Alex Rodriguez may still technically serve as a Yankees special assistant, but he's also an ESPN broadcaster and he's not letting his years in pinstripes cloud his objectivity.
That's why, when the Globe's Nick Cafardo asked him to assess the relative talent level between the two rosters, Rodriguez offered a surprising answer.
"While (Giancarlo) Stanton and Aaron Judge get a lot of attention, the Red Sox have the best 1-2 punch in baseball in Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. If you asked the insiders in the game, they would put Mookie in the top three players in the game and that's a hell of a compliment for a guy who goes under the radar. And the reason he goes under the radar is because he's a consummate professional. He does everything really well and he gets better every year and he does it with class, elegance, and stealth. J.D. is becoming the top slugger in our game, a combination of power and run production and contact. He's also a very good hitter. What the most impressive thing about him is, just about everybody who comes into a big market like New York and Boston, there's an adjustment period. The whole first half of '04 for me was a difficult one. It was a challenging time. J.D. hit the ground running. The one to credit here is Dave Dombrowski."
The early numbers support his claim. Betts is hitting .339 with 20 homers and 41 RBIs out of the leadoff spot, while Martinez is at .324-25-67. Meanwhile, Judge (.279-22-55) and Stanton (.266-19-46) have been good, but not that good.
