DownSwinging.com

Yesterday, the topic of ESPN’s Buster Olney’s blog/column was A-Rod and his struggles since returning from surgery. Olney said that A-Rod has been taking longer to reach first base, has been fielding poorly and isn’t catching up to fastballs. True, at the time Olney was writing, A-Rod was batting a mere .210 (now up to .223) and is most certainly in a slump, despite an acceptable home run total of 10. The column not so subtley hinted at A-Rod’s lack of steroids being the cause of his downfall, and 34-year old A-Rod may never recover.

But let us remind ourselves of one fact. A-Rod has played in just 43 games this season. 43. In the grand scheme of things, that’s nothing, and I would expect someone like Olney to realize that. Usually baseball statisticians are looking at year’s worth of evidence and trends, and frequently scoff those that read to much into small sample sizes like this one. Drugs, or no drugs, let’s be reminded of the fact that A-Rod is one of three baseball players who you could say are the best in the game right now (Pujols, Santana), and it takes a lot more than a slump to take him off that list.

A little farther down in the column, Olney discusses how David Ortiz and A-Rod are going in “different directions” now that Papi started hitting the ball again. Just three weeks ago, wasn’t everyone saying the same thing about Ortiz? We heard it constantly, he’s done, he’s finished. I even wrote about it. But now all everyone can think about is how he yet again is the Red Sox’ savior, and he had a longer slump than A-Rod’s had.