What, is there a stat for clubhouse leadership?

Mike Lupica should focus on politics where he can make snarky comments and not be troubled by, you know, quantification. He should stay far away from giving the Yankees advice.

Against the Royals last night, A-Rod made it an even 100 RBI for the season. Between April and October, he goes in with the biggest and most famous Yankees of them all. Rodriguez should win a third MVP award this season whether the Yankees make the playoffs or not. And when that happens, when he is voted the most valuable in his league again, it is game on.

It is game on because the Yankees will then have to decide just how valuable Alex Rodriguez is to them. A team that reminds us constantly that winning is the only thing that matters will decide how much they are willing to pay a great star who has not won here. And might never.

Funny, you never see anyone look at Don Mattingly and sneer, "He may be 'Donnie baseball,' but he never won anything." Pity, maybe, but never a sneer.

But see, A-Rod has "won here." In fact, if it weren't for his various walk-off HRs, doubles, and singles this year, the Yankees would be looking forward to a chance this weekend to snatch third place away from the Orioles in the AL East standings.

How valueable is A-Rod "to them," the Yankees? Extremely valuable. A projected 14 Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) valuable. A projected, if he weren't playing for the Yankees they'd be hoping for 85 wins this year, valuable. Almost invaluable.

As always, the go-to guy here is Ken Tremendous.

What an asshole. ARod, I mean. The guy can't even single-handedly win a postseason series.

People who write about Alex Rodriguez have a pathological inability to separate the man from the team. Jeter hasn't won shit since 2000 either. Mussina and Giambi have been paid just as much as ARod, by the Yankees, and they have won fuck-all. Damon hasn't won anything with the Yankees. Neither has Matsui. Neither has Pavano, or Cano. None of these people is ever -- ever -- held to the same impossible standard as ARod.

I hate the Yankees. And all I do is defend their players against their own media and fans. What is wrong with this picture?

People who write about Alex Rodrigues have a pathological inability to admit and absorb just how fucking great the player is. I'm sure all the embarrassing back pages and insulting columns helps sell a few more tabloids each day, but it sure sours the sheer enjoyment of watching him play and watching him carry himself after every game, win or lose.

The weird thing is, with A-Rod the Yankees got just what they expected when they signed him. Last year was an off-year, but he was an MVP the year before that -- one year after he'd changed positions, for chrissakes. He's the odds on favorite to win the award this year unless the Yankees tank.

If you want to point to specific players rather than the collected effort, luck, and opponents' timely pitching and hitting to blame for the lack of a title since 2000, I can think of a few players who didn't perform as they were expected to when they signed long contracts with the Yankees. Mussina was never the dominant ace the Yankees expected to shore up an aging rotation. Giambi has not only been prone to very weird and extensive injuries, he has nowhere near come to the levels he showed in 2000 and 2001 as a member of the A's. Instead, although when he does play he's got a high OPS, shown flashes of power, and at least provides some protection for A-Rod in the lineup, he's primarily been an expensive albatross for the Yankees, leading them to make poor decisions, like signing a "defensive first baseman" rather than get a decent hitter at this slugging position. And of course there's Kevin Brown, Javier Vazquez, Kyle Farnsworth, Tom Gordon, and several "lead-off" hitters whose names, thankfully, have been seared from my memory by the trauma of watching them run up a

.290 276 on-base percentage for months before the Yankees could airmail them to some other sucker team.

Oh, and it was my favorite Yankee, Mariano Rivera (who, by the way, will be looking to be rewarded as the Best Closer in History when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season), who threw the ball into center field in Game Four of the 2004 ALCS.

What did Ted Williams say about the sportswriters who "covered" him? Oh, yeah, "the knights of the keyboard."

UPDATE: Their, there, what's the difference?