Quick Rant, then more law homework

TBO and I have been talking about how underrated A-Roid is over the past few weeks, but both of us have been too lazy to do the leg work. Despite a owning a .289/.377/.524 [.901 OPS, .384 wOBA] career postseason slash line with 10 HR, 26 R, 25 RBI in 166 post season AB's (which extrapolates to an incredibly unclutch 36 HR, 94 R, 91 RBI season over the course of 600 ABs), Alex Rodriguez is terrible and unclutch. It doesn't matter that, as Fangraphs pointed out the other day (I have updated the stats), Alex Rodriguez has +0.79 Clutch* rating in the post season since 2002, while Mr. November has a -1.00 Clutch* rating over that same time frame.

*Clutch is a mathematical formula that determines "[h]ow much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment." (I feel like Lexis Nexus, posting footnotes in the middle of my documents...)

Fuck that fact that Mr. October had a .278/.358/.527 (.885 OPS) career postseason triple slash line. Double fuck the fact that Tim McCarver bases his view of life on Batting Average, which only makes the unclutchiness argument even more bizarre.

God, life is strange.

Also, if Joe Buck mentioned Reggie Willits one more time in last night's Yankees-Angels broadcast, I think I would have thrown a shoe at the TV.

Admit it you miss Sammy Sosa

I had zero expectations for the Home Run Derby this year and amazingly I was still incredibly underwhelmed. There was no passion from the players, the crowd, or even Chris "Back Back Back" Berman himself. Yes, Nelson Cruz impressed with his pure power and Prince's gyrating belly produced some laughs, but the demonstration as a whole did not impress. If given the chance to attend the derby, I think I would have declined the invitation and stayed happily at home. Outside of the slim chance of rubbing elbows, among other things, with Alyssa Milano, there is really nothing that I would have enjoyed at the derby in Busch Stadium.

This is becoming a scary trend of boredom that baseball needs to rectify in order to compete with the hip, new-age marketing of the NFL, NBA, and even the NHL. As the younger generations are being lured more and more to other sports dues to the glamorization of athletes in the NBA and NFL, the national past-time is becoming just that. Of the past. Who is the Lebron James of the MLB? Wade? Shaq? Brady? Even Vick? Arod is probably the most recognizable face in major league baseball, but that has to do more with his hookers, unclutchiness, and purple lipstick as opposed to being a hero to the masses.

Outside of the Josh Hamilton performance, when was the last inspiring HR derby? All the good ones were all a product of steroids. Obviously that is a thing of the past, and unless they start dispensing heroin, the Hamilton story will never be repeated. Was anyone taken aback by Bobby Abreu, Miguel Tejada, Ryan Howard? I will never forget the Big Mac performance of '99. Sammy Sosa in Atlanta and Milwaukee will stay with me for eternity. Steroids were the great marketing campaign for the MLB for 2 decades, now Bud Selig will have to wake up from him 10 year nap and maybe make a commercial outside of those Boy and Girls Club ads. All-star weekend should be the main national advertisement of baseball, but instead we get a bland production featuring Chris Berman. I hope you're psyched for Joe Buck tomorrow night. I know I'm not