Today's New York Post headline says it all: A-Rod A-Goner.

In the end, it almost seemed anticlimactic, a matter of when not if. The Red Sox controlled this series from beginning to end, although the Rockies did not give up, and made the game close after another home run off Hideki Okajima to make the score 4-3. The Red Sox, as we have said here, did not have a bullpen they could trust, forcing them to overuse the few arms they did trust.

That will be issue number two on the Red Sox’ to-do list during the offseason, but priority No. 1 must be the re-signing of Mike Lowell, who scored two of the Sox’ runs last night on the way to winning his first World Series MVP award. Lowell is looking for at least three years, and the Red Sox appear unwilling to go that far. Has their hand been forced by Lowell’s MVP? Maybe – while the Sox have made unpopular moves before, and been able to justify them to the public, letting the World Series MVP walk would be really hard to sell.

That is unless of course the Red Sox decide that Alex Rodriguez is the answer at third base as A-Rod has decided to walk and let everyone know at a time when everyone would be paying attention. If he shows up in a Patriots jersey at the Colts game this weekend, we will have a good idea where he is going. Those in New York might want to whine about A-Rod never having been a “true Yankee,” whatever that means, but this is was about A-Rod wanting out of New York and the ridiculous manner in which he has been treated there. Derek Jeter wishes he was even close to as good as Rodriguez, but one would never have known that had they lived in New York during A-Rod’s time there – he was no Jeter, whatever that means.

I am not going to try to be an A-Rod apologist here, but those that talk about a “curse” simply do not know what they are talking about. Supposedly, we are to believe that the year A-Rod leaves, a team automatically becomes better. Yes, the Mariners did win significantly more the first year after A-Rod, but that ignores multiple facts. For one, the second baseball for A-Rod was Mark McLemore; for the first post-Rodriguez season, it was the 37-home-run Bret Boone. The addition of Ichiro Suzuki clearly helped. Freddy Garcia had a breakout season the first year after Rodriguez left. Arthur Rhodes’ ERA as the setup man dropped from 4.28, with eight losses, to 1.72, and no losses. The rest of the bullpen was also greatly improved. Yes, Rodriguez left, but everything else about the team was better – somehow, I doubt it was just him.

As for those that blame him for Texas, is it his fault the Rangers made idiotic move after idiotic move? Is it his fault that John Hart traded Travis Hafner for Einar Diaz? Is it his fault that John Hart signed Chan Ho Park to one of the worst contracts in the history of free agency? Was it Alex’s fault that Hart gave up on Carlos Pena? Of course, it was not. People will say that Rodriguez was paid so much that they could not sign other players, but that did not stop them from signing Park or making one moronic move after another. This does not matter to Rodriguez haters. What matters to them is that “teams get worse when they add A-Rod and get better without him,” offering no real proof whatsoever. Oh, and since trading Rodriguez, the Rangers are still lousy.

Now, let’s see what we can blame on A-Rod in New York. It is clearly A-Rod’s fault that Roger Clemens retired, and then un-retired in Houston, only to come back when it was too late. Oh, my bad – Clemens left right before the A-Rod trade. Well, it must be A-Rod’s fault that Andy Pettitte left too – oh, wait, that happened just before the trade too. The Kevin Brown trade? Nope – before A-Rod too. Javier Vazquez trade? No, that was before A-Rod too. Hmm – a lot of the problems the Yankees have had – pitching, and bad moves to fix said problem – really cannot be blamed on A-Rod so far, but let’s keep trying – there has to be something, right?

After acquiring A-Rod, they did trade Orlando Hernandez for Esteban Loaiza, and that did not work, so that must be A-Rod’s fault. The backfiring Randy Johnson trade had to be A-Rod’s fault too. Humberto Sanchez being injured when he came over in the Gary Sheffield trade must have been his fault too, and the horrible scouting that led to the signing of Kei Igawa was his fault too.

Let’s not also forget all the ills that were visited upon the Yankees because of A-Rod. We all know he was behind Mike Mussina rapidly becoming a mediocre pitcher. He was behind Jason Giambi breaking down. He was behind Robinson Cano’s slide this year, and Bobby Abreu’s disappointing year and a half in the Bronx, and he was behind their bullpen meltdown.

Of course, A-Rod’s 54 home runs also had nothing at all to do with them making the playoffs as the Wild Card team, as they all must have come with no one on base in games that the Yankees lost anyway, because Jeter is the hero, not A-Rod. That evil A-Rod is probably why Jeter hit only .176 in the ALDS, about 90 points lower than A-Rod – A-Rod wanted to make sure he looked better than Jeter, so he sabotaged Jeter somehow.

I know there is a great industry out there make out of A-Rod hate, and I know that the announcement of A-Rod’s impending free agency was at best in poor taste, but to say that he is not a player that one would want to add to their team is ludicrous. Why did the Mariners not win with A-Rod, haters ask, and why were they so much better without him? It is a great question, if one ignores all the facts – they made the playoffs twice with Rodriguez, winning one round once. They have appeared in the playoffs only once since then. The Rangers did not win with Rodriguez because their front office was a joke and they made the team around Rodriguez worse, not better, in his time there, and the money he was paid had nothing to do with it. Anyone that can look at the moves I mentioned above, and many more like it, and not agree with me is delusional. Lastly, the Yankees did not advance with him because of the team around him – the last time I checked, A-Rod did not pitch.

Blame A-Rod all you want, but you will not be doing so with any facts to stand on.

Over the rest of the week here at Sports Grumblings, we will be looking at some impending moves, some final postmortems on the Rockies and Red Sox, and speculating on where A-Rod is going. Next week, we will be rolling out two special features, the Year in Review and the annual Farm Reports. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we will look back at a team and break down what went right, what went wrong, the moves they made, the moves they did not make, and where next for the team. Then, on the following Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, we will break down the top ten prospects of the organization that we looked at the day prior. We start on Monday with the Orioles, going alphabetical by division and league, so Baltimore, Boston, and New York are Week One.

To give you a little preview, we have already come up with the top ten lists for the teams of the American League East. If you are a Blue Jays fan, well, we feel for you, as that might be the worst organization that we have ever seen. SG columnist John Franco and I were in agreement that only one player from the Blue Jays’ top ten would have made the Yankees top ten, and only in the bottom half. To give you a little teaser, here are the top prospects for each of the five AL East teams:

Baltimore Orioles – Billy Rowell, Third Base

Boston Red Sox – Clay Buchholz, Starting Pitcher (and, yes, there was much debate here on whether it should be him or the Sox’ center fielder in the postseason.)

New York Yankees – Ian Kennedy, Starting Pitcher

Tampa Bay Rays – Evan Longoria, Third Base

Toronto Blue Jays – Travis Snider, Outfield

Tomorrow, we might drop another name or two here, including tease you with some of the more interesting names to make the cut.

Questions and comments may be sent to markhaverty@sportsgrumblings.com