1. Finally a World Series that I actually want to watch

So it’s Rockies vs. Red Sox. It’s nice to have the first truly compelling World Series matchup in, well, in a long, long time. I mean, does it get any better? It’s the best squad money and human ingenuity can devise, versus God’s own team.

For so many years now, the World Series has seen an seemingly unstoppable AL juggernaut take on some random, mediocre NL team which happened to rise to the top of an inferior league. Oh sure, once in a while the NL team gets a few breaks and manages to win the World Series, but we all understand this to have been just luck, and there is never really much doubt which team was actually the better squad.

Certainly, there have been a few compelling finishes, especially the 2001 matchup between the Yankees and the Diamondbacks when Luis Gonzalez managed to beat superpowered playoff ninja Mariano Rivera with a walkoff, jam-shot, bloop single in the bottom of the ninth inning of game seven. But as Derek Jeter said later, if the Yankees and the D-Backs replayed that inning 100 times, the Yankees would have won 99 of them.

The problem is that the National League has just been so weak for so many years. Even when an NL champ like the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals has won a major-league best 105 games, you knew in the back of your mind that they did it playing against the weakest division in baseball, and that the Red Sox had proven that they were actually the best team in baseball by winning 98 games in the AL East and beating the Yankees.

But now, for the first time in recent, or even not-so-recent, memory, we have a World Series matchup where we are not really sure who has the better chance to win. Sure, on paper the Red Sox seem to have better players, but the Rockies have some serious mojo going with their current streak. I don’t care what anyone says, if you win 21 out of 22 games, and those games were all baseball games, you are one of the best teams ever.

And this most recent streak actually has the effect of blinding us to just how good this team really is. After a lousy 10-16 April, the Rockies had the best record in the National League the rest of the way. They led the national league in virtually all hitting categories. The tallied the highest team fielding percentage in the history of baseball. And maybe most impressive of all, despite pitching half their games at Coors field, they posted the best ERA in the National League since the All-Star break.

Not to mention that the Rockies crushed the Red Sox in a head-to-head showdown at Fenway back in June, outscoring them 20-5 in a three-game series.

But the Red Sox have some mojo of their own, having just come back from a 3-1 deficit in dominating fashion (7-1, 12-2, and 11-2), and en route battering two of the best pitchers in the American League - C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona - to the tune of 23 runs in 16 1/3 innings pitched. Not to mention that the Sox have two of the greatest hitters in the history of playoffs in David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, whether you chose to go by stats or just by watching with your own two eyes.

It’s sure going to be fun watching those two hit in Coors Field. And it’s going to be a blast finding out what miracles God is going to pull out of his sleeve next on behalf of His Chosen Men In Purple.

2. All is well with the Universe: JD Drew and Julio Lugo have remembered that they suck

It was nice to see J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo returning to their normal selves after a cosmos-rattling game in which Drew hit a clutch, two-out grand slam and Lugo had a timely two run double.

This time, Drew came up in an almost identical situation, once again finding himself at bat with the bases loaded in the first inning, and happily, grounded into an inning-ending double play. Likewise, Lugo made an inexcusable error on an easy pop-up, giving the Indians a golden chance to tie up the game in the 7th.

But in any case, these are good omens for Red Sox fans. After a momentary collision with a parallel universe in which Drew and Lugo actually do helpful things in crucial situations, the universe is all back to normal now and the Sox can go back to being the team which compiled the best record in baseball, despite Drew posting a VORP of 15.1 (less than 2 points higher than Jacoby Ellsbury’s 13.6 in more than 400 additional at-bats), and Lugo actually posting a negative VORP of -1.3.

3. By my count, he still had another 162 pitches left

Fans of Daisuke Matsuzaka have to be really encouraged by his performance after a lackluster outing in game 3. Although his final line of 5 innings pitched doesn’t look that great, with the entire Boston pitching staff available to go with the exception of an injured Tim Wakefield, there was no reason to keep him in longer than 5.

If you are Terry Francona and you have the option of effectively shortening the game to those 5 innings by pitching Okajima and Papelbon for the last 4, you’d be crazy not to go to the bullpen early (although I have to say, I was aghast when Francona sent Okajima out to start a third inning after he barely escaped the 7th - there is no universe in which that was a good idea).

Most encouraging about Matsuzaka’s performance was that a guy whose only two real weaknesses this past year were walks and home runs, did not allow a single walk or home run to one of the best offenses in the game with its back to the wall. Not to mention that Matsuzaka did not allow a baserunner for the first 3 innings, and he only made 88 pitches in the five frames he threw.

