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No matter your opinion on Alex Rodriguezs statistical merits, theres no questioning his place as one of the greatest players in the history of fantasy baseball.Rotisserie Baseball was invented in 1980, with four hitting categories (batting average, home runs, RBIs and stolen bases), and since then, A-Rod -- a nickname fantasy owners helped popularize -- has filled them like few other players could. His totals and rankings in each, compared to all players in that 37-year span:Batting average (minimum 3,000 PAs): .295, 64th Home runs: 696, second to only Barry Bonds (762) RBIs: 2,084, first Stolen bases: 329, 41stA-Rod is one of only three players with at least a .290 batting average, 500 home runs and 250 steals in that time. The others are Bonds and Gary Sheffield.By A-Rods major league debut on July 8, 1994, many Rotisserie baseball leagues had adopted a fifth hitting category, runs scored, in which he has a whopping 2,021. That puts him third in the era, behind Rickey Henderson (2,246) and Bonds (2,227). Whittling that player pool to infielders, Rodriguez ranks 41st, first, first, 13th and first in those five categories during the Rotisserie era.Most importantly, however, A-Rod will be remembered for his year-after-year dominance, his status as a consensus No. 1 pick for the better part of a decade and his consistency in terms of annual fantasy impact. In short, he was to the late 1990s and early 2000s what Mike Trout is to todays game, what Barry Bonds was to the early 1990s and what Rickey Henderson was at Rotisseries dawn.Twice since 2001 -- the 15-year span for which we have data available -- A-Rod topped the ESPN Fantasy Player Rater. That was in 2005 and 2007, not coincidentally the two years he won Most Valuable Player awards while with the New York Yankees (he had another in 2003 as a member of the Texas Rangers). From 2001 to 08, he finished among the top 22 players overall and top 16 hitters, and from 2001-05 as well as in 2007, he was the No. 1 player at his position (shortstop from 2001-03, third base in 2005 and dual-eligible in 2004, as previous year position eligibility carries over).That excludes A-Rods lone 40/40 season, 1998, the only 40/40 campaign by a shortstop in the games history. Using my player valuation system, which closely mimics our Player Rater, Rodriguez was the fourth-most valuable player in fantasy baseball in 1998, behind only Greg Maddux, Sammy Sosa and Kevin Brown.Using this same system, A-Rod finished among the five most valuable players in fantasy baseball five times: 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2007. He finished among the 10 most valuable players another three times: 2000, 2002 and 2003. He finished among the 25 most valuable in three others, in 2004, 2006 and 2008, and among the top 50 twice, in 1997 and 1999.From 1996-2010, the 15 most productive seasons of A-Rods career, he produced a total of $458.57 in auction-based fantasy baseball earnings, or an average of $30.57 per year. To put that into perspective, $30 is traditionally regarded as elite in a 12-team standard mixed format, and Rodriguez reached that plateau in eight of those 15 campaigns. Further, he never earned less than $17.70 in a season (2009).Bear in mind that neither the Player Rater nor my system?includes positional-scarcity weighting, which makes A-Rods accomplishments all the more extraordinary. As a shortstop-eligible player for the first nine draft-relevant seasons of his career (1996-2004) and a third baseman until he shifted to DH only in 2016, he was considered the player to get because of the advantage he provided compared to other shortstops.Per Baseball-Reference.com, A-Rods 344 home runs as a shortstop were only one shy of Cal Ripkens 345 for the positional lead in the Rotisserie era. A-Rods .308 batting average as a shortstop was fourth best (minimum 3,000 plate appearances), his 985 RBIs fourth best, his 177 stolen bases 24th best and his 1,003 runs 14th best. He did that in only 1,264 games played at the position during that time, 44th most and more than 1,000 fewer than Ripken. Among third basemen, A-Rod ranked ninth in batting average (.293), 11th in home runs (287), 21st in RBIs (907), 11th in stolen bases (136) and 20th in runs scored (850).Thats why its no surprise that from 2001 to 2010, Rodriguez was the No. 1 pick in fantasy (using average draft position data) on five occasions (2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008) and a top-three overall pick in every year except 2009, when his recovery from hip surgery that March caused his ADP to dip to 31st -- still third among third basemen.Rodriguez was fantasys top superstar around the turn of the century. Regardless of how you feel about the influence of PEDs on his statistics, as a numbers-based game, fantasy baseball is one place where Alex Rodriguez would be a guaranteed first-ballot Hall of Famer. Adidas Stan Smith Online Sale . The 18-year-old American had five birdies in her bogey-free round for a 17-under total of 196. Lee held the overnight lead but mixed three birdies with two bogeys for a 70. 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AUSTIN, Texas -- Tulane baseball coach David Pierce, who led the Green Wave to the American Athletic Conference regular-season title this past season, was announced Wednesday as the new coach at Texas.Pierce replaces Augie Garrido, the winningest coach in college baseball history, who was forced out after 20 years after the Longhorns had a losing season and missed the NCAA postseason for the third time in five years.Texas athletic director Mike Perrin searched for Garridos replacement for a month before putting the traditional powerhouse program in the hands of Pierce, who has deep ties to the state of Texas but just five years experience as a head coach.As a kid growing up in Texas, I dreamed of being a Longhorn and wearing the burnt orange, Pierce said. Today that dream is coming true ... Texas is second to no one, Pierce said in a statement released by Texas.Terms of Pierces contract were not immediately released.Pierce, 53, is just the third coach at Texas since 1968. Garrido won national titles with the Longhorns in 2002 and 2005 and had six 50-win seasons between 2002 and 2010.Texas reccent slide -- and first losing season in 20 years -- pushed Garrido into a special assistants role within the athletic department.dddddddddddd He had one year left on a contract worth more than $1 million per year.While Garrido racked up 1,975 victories dating back to 1969 with five national titles overall, Pierce has an overall record of 197-109. He was the head coach at Sam Houston State for three seasons before spending the last two seasons at Tulane. He also was a longtime assistant at Rice.Pierce has led his teams to the NCAA postseason in every year as a head coach but has not yet advanced to a super regional.David has deep roots in Texas and has strong recruiting connections throughout our state and surrounding states. But beyond that, he is a great man who has a passion for leading and developing young men in all aspects of life, Perrin said. In talking to David and visiting with others in the college baseball world, it was clear that he is highly respected. ' ' '