Monday, June 23, 2008

JD and Other Thoughts

I am the biggest critic of JD Drew, during the offseason I referred to him as the $14 million grand slam. So I think it's fair I give him some praise. Since David Ortiz has gone down Drew has filled his spot beautifully in the line-up. Hitting homeruns, driving in runs, and just being a guy you can count on day in and day out. His defense has been solid, and the throw it the plate yesterday was perfect, one hop up the first base line. If he throws it three feet to Varitek's left, V-Tek is concussed and out for 6 weeks. That is exactly what the Red Sox don't need right now. So well done JD Drew and keeping playing like you are playing and earn that paycheck.

Craig Hansen pitched well yesterday in a tight spot. With a hard fastball with movement and a sick slider he has potential to be a solid bullpen guy. With Hansen, Oki, and Papelbon the Red Sox could potentially shorten every game to about 6 innings.

Yankee fans have you heard? Mike and the Maddog are splitting up. This is bigger than Billy and Christie spliting up. The big question, who stays on WFAN?

4 comments:

Peter said...

JD has done well at the moment, but I have yet to believe this is going to be the Drew we're going to see for the rest of this season. He has always had the talent to be this kind of player he just never had the head to exploit his talent to the fullest extent.

As for Mike and the Mad Dog, I can't say that I'll be that upset if they go off the air. They just don't bring anything intelligent to the table anymore.

Dennis said...

He has a career OPS of .900, he is and always has been this kind of player.

The reason people don't like him is because he treats baseball as a job rather than a passion. Part of that is not risking his assets (his body) by playing injured. So he plays in 125 games a season instead of 140.

Dan said...

You have to admit though, Dennis, that he performed under expectations last season. Now that he's become more acclimated to the AL and Boston, he is playing better. If he ends up at .285/25/95 then you have an average year for him and that's ok. The Sox did over pay for that kind of production, however.

Dennis said...

Well, last summer his 17 month old (at the time) son fell and broke his collarbone, and was discovered to have a hip development problem that required 7 hours of surgery and a full body cast.

Now I am not a father, but I have to imagine that would throw most people off their game.