The word is that Matsuzaka spent pretty much every waking minute since his previous start studying videotape, working on mechanics, and pondering how he could do better if there was a game seven. But then again, in this stereotyped world we live in, could we possibly expect any less than absolute hardcore-ness from an inscrutible Japanese like Matsuzaka? After all, Japanese people never panic, get tired, or die.

But the real point is, Matsuzaka showed that he can and will make adjustments, and that bodes well for continued improvement as he continues a major league career which is only just beginning. Read the rest of this entry »

Sarah sent me a link to a Boston Globe story this morning, where the writer, Nick Cafardo, was suggesting that the Red Sox trade struggling outfielder J.D. Drew to the Phillies during the offseason for LF Pat Burrell. Specifically, Cafardo says:

If things don’t turn around for Drew, would you send him and a lot of cash to Philadelphia for Pat Burrell this offseason? Granted, Drew has some bad blood with Phillies fans; he didn’t sign after being their top pick in 1997. But that was 10 years ago. Drew is clearly more comfortable in the National League. In interleague play this season, he hit .328 in 58 at-bats, with 4 homers, 13 RBIs, a .394 OBP, and .603 slugging percentage. Burrell, soon to be 31, is a guy the Phillies would have given to you for a thank you card a couple of months ago. But he is up to 24 homers and 77 RBIs with a .270 average and .409 on-base percentage, a big part of the Phillies’ resurgence. He has one year left at $14 million, and lists Boston as one of the teams to which he would accept a trade.

Now, I don’t know who this Cafardo guy is, but I do know that he is on crack cocaine. Because there is no way the Phillies are going to trade Pat Burrell for J.D. Drew. Let us count the reasons:

1. J.D. Drew is a douchebag.

2. Pat Burrell’s stock is at an all-time high. He’s been the best player in baseball over the second half of the season and shows no sign of slowing down.

3. Even if you’re not sold on Burrell (and you’re right to be skeptical), there is no way the Phillies will trade one year of overpaying Burrell for six years of overpaying Drew.

4. J.D. Drew is a crapsicle.

5. Philly fans would torch Pat Gillick’s office if he brought Drew to town. There are very few moves a Philly GM could make that would be less popular. And off the top of my head I can only think of one: if the Eagles brought T.O back. That would be worse.

6. J.D. Drew is an oft-injured, overrated, butt-munching weasel.

Did I miss anything?

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.

There is an interesting piece in Slate today (it ran in the Washington Post over the weekend) on the differences between HGH and steroids, and whether or not we should bother worrying about HGH at all.

The author, Daniel Engber, says that using HGH isn’t a very big deal, mostly because HGH hasn’t been proven to enhance performance. From Slate:

At the very least, treatment with HGH does seem to reduce body fat and increase muscle mass. Growth hormone may not lengthen your lifespan, but it can certainly improve your looks. (While HGH isn’t as bad for you as anabolic steroids, it does have some minor side effects.

That doesn’t mean very much for athletes: A chiseled physique won’t help you hit a baseball or throw a punch. So far, no one has been able to connect the increase in lean body tissue caused by HGH with enhancement of athletic performance. Unlike steroids, growth hormone hasn’t been shown to increase weight-lifting ability; in the lab, it has a greater effect on muscle definition than muscle strength. And it doesn’t seem to help much with cardiovascular fitness, either.

So why, if HGH doesn’t make you a better player, do guys risk their paychecks and reputations using it? Engber says, like not stepping on the baseline and not talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter, it boils down to superstition:

The most likely reason that athletes use HGH, though, is superstition. A ballplayer might shoot up with HGH for the same reason we take vitamin C when we have a cold: There’s no good reason to think it does anything, but we’re willing to give it a try. The fact that the major sports leagues have banned growth hormone only encourages the idea that the drug has tangible benefits. Why would they ban something unless it worked?

I don’t know if I agree with Engber’s suggestion that superstition leads players to use HGH. But I do think that players are eager to try anything that will make them faster, stronger and healthier. And I don’t think they spend a lot of time sitting around reading labels or scientific journals.

Exhibit A. J.D. Drew’s explanation for why he spends an hour before game in an oxygen chamber:

To be quite honest with you, I just know it works. I don’t know quite how it works, but it works.

Exhibit B. Gary Sheffield’s reasoning for why the cream he got from BALCO couldn’t possibly have been tainted with steroids:

I know they weren’t tainted. Tell me how rubbing something on me will make you feel any different? That’s the most preposterous thing I’ve ever heard.

Long story short, just because using HGH doesn’t seem like a smart move, doesn’t mean that there aren’t a ton of guys doing it. The question is, should we care?

