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How much of his salary would you take on?

How much would you give up for him?

A) I don't think that his stats don't help teams to win games. I even said that with him the Giants would win more games, plain and simple. Great defense plus runs and rbis = more in the win column. Of course he'd help.

B) Yeah, I believe you.

C) I absolutely think that statistics and numbers tell you quite a lot about the value of a player and would be happy to argue alonside someone who works in insurance or advertising, a physics professor, or an economist about the inherent value of statistics. I absulotely do not, however, think that statistics tell you everything and in my opinion with A-Rod something is missing, and I know that it's not in his game and I know it's not in his ego or his sportsmanship, but some aspect of his contribution to the collective team has, over the course of his career, not been translating to be the component that helps the team to the proverbial next level.

D) A-Rod does have a tendency to choke in the big game. Not all the time, yes, but enough to make people notice. This isn't a point that makes all that much difference to me, though. His performance shouldn't be expected to carry the team every single time they get into a high pressure game. That's why Texas was always so bad with him, because they never put anybody around him.

E) I hate David Ortiz. He's a fat, ugly, obnoxious player who couldn't make it in the NL and has only given me headaches over the years.

The problem with arguing against A-Rod is that it sounds like I wouldn't take him if I could. I would. I positively would. He's one of the best individual players in the league and compared to our corner infield he's like that big chocoalte  mousse cake to the kid who's been eating stray tree branches in the woods because his parents left him in the woods and he's not fast enough to catch anything that's not a tree branch. Faulty simile, I know, but it's kind of to the point.

He'd be a great business steal, too. People want to watch A-Rod. I'd probably want to watch A-Rod. Revenue would be great.

I'm reserved about the guy because for that kind of money I want another Barry, I want a Joe Montana - guys whose impact on the team exceeded what their statistics would lead you to believe (and Barry's stats this year are awful for his money, but he's still impacting with his presence... with something).

For crying out loud, he's been a damn Yankee. Nobody could possibly argue that he hasn't had the team around him. He was supposed to be the final piece, but since he came on board that piece has still been missing.

For 8-15 million, he's bang for your buck. For more I start to get wary because I can't define why he consistently hasn't made the impact that he should have, that his stats tell us he should have. For less I start to need to wear new pants. I think that says what I mean.