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Alex Rodriguez is back, and that has either sent you into a rage or filled you with glee. (If it’s the former, hello, we’re thrilled that so many esteemed members of the New York sports media are reading us!) Spring training stats are whatever, but A-Rod has a pair of dingers and is batting .269/.367/.538 with four walks against five strikeouts. He’s yet to be tested in a meaningful way, but simply showing up to work and producing at all after an entire season off with suspension has its merits.
This means it’s time to think about what’s next for A-Rod. If you remember the headline you’ve already read, you know: it’s the milestones. He’s coming for those numbers you hold dear. Whether you’re Team A-Rod or hope he is abandoned in a Florida airport before Opening Day, he’s coming for those numbers. If he gets enough playing time, he could be coming for a whole lot of them.
Rodriguez is seven homers away from passing Willie Mays. He’s five hits away from passing Frank Robinson for 31st all-time, and if he manages to play his way into a full-time job, he could realistically jump ahead of Craig Biggio and into 21st all-time with 122 more hits. Maybe more importantly than his rank on that list is that he is just 61 away from 3,000 for his career. He’s 60 total bases away from passing Carl Yastrzemski for eighth all-time, 31 runs away from leapfrogging Stan Musial and landing in the top-10, and is 162 games away from vaulting all the way from 44th to 26th on the career games played list. Making it to 3,000 hits is probably what will make the most people furious, given Baseball’s affinity for shiny round numbers, but it could be worse. Johnny Damon could still be trying to get to 3,000 hits, and the ensuing Hall of Fame candidacy arguments for Damon would be exponentially worse.
- Ken Rosenthal believes that the Players Association should fight the Cubs’ treatment of Kris Bryant if he’s sent to the minors to begin the year. They wouldn’t win a grievance if they file one, but it would at least be a pro-player reaction from a union that’s been lax in this regard over the years.
- These are the five bellwether players of the NL East, the ones who will help make the season a success or a failure for its five teams. Success, of course, can be measured in different ways, especially in a division with the Braves and Phillies in it.
- The college player who tweeted an uncalled for and idiotic message for Little League sensation Mo’ne Davis was kicked off of his team at Bloomsburg University, but Davis went on ESPN to ask for him to be reinstated. You are more forgiving than most, Mo’ne.
- Shane Victorino should start in right field for the Red Sox over Cuban prospect Rusney Castillo, if for no other reason than this is the way the Sox can keep the most depth on-hand. It’s a long season, y’all.
- Failure was the best thing that could have happened to Tigers’ slugger J.D. Martinez, as it caused him to search for ways to reinvent himself and brought on a torrid 2014 campaign.
- Yoenis Cespedes could be right there with Martinez tearing up Comerica, as the stadium seems a perfect fit for the slugger who has spent most of his career stuck in Oakland’s vast expanses.
- How a suburban white kid came to work at Vladimir Guerrero’s Dominican baseball academy.
- Whether Matt Harvey is a better pitcher than Clayton Kershaw is debatable, but the fact you can debate it instead of being openly and immediately mocked for suggesting as much gives you an indication of just how great he is.
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