I’m calling it a diss, although you might disagree.
Here’s the quote in question, via Seth Livingstone of USA Today:
John Flaherty, former big-league catcher in his fifth season as a broadcaster for the YES Network, came up through the Boston Red Sox system ahead of Garciaparra and now sees Jeter and Rodriguez on a regular basis. He remembers well the discussions in the clubhouse similar to those among fans who debated the merits of the three stars.
“(Players would say) Alex might have the best all-around ability of the three — the fielding, the power, the tools scouts would see,” Flaherty says. “But then you’d go in a different direction: Who would you want on your team? Who would you want up in a big spot? Kind of throw the tools and talent out and the competition starts coming. You’d start thinking about Derek and Nomar.”
Each was different when it came to working them behind the plate.
“Nomar went up there, and you knew the first thing he saw he would let it fly,” Flaherty says. “He could do some damage on the first pitch of an at-bat. There was no trying to set him up. He wasn’t going to give you a strike. He was going to be very aggressive and, in Fenway, create a lot of damage.
“Derek’s the same way — very aggressive. He’s not going to hurt you as much (with power), but in a big spot you really had to be careful.
“Alex was more patient. He would try to work into a hitter’s count, so you could try to jump ahead, get strike one, then go to work.”
There’s a tacit, “Alex Rodriguez isn’t clutch,” argument embedded in here, isn’t there?
Photo by the AP
I took it the same way. Also, this is a pretty bad sentence:
“Kind of throw the tools and talent out and the competition starts coming.”
Throw out the important stuff and focus on the ephemeral. Moshe Mandel(Quote)
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long time listener Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 12:00 am
Yeah, throw out the tools and the talent and John Flaherty was every bit as good as Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza. long time listener(Quote)
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Chris H. Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Haha, this made me laugh. Chris H.(Quote)
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I definitely see that as negative towards A-Rod. Oh well, its not like Flaherty’s the only person who has called A-Rod unclutch. Plus, Flaherty is not really know for his expert analysis. Chris A(Quote)
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All you need to know about Flaherty as an analyst is that Francesa thinks he’s excellent…case closed. With regards to his comment, if anyone question’s ARod’s “clutchness” directly or indirectly, they must have missed last year’s postseason. He carried the offense and kept the heat off Tex and Cano with his performance through all 3 rounds. Also, ARod had a ton of “clutch” moments to get us to the postseason in ’05 and ’07, which is often dismissed. eddieperez23(Quote)
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Considering this was about the SS trio, he must be talking about before A-Rod even got traded, and well before Nomar got traded. A-Rod really only played in 3 post-season series with the Mariners and Rangers, and (SSS alert) was a beast. So Flaherty is living in some revisionist history by saying now what he thought 7-10 years ago. In 2010, to claim that players were discussing the non-clutchness of A-Rod, long before there was anything to back that up, I just don’t buy it. Steve H(Quote)
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More proof that Flaherty is an idiot. He makes Michael Kay look like a genius in comparison. I can’t believe YES kept this fool and let David Cone go. DaveinMD(Quote)
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Steve S. Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 6:57 am
L-O-V–E-D Coney, but it appears that negotiation got personal, and more on Coney’s side than the Yanks. Steve S.(Quote)
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Flaherty was a Yankee for about 5 minutes, wasn’t on a championship team, and he’s one of YES’ lead broadcasters? Why? He has zero personality, his commentary is about as good or bad as anyone else’s, and he doesn’t even have any insight on most of this team by having played with any of them. Steve S.(Quote)
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Steve H Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 8:03 am
He’s gritty? Steve H(Quote)
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Matt Imbrogno Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 9:27 am
http://tinyurl.com/2gqylo Matt Imbrogno(Quote)
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Steve H Reply:
March 19th, 2010 at 9:39 am
What’s worse, that Brad Halsey started that game? Or that he pitched well? Steve H(Quote)
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Coney, Al, we need ya’ the other Steve S.(Quote)
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Guess most pitchers still need to get to work on him, almost at 600 homers so his approach at the plate seems to work for him, after the post season he just had people are still trying to bring up the “unclutch” garbage. ARod cant do anything right is the eyes of certain people. Nomar was so “clutch” he go ran out of Boston Kareem(Quote)
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I like John Flaherty but he’s really talking about a popularity contest and nothing else. If the “…throw the tools and talent out…” comment isn’t a dead giveaway I don’t know what is. It just goes to show that even with his spectacular post-season in ’09, A-Rod will never do enough to kill the “unclutch” noise.
Also, David Cone left YES because some on-air, negative but benign remark he made regarding the Yankees playing at the time rubbed some higher ups at the network the wrong way–Cone quit rather than deal w/that nonsense–but Flaherty gets away with taking shots at A-Rod in the press? A memorable walk-off hit vs the Red Sox isn’t enough Yankee capital to throw around, Flash. Kiko Jones(Quote)
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