Baseball: Red Sox sign D.L. Drew

The Red Sox signed JD Drew to a 5 year 70 million dollar deal - worthy of a superstar.

Where do I begin?

I hate this deal.

You cannot point out one year in JD Drew's career where he played like a 14 million dollar a year player. He's never - not once - been an All Star. He's never led the league in anything - not home runs, not runs, not rbi, not hitting, not walks, not OBP, and not OPS. He has no gold gloves.

He's consistently injured, averaging 118 games played in his eight full seasons. His top 3 home run seasons are 31, 27, and 20. Only once has he hit 100 RBI, and that was exactly 100. Only once has he scored more than 84 runs. Only twice has he hit more than 19 doubles. His last two seasons have seen him steal a combined three bases. His OBP, Slugging percentage, and thusly OPS have declined for three straight seasons.

And he's 31 years old and getting older. This means injuries will become more frequent. Moreover, at the age of 31, he's past the typical "breakout years" of the late 20's. It's highly improbable that he will break out without the use of illegal substances.

The Red Sox signed JD Drew to a 5 year 70 million dollar deal - worthy of a superstar. And he's not even a star.

I have more to say. Please give me your thoughts. Also, Julio Lugo for 9 million a year? What is going on? Did Steinbrenner buy us?


I spent the latter part of last night alternating between dry-heaving and trying to rationalize the J.D. Drew signing, and I think I've succeeded:

If you factor out the money the Red Sox paid, and the fact that they signed an injury-prone 31 year old with two years left of his "prime" to a five year contract, I like this signing. Drew has a .393 career OBP and plays plus defense. Coming up, he was hailed as the next Mickey Mantle. The man broke a ridiculous amount of collegiate records at Florida State. In his first month of major league duty he hit .417 with five homeruns. Sure he never played in more than 140 games in a season until 2004 due to a litany of injuries. And yes he was involved in that cash-grabbing contract dispute after being drafted by the Phillies in 1997. And, okay, he is represented by Scott Boras, an agent affectionately known as "The Baseball Antichrist." But why dwell on these minor issues? The man was hailed as the NEXT MICKEY MANTLE. He hit five homeruns in his first month in the major leagues! I'm sick of all these naysayers picking and choosing the stats that suit their argument.

Okay back to reality. The money matters (despite the fact that the Red Sox are spending it like it doesn't) but what matters more is the potential effect this signing has on the roster. Best case scenario he plays 145+ games a year and plays at or just below the value of the contract. And by value I am ignoring the ridiculous money that guys like Gary Matthews and Juan Pierre received earlier this year. Is J.D. Drew worth $25 million more than Juan Pierre? Sure. But that only makes him worth $25 million. Worst case scenario we have five years of a brittle right fielder on the wrong side of thirty patroling a physically demanding right field in Fenway Park. Don't try and tell me that Trot Nixon wouldn't have stayed healthier if he played right field for the Yankees or the Cubs. The money isn't the principle issue here, as proven by the $51.111... million bid just to speak to Matsuzaka. The issue here is having to deal with a potentially inconsistent headache who could turn into Shawn Green in a few years and has a reputation among fans, true or not, as a cash-grabbing primadonna.

Positive spin: Manny, if he stays, finally has the protection in that lineup he lost when Nomar was traded and Ortiz started hitting in front of him. We could see 100 homeruns between the two. After all, they hit 92 in 2005 with Kevin Millar getting the bulk of the at bats in the 5-hole.

And onto Julio Lugo, which I am actually even more upset about. Theo Epstein: if you're reading this, sign up for Netflix. Go ahead, its a great deal. For less than twenty bucks you can rent any three movies in their database at a time for as long as you want with unlimited rentals per month. And you even get a free two week trial period. Do it now, I'll wait. Finished? Okay, run a search for "Edgar Renteria." The 2-disc widescreen version. It could be under Comedy or Drama. Wait a day for it to arrive. Watch the movie. Now seal the return envelope they sent you and send it back. What did you learn? OBVIOUSLY YOU LEARNED NOTHING.

Now wait a year, watch Lugo commit 25 errors, and trade him and $10 million dollars to another team for a blue chip corner infield prospect. You still with me? Good. Then find a team flooded in young outfielders that has a 26 year old true leftfielder with a career .745 OPS named Frankenberry Jones they're trying to unload and send that blue chip prospect and a half decent reliever over for him. Force Frankenberry Jones to play centerfield and watch him struggle. Lather, rinse, repeat. Make sure to film the entire thing and sell it to Miramax as "Edgar Renteria 2: The Rise of Lugo."

I'd get into Matsuzaka but that was emotionally taxing and I think I have a stomach ulcer.


Yes, we can talk ourselves into JD Drew. Red Sox fans could talk themselves into just about anything. You talked yourself into Matt Clement ("He has good stuff"). I talked myself into Josh Beckett ("He was so good in the Series!") Between us, we could talk ourselves into Johnny Pesky making a comeback ("He made such great contact, you don't need youth for that!")

But ultimately, I refuse to believe there was another team offering similar money. I refuse to believe this signing couldn't get done at 4 years 52 million. Who would have given him more money?

Why have the Red Sox turned into a team that doesn't care about money? Why couldn't Johnny Damon be signed two seasons ago? He didn't need that kind of money. And he was a centerfielder, a table setter, great in the clubhouse, and played through numerous injuries. He worked his ass off for this team. Will Nancy Drew do the same? I'm not sure.

And when I'm not sure when considering a purchase, I tend not to spend 70 million dollars on it.

As for Lugo, you were spot on. We've been down this road before. Boston got rid of Cabrera to spend more money on Renteria, when Cabrera was more than adequate. Now Gonzalez has a perfectly adequate year, including the best defense Fenway has seen at that position in my lifetime. Shortstop was not a hole on this team. Relief pitching is, and they don't even have a closer nor a reliable set up man besides Timlin, and soon we won't be able to call the aging Timlin a reliable anything. Yet the Sox spend three times as much money on Lugo than they would have on A-Gon. I can't explain it.

So if the Sox want to throw risky money around, why not bring in Gagne?


If the Red Sox do end up signing Gagne, and I think they will, it might turn out to be the best valued signing of the offseason for them. Yes, Gagne is an injury risk, having only pitched 15 innings in the last two years, and yes, he's asking for at least $5 million, but the potential payoff is phenomenal. He'll be thirty in January and in his three full seasons as a closer he did not post an ERA higher than 2.19. In 2003 he won the NL Cy Young Award and was the first reliever to do it since Dennis Eckersley's MVP season in 1992. And with more innings pitched, saves, strikeouts, and a better park-adjusted ERA+ it can be argued that Gagne's 2003 season was the best ever by a reliever, including that guy in the Bronx.

If Gagne is healthy, a big if I will admit, he can and will dominate. The luxury of taking this sort of risk on a relief pitcher is that if he is not healthy, or if he underperforms, the Red Sox can bury him in their bullpen eating 5th and 6th innings. If J.D. Drew, your starting rightfielder, hits .250 with four homeruns through July, there's nowhere to stash him. And you get all this for less than than the Yankees are paying Kyle Farnsworth. Sign me up.

P.S. Good article by Seth Mnookin regarding the idiocy of general managers.