I find it quite ironic that JD is replacing Trot. See, as I've said before my initial following of the Red Sox had a lot to do with Trot's presence on the team. In a lesser fashion I made the Cardinals my "NL team" because of JD Drew. And while my idolization of Trot made some sense, I can't say the same for JD. I don't know where he's from, what his life outside baseball is like, nothing. I guess it's just because he's a white right fielder who wears number 7, like Trot. And, for what it's worth, Trot is JD's "Most Similar Batter" on his baseball-reference.com page. Anyway, though I'm generally in favor of JD manning Fenway's right field next season, there's plenty of arguments against the signing. I'm here to address all that I can think of.But he's always hurt!
True. This is undoubtedly the strongest argument against JD. Yes, he does have a long history of injuries. The best counter to this is to say he's actually suffered only one major injury in the past three years: a fractured left wrist when he was hit by a fastball in 2005, and it's hard to hold that type of injury against him. Other than that, he's been pretty healthy, logging 145 games in '04 and 146 in '06.
But $70 million? He ain't worth $14 mill a year!
Last year, I would have agreed with you. But let's face it folks, the market has significantly changed since then. Juan Pierre is getting $9 mill per. Gary Matthews Jr. $10 mill. Adam Eaton $8 mill. These are not very good players. So, I'd say 13 or 14 mill per is about what you should expect for Drew. I would have preferred to sign him for less, but in today's market that really wasn't possible.
But why you breakin' the bank on JD when ya didn't give Johnny D what he wanted?
I swear, if I hear one more Sawks fan complain about Theo not signing Damon I will personally remove their spine. Just shut up. Theo was giving Damon what he wanted, but every time he just went to Steinbrenner and came back with higher offer for Theo to match. Theo got tired of playing that game and I can't blame him. Plus, JD is a much better hitter than Damon (career OPS's of .905 and .789) and, as I've said, last year's market was much different.
But he's an a-hole!
There's this perception around JD that he's an underachiever, or a jerk, or clubhouse cancer, etc. Apparently a lot of it comes from when LaRussa ripped him in "Three Nights in August." Having never read the book, I will have to defer to Phantom (who has) on that one. I will say that I loathe fans who criticize players because they don't "show emotion" and therefore "don't care." What different does it make whether a player breaks his bat after he strikes out or knocks down the Gatorade cooler when his team loses? If someone did this in another work setting, wouldn't we say they have anger management issues? And yet it's what we expect from our athletes. I just don't get it. Similarly, I could care less if Manny or JD or whoever doesn't run full speed to first on a ground ball. You hit like they hit, and you can play as "uncaring" as you wish as far as I'm concerned.
Wow, where was I?
You know all this Matsuzaka and Drew stuff makes the Red Sox just as bad as the Yankees, don't you?
No, no it doesn't. The Yankees regularly spend about $80 million more per year than Boston. That's the same difference as between Boston and Colorado, who had the third smallest payroll in 2006. Believe me, Boston has a long way to go before they're on par with New York. If you want to call them the biggest spenders of "normal" clubs, fine (cuz they are). But New York is still in a whole different stratosphere from the rest of baseball.
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I suppose I should address the Lugo signing while I'm at it. I'm OK with it since Lugo was the best shortstop on the market, but I have issues with him as a person. Back in 2003, he was arrested for hitting his wife and slamming her head on a car hood. I don't like being put in the position of rooting for a wife beater, so watching his at-bats in the upcoming season will be an interesting experience. I'm not really sure how I'll react.
In happier news, Jon Lester's cancer is in remission.
1 comment:
Drew: He isn't so much a bad guy, but I'm afraid the perceptions of him being laid-back and not caring are mostly true. Perhaps he's improved on those recently, but I wouldn't count on him to tough out a minor injury or lead the clubhouse.
He is a Christian from what I've heard though. And when healthy he's a solid player.
And I think I'd rather pay Pierre 9 mil than Drew 14 mil. And we'd better tack on another 5 years to Albert's contract at like 16 or 17 mil while we've got the chance.
Are the Red Sox acting like the Yankees? Yes. The gap between them and the average salary grows by the year, you can't deny that. Are they as bad as the Yankees? Certainly not. Being a small-market guy, I'd rather they try to fix the over-spending problem instead of making it worse, but I guess if you have to compete with Satan you gotta get a little dirty. Although the 2 teams in the World Series this year were in the middle of the pack, so hopefully teams will realize that the era of buying a WS (around 2000) is somewhat over.
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