probably a bad example when you have a commissioner that would have extreme difficulty pouring piss out of a boot, even if the instructions were written on the heel.  But, at this point, nothing would surprise me.  Let’s also not forget that A-Rod’s agent is the devil incarnate…anything is possible.
• Let’s Get ‘Em All.  The Feds have been talking about some crazy stuff lately, like not only dealing with the 104 positive tests, but also re-testing the 500+ negative samples they seized back in 2003, to determine if they were using, but were just further ahead of the testing technology of the day than A-Rod and the other 103 guys with hot samples.  I’m all in favor of it, but only because I think that the only way to actually quantify the Steroids Era is to get as much information about as many players as possible, and what they were using and what they were not.  There is a very easy way to accomplish this…an amnesty period, monitored by MLB.  Any player can come clean between now and March 31.  After that, if we or the Feds have to come to you, then you will be subject to a one-year suspension without pay.
• Statistical Relevance – Welcome to MLB Geeks.com.  I have purchased a domain name, started to gather my fellow geeks that love baseball, and hope to be launching an actual company soon that is dedicated to using cutting-edge technology to provide net positive value to our national pastime.  Watch our blog for more on this one later.

So, in conclusion, the only thing this blog entry has taught us is that I have had something to say regarding A-Rod and the steroids mess, and I have done so with my usual focus on conjecture and a total lack of sound journalistic research.  I hope you enjoyed my take on it and found something here that not every other idiot is saying about it.

In addition to voting for “Value” to mean a player’s value to his team, let’s also incorporate his financial “Value” as well.  For instance, a player making 15 million dollars per year should be roundly castigated in the press if he is not on the list of M.V.P. candidates every single year, while a guy making $400K, who is matching the high-priced prima donna tit-for-tat, should be regarded as being much more “Valuable”.

Anyway, it has long been a dream of mine that salary should count for something in the MVP voting.  I know it’s a pipe dream, and I also know that a bunch of writers, usually the last guy picked all their lives and now drunk on power, vote for these things.  That is why it all too often devolves into a popularity contest.  I would love to see some of these younger writers use the huge audiences they have now with TV (I am talking to you, Buster Olney) and take a stand against the status quo.  Ignore whether or not the guy is likeable, or even tolerable, and make your decision based on what matters…was he the player in the entire league with the most value over the course of 162 games?

Yeah, I know…another pipe dream.  OK — let’s get on with it.  Here are the numbers:

OK – now, let’s talk turkey.  First of all — sorry K-Rod.  You are off this list.  You had 62 saves and that was incredible…but your team played 57 games against one of the worst divisions in all of professional sports…and that is where 26 of your saves came from. 

So, now that the only pitcher on the list is gone, we can make a better comparison.  Let’s look at the rankings for the remaining 9 candidates.  The player with the best average gets 1 point, the player with the second best average gets 2 points, etc., until the guy on the list with the worst average gets 9 points.  We do that for each of the 4 key offensive stats, and let’s see what we get.  After all, it’s baseball.  Stats are king.

I have not crunched the numbers before, so I have no idea how this is going to turn out or if it will support any of the arguments I want to make later in the article.  Yes, here at MackOnSports, we specialize in that kind of “let’s just start crunching the numbers and see what the eff happens” journalism.  Hell, if the numbers support a different argument, I can always flog that other horse for a while.

Well, I just crunched the numbers, and until we start to figure out the salaries and the “contender” factor, as an unabashed Pedroia backer, I do not like the results.  Here they are:

1. Josh Hamilton
2. Alex Rodriguez (-0.5)
3. Kevin Youkilis (-1.0)
4. Carlos Quentin (-2.5)
5. Vladimir Guerrero (-9.0)
6. Justin Morneau (-10.0)
7. Grady Sizemore (-12.0)
8. (tie) Dustin Pedroia and Joe Mauer (-14.0)

So, before we get into the next two areas of analysis, there are a couple of things that jump out at me.  First of all, A-Rod is second on the list, and only by the smallest of margins.  Sure, he was, is and will probably always be “Mr. April”, but the dude is a stat machine.  Regardless of the postseason record, he is, without a doubt, the best strictly position player to ever play the game…by such a significant margin that it does not even matter who is next in line (probably bubblehead Bonds, if anyone wants to know).  He can’t make up for The Babe’s 163 appearances as a pitcher (94 wins) and unseat him as the best player ever, but we are still watching history every single time we see him play.  If you have not seen him play in person, or you have a child that has not done so, please make it happen soon before he gets too much older.

