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Microcap & Penny Stocks : TGL WHAAAAAAAT! Alerts, thoughts, discussion. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rocket Red who wrote (132688)	5/13/2004 6:32:49 PM
From: StocksDATsoar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 150070

deeber has a lot of anger and resentment towards you ONTHEF***INGFLOORHARD!!!!!

To: Rocket Red who wrote (132688)	5/13/2004 6:46:55 PM
From: StocksDATsoar	Respond to of 150070

Updated: 10:47 AM EDT Building a Winner With A-Rod Isn't Easy Is Having Best Player in Baseball Worth It? By RICHARD JUSTICE, AOL Exclusive Alex Rodriguez is baseball’s best player. Almost no one in the game would argue with that assessment. Getty Images Even with all the Yankees' talent, Alex Rodriguez (left) is having trouble shaking his reputation. So why do teams get better after he’s gone? And why do his new teams do worse when he arrives? Let's check the numbers. The Seattle Mariners won 91 games with A-Rod in 2000. He had 41 home runs and 132 RBI that season. They were 25 games better the year after he left. He moved to the Texas Rangers, a playoff team two years earlier without him. With him, the Rangers finished last three straight times. This season, the Rangers traded him to the Yankees, and -- surprise, surprise -- Texas is contending again, even without the 47 home runs and 118 RBI he posted last season. At their current pace, the Rangers will be 32 games better (from 71 wins with him to 103 without him). A-Rod By The Numbers Having the game's best player doesn't guarantee success. Alex Rodriguez's career has proved that. The numbers below tell the story pretty well. Mariners With A-Rod: Won 91 games in 2000 After A-Rod: Won 116 games in 2001 Rangers With A-Rod: Won 71 games in 2003 After A-Rod: On pace for 103 wins in '04 Yankees With A-Rod: On pace to win 93 games Before A-Rod: Won 101 games in 2003 Photo: Al Bello \| Getty Images And the Yankees? They added the American League’s best offensive player, and suddenly are having a tough time scoring runs. Without a great starting rotation, their streak of nine straight playoff appearances could be in jeopardy. Last season, they finished with 101 victories. This season, they’re on pace to win 93. How can this be? Isn’t this one of those statistical abnormalities baseball people drool over? Sure, to some extent. But there’s also a lesson. What Rodriguez proves is what the best baseball personnel men have always known: a great team is a lot of different parts. It’s role players and relievers and a lot of grind-it-out types. Teams don’t win championships without one or two great players, but general managers tend to describe good teams as "the whole being greater than the sum of the parts." In other words, there’s something to be said for teamwork and karma and all of that stuff your little league coach probably talked about. Two years before A-Rod arrived in Texas, Rangers general manager Doug Melvin said he’d never have a player making, say, $15 million because that money would be better spent on four solid players or three good players rather than one great one. Melvin had A-Rod forced upon him by Rangers owner Tim Hicks, who lured him from Seattle with a 10-year, $252 million deal. Melvin no longer had money to spend on pitching and was fired after A-Rod’s first season. Mariners general manager Pat Gillick would have understood what Melvin was talking about. He did not even attempt to find a player who could replace A-Rod’s offensive output. That player didn’t exist, or wasn’t available. Instead, he attempted to build a team. "The longer I’m in the game, the more I think character is important," he said. He was not taking a shot at A-Rod with that comment. He was talking about the things good clubs have. They believe in one another and root for one another. They don’t typically have one player who sees himself as superior to everyone else. The Mariners didn’t set an American League record with 116 victories because A-Rod left. They won because they had a team. Instead of one superstar, they had a bunch of different parts. They had Ichiro Suzuki at the top of the order. They had John Olerud in the middle. They had an invaluable utility guy in Mark McLemore and an athletic center fielder in Mike Cameron. Gillick used the money he saved on A-Rod to fill in gaps, especially in the bullpen, and when he was done, his club was much better. Let’s don’t lose perspective. Gillick tried to re-sign A-Rod. The Mariners had lost Ken Griffey and been forced to trade Randy Johnson, and even inside the organization, some wondered if they could afford to lose another impact player. It turns out they could. And this season’s Rangers apparently can also. More on Justice · Would You Trade For A-Rod? · More Justice Columns Michael Young took over at shortstop and is having a tremendous season. The Rangers also spent some A-Rod savings on veteran outfielder Brian Jordan. More than any one move, they have a different feel. Inside the organization, there’s a belief that the young players would never blossom with A-Rod around. Once he departed, kids like Mark Teixeira and Hank Blalock became the club’s leaders, and their personalities grew into those roles. This year, the Rangers have revived their kangaroo court, the informal pre-game session of fines and teasing that help build camaraderie. They didn’t have kangaroo court when A-Rod was around because he didn’t like being teased. So will the Yankees miss the playoffs because of A-Rod? Absolutely not. AOL Search · Baseball News He’ll put up dramatic numbers, and the club will win. But I’ll bet Derek Jeter’s early struggles could be attributed to A-Rod’s arrival. Some in New York wondered if Jeter shouldn’t move from shortstop to make room for his new teammate instead of A-Rod moving to third. Those suggestions may have put Jeter in the difficult position of having to prove himself again. In the end, the Yankees will go as far as their shaky starting pitching takes them. Even though the Yankees have enough money to acquire pretty much whoever they want, the standard rules of team building still apply. Manager Joe Torre’s primary challenge will be fitting all those rich stars -- A-Rod, Jeter, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and others -- together and creating a team. If they don’t, they might have to take a page from what the Mariners and Rangers learned after losing the game’s best player. 05/10/04 21:38 EDT