Hey, don't be bashing on Drew. I saw him make a face and say "Gah!" after he swung and missed at strike three his first time up. So um... Stuff it!


...Oh! The "50 First Dates" song! They play that song at the end of the movie. And maybe at the beginning. Maybe in between, too.
 

Totally agree about Drew. I only caught the first two-and-a-half innings last night, but after the first inning and a half, I didn't like what was happening:

- Drew not getting Pedroia home in the first inning.

- Dice-K chucking the balls in the dirt. Dice-K getting ahead 0-2 against a couple of hitters, and then running the count up (walked Kubel in 1st after getting ahead 0-2; Nick Punto down 0-2 in 2nd, goes to 3-2, then pop fly to short.)

- The fact that for the second game in a row, the Sox ran the Twins' pitcher's pitch count way up in the first inning but couldn't score early and then couldn't do anything with the guy later.

- Three on, one out in the third, and we get one lousy run. I shouldn't second guess Youk and Bay, but they were swinging away early in the count after Slowey had walked Drew to load the bases.

Chimp is indeed the right word, sir.
 

Yeah it appears that song was in a lot of things, but all things I didn't see. I'm a Sandler fan, and would have seen 50 First Dates--until I heard they showed the Aaron Boone HR in it. (Also, it seemed like a rip off of that cheesy Dana Carvey movie "Clean Slate," if not Groundhog Day.)

Yeah, Dice did not waste a pitch on 0-2 that one time, and maybe others, and got beat because of it.
 

Drew just isn't demonstrative. Not everyone has to be Youk - whose attitude (and everything else) I love to death btw - and Drew takes SO much crap just for being a quiet guy. And you know, there are worse things to be than steady and cool-as-a-cucumber.
 

Yeah that tiny scene where they showed the Aaron Boone home run was cruel. It was in a recap video because she broke her head and has no short term memory. Says, "Here are some things you missed last year." One of them being "The Red Sox win the World Series!" Then they show Boone's home run and the caption read, "Just kidding."
 

We got the best of those fuckers the next year.

fc: Yeah, I mean, we heard about it and were talking about it before he even came here--I'm just giving the update, that I've given it a long time, and it still just pisses me off, but it very much has to do with the fact that he's not nearly as good as he should be, or what we're paying him. If he's gonna be so shitty all the time, maybe he should try harder. He pisses me off endlessly.
 

Like he's in a vacuum. There are at bats where all we need is a mere fly ball for a run and it's as if he's completely unaware. Or times when you absolutely need the batter to swing away and he watches strike three.Interestingly, that's what Boston sportwriters used to say about Ted Williams back in the 40's and 50's. Not that I'm comparing Drew to Teddy Ballgame as a hitter, but there is something of a similar approach to his ABs.

I said it before: there's nothing wrong with JD Drew's production; he's got a career OPS of .892, or 28% better than the leagues he's played in. This year he's off a bit, but still putting a very solid .850. He had a poor 2007 regular season while preoccupied with the health of his young son, but then came up huge in the ALCS and World Series and contributed significantly to the Sox' championship. He then followed that up with an excellent season last year. He's certainly earned his money, and has justified Theo's pursuit of him. He's definitely far down on the list of issues with the team this year.

On one level, I understand why you get frustrated when he takes close pitches on 3-2 counts; I sometimes get frustrated too. But he's got an excellent batting eye; I don't buy that he doesn't understand situational hitting. Frankly, I get far more frustrated watching Dice-K nibble around the plate and go to 3-2 counts on every batter than I ever do with Drew.

Drew's never gonna be a warm, friendly fan favorite or have tons of kids wearing his t-shirt, but I've come to really respect his Zen approach to the game. Two things about him from this year that capture it perfectly:
1. the recent piece on each player's intro music that noted Drew's choice: "None by request". How refreshing is it, given all the other noise pollution during games these days, to have at least one player spare us from his poor taste in pop music?
2. When Jacoby stole home, absolutely everybody in the park was going crazy with excitement with the exception of the stunned Yankees, and JD standing at the plate showing absolutely no emotion. He then calmly ripped a double down the line. I'm sure that one drove you up the wall, but when I noticed his blank expression on the replay it had me laughing hysterically.

The more I think about it, the more he seems like the James Coburn character in The Magnificent Seven. Now that's Old School Bad Ass.
 

It just seems like for what they paid, he should be more than a 20/83 guy, which is his 162-game avg with the Sox. And that's made worse by the fact that he doesn't play 162 because of some injury that would be called fake if he were Manny.
 

You know how many RBI A-Rod had in 2007? 156. How many has Drew had since he joined the Red Sox (2007, 2008, 2009 added together)? 149. And it's not like guys weren't on base!

Granted, A-Rod could've been on roids, but still, Drew shouldn't be that far behind him.

Actually I would like to know Drew's stat, the one that shows percentage of runners knocked in or whatever.
 

Not sure why you're so focused on RBI's, which are very much dependent on a guy's teammates and position in the lineup. And ARod is one of the best players in baseball, and makes double Drew's salary. But, for what it's worth, Drew had an excellent .979 OPS with runners in scoring position last year. This year his OPS with RISP is only .699, but in only 50 ABs.

Anyway, it's not like I'm even a Drew fan or anything; the hardball tactics that he and Boras used on the Phillies all those years ago were pretty obnoxious (of course, Tek and Boras did the same thing, but I digress). I just think all the bashing he's gotten starting with when the Sox were first showing interest in signing him has been over the top and unfair. The dude's a baseball mercenary with no personality, but he plays a solid RF and hits. Have bat, will travel. The Sox are better off for having signed him two years ago, given the alternatives.
 

I vote Markakis!

The guys in front of him have been Papi, Manny, Youk, etc, he should get 100 ribbies without even trying. And I thought he was a power hitter. And if he was, we could call him JD Power and Associates.
 

Pretty sure (as in 100% sure) that Nick Markakis was controlled by the O's in '07 and not an option for the Sox. Today he's still only 25 and presumably a couple more years from free-agency. I thought at the time you were saying they should have re-signed Trot?

That would be a cool nickname, but I bet he would request that we refrain from giving him one.
 

Right, another year of Trot, and then Nicky Babeeeee, it woulda been perfect, and much cheaper.
 

At-bat music is important. I enjoy judging players based on their music choices. A-Rod's was once "This is Why I'm Hot". There you have it.
 

Well, it would have meant much worse production in RF in '07, since bad as Drew was that year, Trot was much worse in 41 fewer games, and probably no championship that year. And while they would have saved the $'s on Drew's salary, they would have had to spend a lot more to rebuild the farm system, since it would have taken most of our Top Ten prospects to get the O's to trade Markakis to us in '08. Bye-bye Buchholz, Bard, Bowden, Lars Anderson etc. I do like the idea of pursuing Markakis in free-agency in a couple of years though to replace Drew.
 

Whoops, scratch that...Markasis signed an extension with the Birds this past January through 2014 w/a 2015 option. So that means that to get him to Boston before then would still require giving away the farm system. Oh well.