Let’s also remember the conditions under which Pay-Rod put up his numbers this year.  Playing in the #1 media market, already carrying the “Mr. April” stigma, and being so stupid as to get caught up in the whole Cynthia-Madonna-Stripper in Toronto mess…if you ask me, one tranny is as good as another.  He should just pick whichever one of those dudes he wants to hang with and live happily ever after.

The second thing that jumps out at me is Josh Hamilton — what a beast!  Despite what could be considered a crummy second half of the year (Home Run Derby Curse, anyone?), he is #1 on this list, and he has the lowest salary on the list.  Sure, he ended up with that low salary by acting like an imbecile and almost pissing away his dream, but what a great story that he is not only back in the league, but riding high.  Unfortunately, the Rangers are just too horrible for me to say he should be the MVP.

Which brings me to what I will call the “contender” factor.  Sure, there have been guys that have played for crummy teams that won the MVP…but Hamilton’s statistical advantage is just not that great this year, so that is probably not happening.  Let’s remove the guys who played for a non-contender, and we are down to Youk, Quentin, Vladdy, Morneau, Mauer and Pedroia.  Yes, I did laugh out loud that I got to take Stray-Rod off the list for playing for a non-contender…the year that they closed that toilet of a stadium in the Bronx.  I love it.

Anyway, this is the place where I wanted to talk about how Pedroia only made $457,000 in 2008, and he is the MVP, based on his stats, his value to his contending team, and his financial value.  Seriously, the working title of this article was “Pedroia: Let’s Put the ‘V’ in M.V.P.”

Unfortunately, his numbers just do not match up favorably with some of the others on the list.  The fact that he put the Red Sox on his back for a couple of weeks is not remarkable, either…every guy on the list has done that at least once this year.  Plus, his financial value is not as great as I thought it would be, when you consider what Hamilton and Quentin get paid…and even at $3 million per year, Kevin Youkilis is an outright steal compared to other guys on this list.

So, why not give the M.V.P. to Youkilis.  Big Papi, and J.D. Drew, and Dice-K, and Mike Lowell, and Josh Beckett, and Clay Buckholz, and Julio Lugo all spent significant time on the DL, they ended up starting 2 rookies in the field for a large portion of the year, and Manny was more of a distraction than anything else…and Youkilis and Pedroia, more than anyone else, are the reason that the Red Sox are in the post season.  Either one of them could get the MVP and no one would argue, except maybe some bitter Angels fans…and Youkilis is (alas) statistically far superior to Pedroia.

If voters can look past the fact that Hamilton played for a shit-stain of a team, I have no problem with him getting the nod over Youkilis.  A-Rod, too.  How can I argue with the best player of my lifetime winning another MVP award?  The only knock against Youkilis is that he just has the anti-”it” factor.  I am not even sure how to explain it.  The way he plays…if I was not a Red Sox fan, I know for a fact that watching him play would make me annoyed.  That’s the word I think I am looking for…he is annoying.  If I was a pitcher in the AL, he just looks like a dude that would be my favorite guy in the world to throw at…or at least brush back…every single chance I got.

I guess if I had my druthers as a fan that wants to be entertained…I would say, give it to Hamilton.  Then, invite Michael Irvin, Pacman Jones and Tank Johnson to his MVP party in Dallas and see if he can stay out of rehab.

Alternatively, the writers could do this year what they wish they could do every single year…give the MVP award to a well-liked player with great stats playing for a contender in a large media market.  Maybe there is hope for my boy Pedroia yet.

One final thought — due to the fact that Carlos Quentin almost screwed over his team, and definitely  screwed over his own bid for an MVP award, by acting like an emotional little child…I hope his agent was on the ball enough that he had a big fat kicker in his contract if he won the MVP.  Unfortunately, money is the only thing most of these guys understand, and that may be the only way to get through to him.

OK – I lied.  THIS is the real final thought, much as it pains me to say it as a Red Sox fan…see A-Rod play as soon and as often as you can.  Look at your team’s schedule as soon as it comes out, and buy a ticket for the Yankees series.  If your team does not play the Yankees, find some other way to make it happen.  Unless something very strange happens, or at least until Hanley Ramirez gets the hell out of Florida, most of us will die without seeing a better baseball player than Alex Rodriguez.

There I said it.  But, the fact remains that A-Rod is now playing golf, or hanging out with his tranny wife, or chasing tranny hookers, or studying the Kabbalah with tranny pop stars, or whatever else he might do during the off-season…and the Red Sox and Rays are still playing baseball.