If you had a choice of players in 1996, who would you take...

Hoopster

In 1996, if you had a chance to choose between Alex Rodriguez or Derek Jeter, and have them for the remainder of their career(till now), who would you rather have, and why?

alnavman

CHAMPIONSHIPS = my pick JETER

css23

Ted Williams.

bdunndchi

Jeter

TheVon

A-Rod, and he'd still be playing SS and he'd DOMINATE the position.

ctsoxfan

I'm not a fan of either player (big surprise there!) but how can you not take Arod? Like Von said, he'd be the best SS in the game by a huge margin, and if he was on a different team, he might even have a few rings by now.

Hoopster

CtSoxfan,

Unfortunately I couldn't add Nomar to the comparison due to the turn his career took.

I was a big fan of Nomar during those years too. He may have been my favorite modern(live ball era) player. He was a joy to watch swing the lumber.

TheVon

<< <i>I was a big fan of Nomar during those years too. He may have been my favorite modern(live ball era) player. He was a joy to watch swing the lumber. >>



I agree: once he swung the bat, he was fun to watch. After a couple years of watching his OCD adjustments at the plate though it got pretty hard to watch him before he swung the lumber though.

sagard

If the Yanks had played A-Rod at short since '96, I'd bet they have six World Series titles over that span.

bigfische

Arod and it isnt even close.

WinPitcher

Jeter


Because he is clutch and Arod isn't.




Steve


(J/K)

BobaFett72

arod, by a mile.

edmundfitzgerald

edmundfitzgerald

edmundfitzgerald

<< <i> >>



Sorry, but I was caught speechless by you guys who chose Arod.
Arod is a cancer. The way Barry Bonds is like a cancer. There are reasons why certain players don't win rings, and it
has everything to do with attitude. It has to do with caring about others more then caring about yourself. I played ball with
guys who were selfish like Bonds and Arod, and they were a cancer to the team. I guess you'd have to play with guys like
this in order to appreciate and understand it. Now, I also played with guys like Jeter, who always spoke how the team was
more important then themselves. Then take into consideration that Jeter's stats aren't that far off of Arod's, and it's a no brainer.

Heck, if your question was who would you have taken, Kirk Gibson or Arod, then it's Kirk Gibson in a country second.
If you asked me, who would you take, Mike Lowell or Arod, it's Mike Lowell in a country second. It isn't even close.

To those who understand no explanation is necessary.
To those who don't understand, no explanation would suffice.

perkdog

Arod hands down, not even close IMO

jdip9

<<<<Then take into consideration that Jeter's stats aren't that far off of Arod's, and it's a no brainer.>>>>

fitz - I agreed with everything you said up until that point - Arod's numbers blows Jeter's away, and its not even close.

I always make the comparison of haivng ARod or Bonds walking into your clubhouse to having the CEO walk into the lunchroom discussion. Yeah, the CEO might be a decent guy, but the conversation and any laughing or joking immediately stops and the situation becomes uncomfortable for all. I picture the same thing happening with Bonds or ARod. I get the feeling guys in clubhouse act differently when they're around, for fear of pissing them off or something, and that's not good for team morale.

ctsoxfan

<< <i>CtSoxfan,

Unfortunately I couldn't add Nomar to the comparison due to the turn his career took.

I was a big fan of Nomar during those years too. He may have been my favorite modern(live ball era) player. He was a joy to watch swing the lumber. >>



I agree with you. It's unfortunate that the way his career turned seems to have caused a lot of people to forget how good he was back then. He definitely doesn't have the career longevity of either Arod or Jeter to warrant inclusion in this comparison. Who knows what would have happened, or what the fortunes of the Red Sox might have been, if he stayed healthy.

dallasactuary

The obvious answer is Rodriguez, and it's certainly my answer.

As for Rodriguez being a "cancer", I'm not sure how we measure that. I'm hard pressed to think of a season where A-Rod's team "should" have won a World Series, or "should" have done better than they did. I do recall his stint here in Dallas where he did about all he could to drag our crappy team to respectability, but the idea of blaming Rodriguez rather than the crappy rest of the team when it didn't happen never occurred to me. In any event, our offense improved, so I'd be blaming him for the fact that our pitching collapsed. Why I would do that is not clear.

I think the idea of blaming Rodriguez for the failures of his teammates probably took hold when the Mariners improved so dramatically the year after he left (and ignoring that they went right back to their old level the year after that and stayed there). I guess we can never know for sure if the two were related, but personally I would be more inclined to want Rodriguez on my team rather than any of the whiny brats who allowed any personal feelings they had for Rodriguez to affect their performance on the field. Of course, I don't think the Mariners were whiny brats as the cancer theory implies; I think the pieces happened to fall together that year and that year only for a good but unremarkable team.

dallasactuary

I don't think the question was "If you were the Yankees", but rather if you were starting a team from scratch or were manging any random team. The Yankees version of the question does raise some interesting "bird in the hand" questions, though.

aro13

ARod