Build a Winning MLB Team With ONLY $140M | Smart Roster Building & Lineup Strategy | A-Rod Academy

What I'm going to do here is I know there's a lot of great GMs and presidents and baseball [music] operations. This is just my humble opinion of how I would create a championship team within a budget because obviously you're not going to see Barry Bonds and Griffy and you know Judge and Otani. Yeah, may see Judge, but that's about it. [music] So, just a few requirements to kind of keep guard rails on. So, number one, in your allowance, you're only allowed to have no more than two hitters that strike out more than 150. Ideally, just one, but I'm going to give you two. You're looking for a balanced lineup, meaning you want five lefties, four [music] righties. Maybe a couple switch hitters would be ideal. I'm looking for contact and [music] batting average. I'm going to really put a premium on guys that can make contact and value batting average. Play every day. That's really important. Continuity, passion, [music] and you have to love the game of baseball. You play 200 games in 232 days when you included spring training, you include postseason. You got to love this game. Okay, I'm gonna pick RBIs and I'm gonna trump it over home runs. I remember the 1998 New York Yankees won, I think, 125 games. Not one player, not one player hit 30 home runs. [music] So, you don't need home runs to win. I know that's the thing. Strikeouts and home runs. I'm going to go Billy Bean and be a contrarian to what Billy Bean did 25 years ago. Everyone's chasing distance, home runs, [music] and rewarding swing and miss. We highly, highly penalize swing and miss here. I'm gonna value speed and athleticism. All things that are super inexpensive [music] because they're not being valued as they should or as they were. And then I have to do all this with a budget of no more than 140. One of the things I like here is having the same exact lineup every day. But I'll never forget Joe Gerardi walked me into his office and he said, "All right, big boy. You're going to hit cleanup every single day for the rest of the year. So, I hope you're good to go. I didn't play every day, but I played almost every day because I had to kind of give my hips some rest. But the point is, I knew going to the stadium every single day, I was going to be playing third base and hitting [music] cleanup. And that type of assurance uh helped me play a lot better, get more comfortable, and I knew what what the role was going to be that day. [music] So, top of the lineup, I'm going to go back to like the 86 Mets. You want contact and speed. You want your power right here in these three. And then you want balance RBI guys down here. So leadoff hitter, I'm gonna go with my man [music] Stephen Quan, who's a great contact guy and a fantastic defender. Hitting the two spot, I'm going to go with another great gamer, world champion dog, [music] my man Alex Bregman playing third base, hitting third and hitting playing first base, Cody Bellinger. Now remember, I have a budget, so I can't go crazy here, fellas. Best player in the game, Mr. Aaron Judge hitting cleanup. Now, the reason why you want Aaron Judge hitting cleanup, if he plays 162 games, he plays every game, that means at least at least 10 times before the Yankees take the field, they're going to be up two, three-0, maybe 4-0. [music] I like him cleanup with rabbits and contact, average, average, contact, speed. All these guys will set up Judge, Judge may have 200 RBI's. Now, when you have a locomotive like Aaron Judge, when you have an alien, an anomaly, the greatest player of our generation, you have to surround him. He is the queen of the chessboard. You, every move you make has to be surrounding Aaron Judge. Who's going to make him better? The same is true for Tom Brady. The same is true for Michael Jordan. The same is true for Tiger Woods. When you have one of one, you got to surround every move has to be about Aaron Judge. Big news, everyone. Flourish is now a target. Now, this is my favorite high protein pancake. These pancakes have become a staple in my morning routine. They taste good. They're packed with 23 g of protein and no added sugar. It's the morning fuel that I need to take on a busy day. And you can pick up Flourish at Target starting today. Fifth, I want a guy that's left-handed, obviously. So notice I'm going lefty, righty, lefty, righty. Now I need a left-hander. Why? Because if Nick is the manager of the other team, I have to put him in a box. If he brings in a lefty, he's going to face two righties. If he brings in a righty, he's going to face two lefties. So behind Aaron Judge cuz he can get walked a lot. I want a high average, high contact, integrity [music] guy that is really responsible with the bat. In my day, that guy was John Olude. In today's day, this guy is Ben Rice. Now, remember, I would have Stanton here, but I need a budget. So, I need to I need to squeeze the budget. For my six pot, I'm going to go with a second baseman. Uh, Stanford grad, Nicoer, second base, gamer, [music] defender, tough as nails, fundamentally sound, winning [music] player. All right, so Austin Wells, um, very bullish on him. Like I said earlier, he's a guy that he's always been a 300 hitter. Uh, he has to get back to staying on top of the baseball. uh being very productive. I spoke to him a little bit last year towards the end of the year. I like the way he ended the year. [music] If the way he ended the year is an indication of how 26 is going to go, I'm buying some real [music] estate on the Austin Walls Island. I'm buying the stock. I like it. [music] And I think if he gets back to hitting the ball, forget about the home runs. He's going to hit home runs cuz he's a great hitter. The more contact you make, the more consistent you are. The ball's simply going to go over the fence. When you're 6'3, 225 lbs, the ball's going to go over the fence. He's got a beautiful swing. He has to trust it. But stop playing golf. [music] You got to get on top of the baseball. Mr. Austin Walls also has improved tremendously defensively. Again, I I know you guys want Ken Griffy and center field and everyone in between. You can't cuz you need a budget. So, I'm going to go with defense [music] speed, but love of the game and passion. People that just love