Kuzul

No player has felt the demand to perform every plate appearance like Alex Rodriguez has since Dave Winfield was nicknamed Mr. May in the 1980’s. However, this week there were several instances of Yankee fans going to bat—so to speak—for Rodriguez over Derek Jeter.

The Jeter-Rodriguez debate returned to New York sports-talk radio from wherever it was left two years ago. However. it changed. It used to be that Rodriguez can’t come through in the clutch, highlighted by his .133 and .071 averages in the 2005 and 2006 ALDS. Now it is that Jeter is overrated, too old to play shortstop and is washed up. 

What happened? I will admit that I will defend Jeter to death, no matter what, and have always admitted that Rodriguez’s stats are far better than the shortstop’s. But why do we have to throw one under the bus? Why not like both?

I guess I just don’t understand why you can’t like Paul McCartney if you like John Lennon, they’re both Beatles.  It is the same with these two.

Jeter may be overrated, he has been put on this pedestal of all-time great players like Ruth, Mays, Williams and few others have reached. Rodriguez is the one that should be on this pedestal—the numbers are incomparable.

Rodriguez has hit at least 30 home runs, driven in over 100 runs every year since 1998, has been named the AL Most Valuable Player three times, and has made 13 All-Star Games. Now, after his Ruthian 2009 postseason with six home runs, 18 RBI and a .366 average, what else does he have to prove?  Not a thing to me.

While, Jeter has had a Hall of Fame career, he has six seasons with 200 or more hits, five World Series rings and is the only player to be named the All-Star MVP and World Series MVP in the same season.

His career has been set apart by a series of moments such as the flip play in the 2000 ALDS, diving into the stands against the Red Sox in 2004, or a fan reaching over the fence and catching a ball to give Jeter a home run. That’s what separates Jeter, he always seems to be in the right spot at the right time—always.

So, can we stop this Jeter or Rodriguez debate? They’re Yankees, we’re Yankee fans—we are supposed to root for them to play well and let them know what we think when they play badly. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Am I the only one who watched the New York Mets drop two out of three games to the Philadelphia Phillies this weekend?  I thought most people did, but apparently Jon Miller, Joe Morgan, and Orel Hershiser did not.

Normally, I would not care if three people did not watch the weekend series between National League East rivals, but when you are broadcasting a game Sunday night in the series you should pay attention to the previous games.

At the end of the game Sunday, the Phillies were about to wrap up an 11-5 victory which would give them the first series of the season against the Mets.  Yet, the ESPN crew in the booth (the three above) said the Mets have a lot of positives to take from the series.

What I do not understand is what positives do the Mets have to take?

They took the first game on Friday night facing Kyle Kendrick and his over-seven ERA.  The Mets were red hot and David Niese made sure it stayed that way, but positives and negatives of a whole series can not be taken into consideration on the first game against a pitcher with an ERA over seven.

The wind came out of the sails of the Mets on Saturday though, when the 2010 NL Cy Young Award winner, Roy Halladay, took the hill and had an easy day playing against the Mets for all nine, while only giving up three hits.  Meanwhile, Mike Pelfrey woke up and came back down to earth giving up six runs over four innings, while the Phils cruised to a 10-0 victory.

After getting blown-out on Saturday, the rubber game on Sunday became the biggest game of the early season, not just for the Mets, but in all of baseball.  You have the hottest team in baseball trying to prove they are going to challenge the big boys all season with their ace on the hill, if the Metropolitans wanted to prove something, they win Sunday night.

The game started out as planned for the team from Queens. They hit around 47-year-old Jamie Moyer for three runs in the first and then two more in the fourth, to have a 5-2 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. 

The game should have been considered over with the remaining innings played out just to say they did.  However, Santana and the Phillies had other ideas.  The only problem: Santana is on the Mets.

That brings us to the bottom of the fourth inning.  With two outs and Chase Utley standing on second base, Raul Ibanez drives him in with a base hit, Juan Castro single’s, Carlos Ruiz walks to load the bases for the never-dangerous pitcher Moyer, with a lifetime average of .133 and 13 career RBI (or just about one for every two years he has played).

Then the unthinkable happened, Moyer worked a seven-pitch walk forcing in a run, and bringing Shane Victorino to the plate.  The Flyin’ Hawaiian then sent a 0-1 fastball to the seats in right field for a grand slam giving the Phillies the lead.

The defending NL champions then showed the Mets who was boss in the NL East, extending the lead to six runs, and not looking back from there as the Mets did after the fourth inning.

So, can someone please tell me what positives the Mets can take away from this series? 

They beat up on the sixth-starter Kendrick for their lone win of the series. Then they only helped secure Roy Halladay’s NL Cy Young on Saturday.  Finally, their ace could not make it out of the fourth inning and got out-pitched by a 47-year-old on national television.

Gee, I know if I were the Phillies I would be shaking scared of the Mets. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com