Oh J.D. Drew, you are a wild and crazy guy. No doubt about it.

According to the Boston Herald, Drew has been spending time in an oxygen chamber, in the hope that it will help him stay healthy this season.

From the Herald:

FORT MYERS - J.D. Drew brought plenty of baggage to his first spring training with the Red Sox

There was his history of incomplete seasons. The time spent nursing various wounds. The innuendo about his lack of desire.

There was also the hyperbaric chamber.

Wait . . . the what? You know, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, the kind that Michael Jackson sleeps in. Drew has one, too, and he’s using it at spring training, seeking the recuperative benefits one hour before he arrives at the ballpark.

“I don’t know what (Michael Jackson) sleeps in,” Drew said before yesterday’s 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. “I just know there are a few athletes who use it. It’s an oxygen chamber. To be quite honest with you, I just know it works. I don’t know quite how it works, but it works.”

Wow, J.D. is going holistic on us. I always knew he was a spiritual guy, but I didn’t picture him as an oxygen chamber kind of guy. I guess desperate is as desperate does.

Actually, while buying an oxygen chamber is a little nuts, it’s not nearly as crazy as what Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas did — converting his house to Colorado altitude.

J.D. says he got the idea from John Smoltz, who he says also uses an oxygen chamber.

Turns out, there are a lot of people using oxygen chambers these days: Lance Armstrong, two-time Ironman champ Tim DeBoom, even the dogs who pulled the winning sled in the Iditarod.

What are the benefits of spending time in an oxygen chamber? From Outside Online:

Lower oxygen levels stress the cells, causing them to produce higher levels of hemoglobin—the red blood cells that carry oxygen to muscles—and more enzymes to extract the oxygen from the blood, so the body can convert it to energy. The result? More oxygen for your body to use as energy, which means more power, endurance, and speed.

Of course, we could all use more power, endurance and speed (we’re looking at you, Dmitri Young), but J.D.’s problem has never been performance, it’s been durability. And oxygen chambers don’t necessarily make you more durable. In fact, prolonged exposure to high oxygen environment can cause muscle to break down.

So be careful, J.D. Just look at what those things did to Michael Jackson.

The hopes and dreams of Red Sox fans are finally being realized. J.D. Drew is coming.

After much wrangling over the fine print, Drew and the Sox settled on a contract yesterday. The contract includes language that would allow the Sox to opt out of guaranteed money in 2010 and 2011 if a specified pre-existing injury recurs.

In other words, if Drew’s shoulder falls off, the Sox can cut him loose.

The deal will pay Jizzle Dizzle $14 million a season. That’s a $3 million annual raise, compared to what he was making with the Dodgers. Drew opted out of his Dodgers contract after last season.

Everybody wins with this contract. Drew gets more money than he would have made with the Dodgers and the potential for more years. Boras gets Drew the contract he promised him. The Red Sox get some peace of mind.

The only people that lose are the fans. They’re stuck with Drew for the next 3-5 years.

Personally, I’ve already got standing room seats for the Red Sox preseason game against the Devil Rays in Tampa on March 24th. The standing room section is along the right field line. J.D., if you plan on roaming right field that day, you better plan on wearing you macintosh and galloshes, because the boos are gonna be raining down. We’re talking monsoon season, baby.

In honor of his signing day, here are the top five things that piss me off about J.D. Drew:

5. His agent is Scott Boras.

4. He’s always hurt.

3. His name is David Jonathan Drew, but he goes by J.D. and not D.J.

2. Drew sat out a season, rather than play for anything less than $10 million per.

1. In 1999, when Drew made his first visit to Veteran’s stadium and fans pelted him with batteries, he didn’t have the decency to stand still.

Scott Boras said it, so we figured it was true: J.D. Drew was going to sign with the Red Sox for five years and $70 million.

Then the deal hit a snag, when the Red Sox discovered that Drew had arthritis in his shoulder. So, yesterday, Drew got a second opinion.

Now it looks like Drew is finally poised to become a Sox, though the contract he agreed to a few weeks ago may look a little different. The Sox may insist on an injury clause.

All of this should come as no surprise to anybody who has followed J.D. Drew’s career. The man finds new ways to get hurt every season.

But this may be the first time Drew has managed to get diagnosed with a new injury during the offseason.

Red Sox fans are no doubt taking solace in the fact that Drew’s contract will have a clause that will let the team off the hook should his shoulder give out. They shouldn’t get too comfortable. If Drew’s shoulder holds up, his knees, back, or pinkie toe is sure to give out soon enough.