being in the ballpark. [music] So, this guy is a guy that's a winning player and he's a great asset for a winning [music] team that's trying to win a championship. Not so great of a player if you have an average or pedestrian team, but for a team like this, this young man is a great asset with a Dominican stallion, Rammon Lauraniano. Great [music] great winning player, center fielder. So, um hitting ninth uh in shortstop. I love switch hitters. [music] This guy's a Stanford grad, NLCS uh MVP [music] and uh a very good defender and a winning player, Mr. Tommy Edmund. This entire lineup is balanced. [music] It has speed. It has lefties. It has righties. It's got clutch hitters. It's got champions. It's got former MVPs. It has great role players. [music] and all of this. Okay, this is my shortstop under 140 million bucks. [music] That's the key. Now, if you gave me 200, I can do much better, but I actually think you don't need any more than this. And then you stack up the rest of your $160 million [music] into pitching and bullpen. Great balance. And again, everything's based around the queen of the chessboard, Mr. Aaron Judge. He's 34. You have about another three or four years in his window. [music] And you got to capitalize now. And you capitalize by putting great pieces around him that complement him. This type of lineup will make Aaron Judge probably drive in close to 200 200 [music] runs. Okay. Now, you saw the numbers when he had Janu. He drove in like almost 150. [music] When he didn't have Han Sodto, he kind of came back to like more reality for the RBI's. So, there's a championship lineup for $140 million. Whether you're college, high school, or little league coach, the same principles apply. You still don't want a bunch of guys to strike out a bunch. You want to value batting average and contact. You want guys that want to play every day. Passion, uh, RBI's over home runs, speed and athleticism. [music] And you want to have a complimentary set of skills here. So, meaning lefty, righty, lefty, righty is always ideal. But again, you can't have nine Aaron judges that are all trying to go for the home runs. [music] You need guys that are getting on base, advancing runners, guys can bunt, hit and run. What you want is you want first and third every time that Aaron Judge comes to the plate. You want traffic in front of him and you want protection behind him and Ben Rice. Why is Ben Rice such a good protector for Aaron Judge? Well, there's several reasons. Number one, Aaron Judge is righty. Ben is lefty. Makes great contact. [music] Integrity with his bats. With a man on third, is this guy going to get him in? The answer is yes. Okay. He doesn't chase and he makes great great contact. Notice I have him at DH and not first base because at first base I want a premium premium defender. And I see a lot of little league and high school and college coach coaches [music] do this. They'll put their worst defender at first base. That's a mistake. Look at all the championship teams. They usually have a [music] really, really good defensive first baseman. All right. Now, there's the most incredible stat. One of the things that drives me crazy [music] is that front officers today celebrate guys striking out. Well, striking out [music] a lot does not equal a world championship. Get this. Over the last 30 World Series champions, [music] you've only had four teams that have had two guys strike out more than 140 [music] times. Only two guys. Okay? You have teams today that have three, four, five guys strike out over 140 times. Of course, you're not going to win a title. You never make contact. Now, if you're doing that against pedestrian pitching during the season, if you strike out 150 times, what do you think that's going to be in October when you have elite pitching, Pedro Martinez, Kurt Schilling, Andy Pettit, that 140 will jump to 200 times. Okay? Cuz you're only facing the very best. So, in short, contact, batting average, run the bases, play with passion, have integrity, get that guy [music] in from third, advance runners, hit behind runners. Those are all the things. and then [music] put the bat on Mr. Aaron Judges. Put all the pressure on him. And that's [music] what these three guys will do. And then you have Ben Rice to protect them. Again, this is just my humble opinion. After playing for over 20 years in the major leagues, being around championship teams, [music] understanding playing against a lot of championship teams, understanding what made the 1998 Yankees so good, what made the 2004 Red Sox so good, our own team in '09 so good. Think in 09 we had like five or six guys that hit over 300, a bunch of guys that hit 30 home runs, but everyone played their own position every day. Do your job in [music] your position. Simplicity is what you need to win championships. And this also applies for college, high school, uh, little league. Tell me in your comments if you agree, disagree, if you want to debate. Let's get into it. All friendly and all respectful. Don't get too upset if I left your guy out. >> [music]

What’s up guys, Alex Rodriguez here 👋 First off thank you to Flourish Protein Pancakes for supporting this episode. Got you guys a free bag at Target https://try.gotoaisle.com/flourish-pancakes-try In this episode of A-Rod Academy, we’re doing something a little different. Instead of breaking down swing mechanics or drills, I’m walking you through how to build a championship-caliber MLB team with only a $140 million payroll. A lot of young players, coaches, and even fans think you need a roster full of All-Stars to win championships. The truth is, great teams are built through smart roster construction, balanced lineups, and strong fundamentals. In this video I break down: ⚾ How to build a competitive MLB roster on a budget ⚾ The importance of lineup balance (power, contact, speed) ⚾ Why role players are critical for championship teams ⚾ How managers structure a batting order to maximize runs Whether you're a Little League coach or an MLB general manager, understanding how great teams are constructed will help you see the game at a whole new level. It’s not always about the best stats; it’s about the right players in the right places. Subscribe for more episodes of A-Rod Academy and drop a comment about what you want to see next.