Come on Boston, it’s fun to despise J.D. Drew. So what are you waiting for?

As L.A. Times baseball writer Steve Henson points out, Drew has been a bust so far this season, but the fans are treating him with kid gloves.

From the L.A. Times:

Boston fans and the media have been gentle on Drew so far, undoubtedly because the team is doing so well everyone is accentuating the positive. If the Red Sox go on a slide and a search for scapegoats begins, Drew will be an obvious target.

Why wait? Heckling J.D. is one of life’s great joys. It’s not like Drew hasn’t sucked hard enough. He hasn’t even played as well as the Luis Gonzalez, the aging stiff the Dodgers brought in to replace him. And Drew costs a lot more than Gonzo. Drew is making $14.4 million this season, the first of a five-year, $70-million deal. Gonzalez is costing the Dodgers $7.35 million.

Gonzalez: In 50 games, 50 hits in 172 at-bats, with eight doubles, six homers, 20 RBIs and 27 runs. He’s batting .291, with a .381 on-base percentage and .453 slugging percentage.

Drew: In 46 games, 35 hits in 155 at-bats, with six doubles, two homers, 17 RBIs and 28 runs. He’s batting .226 with a .346 on-base percentage and .316 slugging percentage.

Jason Stark points out that, it’s easy to hate on Drew, because he manages to fail despite being so undeniably talented.

From ESPN.com:

Nobody denies that Drew has massive talent oozing out of his eyebrows. You can tell because he entered this season as one of only 13 active players with a career slugging percentage over .500 and an on-base percentage over .390.

But now the bad news: Those other dozen players have made a combined 70 All-Star teams (and all have made at least two apiece). And Drew has made, well, zero.

First of all, Jayson, “talent oozing out of his eyebrows”? Really? Did you spend all night coming up with that line?

Stark’s prose deficiencies aside, there’s no ignoring Drew’s consistent inability to  separate himself from the pack. He’s been getting paid tens of millions of dollars from day one, based on his talent. But the return on those investments has always been lacking.

In Philadelphia, we dislike J.D. so much we throw stuff at him. As far as I can tell, they don’t do giveaways in Beantown. I’m fairly certain my Boston friends would tell me that’s because they have a historic stadium and a first place team and don’t need to lure fans to games with cheap crap. Be that as it may, that still creates a dillemma: what’s a Drew-hater to throw?  You can’t throw a cup of beer. Those things cost like $20 and one shouldn’t waste beer. You don’t want to injure him, so  coins and dangerously sharp Fenway Franks are out.

I suggest bringing balloons to the game and filling them up with water in the restroom. You can smuggle the balloons in your socks, no problem. And there’s really nothing funnier than an underachieving, oxygen tent dwelling, contract voider getting hit by a water balloon.

Yesterday, Theo Epstein said the Red Sox were “doing everything possible under the sun to get a deal done” with Japanese star pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. 

Now this stunning announcement from the New York Times:

BOSTON (AP) — Boston Mayor Thomas Menino proposed selling City Hall and its brick plaza to private developers Tuesday in a move he said would ”galvanize the vitality of our downtown.”

Is there any question that the mayor plans to sell City Hall and use the profits to help pay for Matsuzaka’s contract? I know that sounds crazy, but in a city like Boston, trading city hall for a pitcher is the kind of thing that could get a guy re-elected.

Thank god that in these topsy-turvy times, when real journalism has been replaced by infotainment and more Americans are getting their news from the O’Reilly Factor and The Spin Zone than from the newspaper, we have the Boston media to give us straighforward, unbiased critiques. 

This week, Boston Herald columnist Tony Massaroti is taking MLB to task for awarding Derek Jeter a gold glove award. Massaroti points out that he is a HUGE Jeter fan (he freakin’ loves that guy), but then proceeds to argue that Jeter was in no way the best shortstop in the AL this season. Who was, according to Masseroti? Sox shortstop Alex Gonzalez, of course.

Don’t misunderstand. In many corners - including this one - Jeter is the best player in all of baseball, because there is not a single aspect of the game in which he is rated anything less than above-average. But when coaches and managers fail to recognize that Jeter is an inferior defensive player to someone such as Gonzalez, it reeks of politics and/or awarding honors based on reputation rather than the cold, hard facts, which in this case clearly pointed to the shortstop of the Red Sox.

Okay, fair enough. Hard to argue with facts. Facts, after all, are facts. But does Masseroti offer any facts to support his argument that Gonzalez was a better fielder in 2006 than Jeter? Noooo. That would be just a little too much to ask.

Instead, Massaroti suggests “Gonzalez might have been hurt some by the fact that he played in only 111 games.” Hey, wait, “THE FACT that he played in only 111 games” – that’s a fact! And you know what? That’s generally how it works. You miss 1/3 of the season and you risk missing out on awards. Sorry Alex.

Massaroti goes on to call people who praise Jeter’s defense “ridiculous.”

Jeter’s defense has been rather consistent over the past six seasons, during which he has committed no fewer than 13 errors and no more than 15. But the fact that he has won the last three suggests a drop at the position more than it does an improvement in his play.

Holy crap, was that another fact? 14 errors per season? That’s pretty good, right? Not Ripken-esque, but not bad…right?

Claiming that there has been a “drop at the position” seems irrelevant. That Jeter’s competition for the gold glove wasn’t as stiff this season as it was three years ago, when he went up against younger Nomar, A-Rod and Vizquel, doesn’t really matter, does it? So Jeter isn’t the best ever. He was the best in 2006. And that’s what we’re talking about, right?

Boston needs to get over their Jeter-complex. Because if they’re gonna get their panties in wad over this, they’re really gonna be pissed when he wins the MVP.