by dwightskino211 » Sun Oct 02, 2005 8:44 pm
This argument is really about the difference in baseball era's. Aparicio did all the things that modern baseball players can't do. Steal 56 bases against the top catchers in the game. Bunt anytime he wants to for a base hit. Hit and run, move runners over and give him self up. In the field he is every bit as good as ozzie, with a MUCH better arm, he turned the dp better than almost anyone who ever played. Don't forget when little looie played there were not 32 or more teams in baseball. There are not 32 catchers who can even reach 2b!! There were not watered down pitching stafffs. Looie faced several stacked staffs with 6-7 very good pitchers series after series. Today's teams 4th-5 starters and bull pen totally suck until you get to the 8th and 9th inning. Look at last three years' tigers pitching staff and devil rays and reds and brewers etc, 30-40 pitchers with era's over 5.50 and tons of walks. Their strato cards, if hitters cards would be .375 on base with power!!
Now A rod is just doing what is the norm in this era, swing away hit for power and go to the bank with tons of money!! He will go down in baseball history among the top 5, I believe to ever play the game. If you shrunk the leagues down to 10-12 teams his average hrs and rbi would go down. He is facing terrible pitching in half of his ab's and the strike zone has been changed to the hitters favor. He still is a gifted fielder, very good base runner and can steal bases. He can play ss as well as any today, and is a target for abuse. His last 3-5 years taken as a whole demonstrate his greatness. A point being missed in this discussion is that if you are making up the greatest hispanic team in history, the other players you select somewhat dictate what you need to complete your team. Just like the ATG 2 teams we pick you need every thing to win. Great starters, a good to great bullpen, you want excellent defense, power, speed and throwing arms. What about platoons, power parks pitching parks etc. Small ball attributes and huge on base and xtra base hits. The entire body of hispanic players should be looked at to find the players that would jell into a team, not just all star names with gaudy numbers. If you look at all the hall of fame players today, you could make up a jr varsity today with the likes of boggs, yount, brett, etc. they all really are not that great, but they are in the hall and we have to live with whatever we feel about them, and their performances. In closing I think A rod would get the nod because he does more things well, but the caveat would be is there good enough defense at 2b, 3b and 1b to make up the difference. If so I could move him to 3rd!!!