A-Rod Heading in Right Direction
Bill Eichenberger - SportingNews.com
Aug 11, 2009
Unlike in years past when he made headlines for his off-the-field antics, Alex Rodriguez is turning heads these days for all the right reasons.
With Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz now taking the heat for use of performance-enhancing drugs, the Yankees slugger, who admitted to using steroids in a news conference Feb. 17, has been free to concentrate on regaining the hitting stroke that has made him one of baseball's most productive hitters.
He's still a work in progress, according to Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long, despite hitting two dramatic home runs during the team's four-game sweep of the Red Sox over the weekend.
"We still have to monitor how much work he does, his lateral movement on the field, his swing," Long said. "His explosiveness is pretty close to where it needs to be. The only difference is we can't play him every day like we used to do.''
That's because he is coming off surgery on his right hip in early March, which caused him to miss the first five weeks of the season and contributed to his slow start at the plate.
"I think both of us were kind of, 'All right, enough with the .210s and the .220s,' " Long said.
A-Rod has made slow and steady progress, despite a 72 at-bat homerless streak that preceded his dramatic walk-off home run in the Yankees' 2-0, 15-inning victory over the Red Sox on Friday night.
After hitting .260 while playing almost every day in May, A-Rod struggled in June, hitting .207, and admitted that he had pushed himself too hard and needed an occasional day off. Since then, he's hit .291 to raise his average to .259, well below his career mark of .304, but clearly heading in the right direction.
"As far as grinding, the amount of work that he normally does, he's still not ready for that,'' Long said. But even during A-Rod's recent homerless streak, Long said he was not overly concerned.
"Now if it was a 70 at-bat drought and he wasn't getting hits and he really looked lost at the plate, that's a different story,'' he said. "But he was still getting big RBIs and still picking up hits. And I never worry about Alex hitting home runs. That just comes with him being a good hitter.''
Rodriguez, who has 21 homers and 63 RBIs, told reporters over the weekend that in hindsight, missing the first five weeks of the season was a "blessing in disguise. It kind of gave me a chance to refocus and rethink things and take basically a timeout from all the white noise I created for myself the last year and a half. …This is the best I've ever gotten along with my teammates and the most at peace I've been in New York.''
And there is no denying the positive effect his return has had on the Yankees, who are a major league-best 56-28 since A-Rod rejoined the team on May 8.
Bill Eichenberger is a staff writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at beichenberger@sportingnews.com.
This story first appeared in the August 11, 2009 edition of Sporting News Today. If you are not receiving Sporting News Today, the only daily digital sports newspaper, sign up today for free.
----
Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion
Copyright 2009 by SportingNews.com
 |
 |
