Can Alex Rodriguez Still Be a Factor This Season?

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Aug 30, 2011

Can Alex Rodriguez Still Be a Factor This Season? Yankees manager Joe Girardi filled out his lineup card for the 132nd time on Monday night, and for the 50th time, the starting lineup was missing Alex Rodriguez's name.

Rodriguez recently returned to the Yankees following after missing a month and a half with a knee injury. During that time, however, the Yankees played some darn good baseball, seemingly not missing a beat without the 14-time All-Star. New York went 24-13 during that time, while coincidentally, the Yankees are 48-34 in the games that Rodriguez has started this season.

Since his return, Rodriguez has struggled mightily to find himself again at the plate. He's hit .176 (3-for-17) after returning with just one extra-base hit and one RBI. Both of those happened to come on a solo home run in a game that the Yankees trailed 12-1 at the time.

However, that's not all to suggest that the Yankees are better off without Rodriguez. His production has obviously seen a dropoff over the years (although not as sharp as this one), but even through that, he still brought a certain amount of intimidation to the plate.

Now, however, that seems to be if not gone, then at least majorly lacking.

It's tough to tell what the Yankees will get from Rodriguez down the stretch. There's always the chance he can't put things together at the plate in time for the heart of the stretch run and into the playoffs. However, if he can give the Yankees anything close to resembling what he has in the past, it will only serve to make an already potent offense even more dangerous.

Can Alex Rodriguez still be a factor this season?

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