Why do you ask? Oh, you just asked me. But why do you ask the question?

Good morning and welcome to another week of Effectively Wild episode 248

of the Daily Baseball Prospectus podcast. I am Ben Lindbergh, joined by Sam Miller as always.

We've been following the Alex Rodriguez rehab saga very closely since our draft of the worst

bang for your buck players. And today was supposed to be the day because we calculated after

the draft that you were slightly under the $200 million payroll minimum if ARAD doesn't play

this season. And significantly under, I would say. And we decide what the what the penalty was

or we just said there would be some sort of penalty. I believe it's one win per million.

All right, yeah, that's that's that could be a difference maker. So how are you how are you

feeling now that his his return has been I guess the the can has been kicked back another seven to

10 days? Well, Ben, I feel pretty confident and I'll tell you why because none of this matters.

Okay, I thought you were stressing about it. I'm some I am somewhat anxious about it. It's true. I

I was going to be very relieved when he played the first game and it was so close. I could taste it

and now to have it to have the to have the football you know moved one more time. Yeah, I do feel like

this is not going to end well. But I only need I only need one inning. Yeah, one inning of play.

Yeah, he doesn't even have to get up to the plate. He could pinch run. I don't know why he would

pinch run in his condition. But but if he did, that would that would solve your problem. Do you

by the way, do you speaking of of Yankees with quad strains? Do you do you feel like it's reading too

much into it to say that at this age, cheaters kind of career-long ability to talk his way into the

lineup is now less of an asset than a liability or is that a stretch? Because I mean at I guess

I don't know I was at the press conference that he gave a couple months ago at Yankee Stadium

his first press conference since the spring and people asked him if he was you know,

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