There’s a piece in today’s New York Times that should shed some light on whether or not the Red Sox are evil.

They are.

According to the Times, GMs from several teams are accusing the Red Sox of breaking the rules when it comes to signing free agents:

Exhibit A for the disgruntled is Boston’s signing of J. D. Drew, who walked away from the final three years of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a move that his agent, Scott Boras, said was aboveboard and precipitated by the marketplace. The signing of Drew could lead to an investigation by the commissioner’s office into possible tampering by the Red Sox; one baseball official said the commissioner’s office would vigorously investigate the matter if it received a complaint, but added that no complaint has been forthcoming.

Did the Sox tamper with J.D. Drew? Almost certainly. It is really, really hard to believe that the oft-injured Drew chose to opt out of three years and $33 million without some assurance that he would get more elsewhere. Plus, Drew seemed happy in LA.

Six days before the end of the season, Drew told Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register that he was happy in Los Angeles and had not thought about the opt-out clause. He said he did not plan to use it.

“At some point,” he remarked, “you make those commitments and you stick to them.”

Ha! J.D. Drew is all about making commitments. He has been committed, since the day he was drafted, to making as much money as possible, win or lose. I hate that guy.

But the complaints don’t end with Drew. Don’t forget about Matsuzaki, who the Sox haven’t even signed yet:

Club executives and baseball officials are also watching the Red Sox negotiations with Boras for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitcher, for whom Boston bid $51.1 million just for the right to talk to him.

They have observed as Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox chief executive, recently went to Japan to meet with Matsuzaka’s team, the Seibu Lions, for the stated purpose of establishing a working agreement between the teams. They have read with interest Boras’s view that there is no rule barring the Lions from sharing part of the posting fee with the player, thus making it easier for the Red Sox to sign him for less of their own money.

Now, I’m not one to speculate. But a more cynical person might be inclined to think that Boras and the Sox have an under the table agreement and that Boras told the Sox that he could hook them up with Matsuzaka, but he’d be more inclined to do so if they stepped up and overpaid J.D. Drew. And since the Sox had been interested in Drew for a while anyway, and since the team needed a new right fielder, it all made sense. If one were really cynical, one might even think that Boras promised the Sox that if they bid a ridiculous amount for Matsuzaka, that the Seibu Lions would turn around and share some of that money with Matsuzaka, thereby reducing the need for the Sox to sign the star Japanese pitcher to a huge, expensive contract.

Of course, I don’t think that’s what happened, because I’m not a cynical person. But plenty of people around baseball are not so sure.

This week’s Boston Metro column, in which I give new Red Sox rightfielder J.D. Drew some unsolicited advice on how to win friends, influence people, and get a rep as a dirtdog (I can see from the photo he’s already listening!).

Also, I just realized looking at this photo that Drew’s number is 7. So is outgoing, longtime Sox right fielder Trot Nixon’s. That’s sort of a strange coincidence.

After the jump, all the stuff I had to cut out of the column for space reasons.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gordon Edes reports in this morning’s Boston Globe that a deal with J.D. (DL) Drew is looking more likely than ever for the Sox:

There is still contract language to be worked out, and some question about whether the fifth year of the deal is guaranteed. But the Red Sox are nearing the completion of a deal with J.D. Drew that would pay the free agent outfielder $14 million a year for a total package of around $70 million if he stays with Boston for a full five seasons.

$70 million?! Five seasons?? Are they insane? Perhaps, as Coley and Nick have intimated, the Red Sox have indeed become evil. But let it be said that the fan on the street has not yet signed on to this Faustian bargain. This morning, a friend and fellow fan put the problem succinctly: “He’s expensive and he breaks.” Not to mention the fact that if the 31-year old doesn’t get his way (i.e., millions upon millions of dollars based—still!—on his “potential” and “talent”) he just sits out, in typical Scott Boras-client fashion. (Makes me wonder what he was like in Little League.) BostonDirtDogs points out what should be obvious to all: the Sox could have had Johnny Damon, their fuzzy-faced and durable team mascot, for much less than that. Boston Herald columnist Gerry Callahan expresses the thoughts of many a Hub resident (the article is worth reading in full, if only to savor Callahan’s use of the phrase “apparent man crush”) on the apparently unstoppable arrival of Nancy Drew:

While Sox fans are starved for someone, anyone, who represents an upgrade from last season’s roster, it is not easy to find a fan who is excited about the prospect of seeing Drew in a Sox uniform. For some reason, the paying customers seem to understand better than the Sox front office wonks that it ain’t all about OPS. Sometimes you’ve got to look at the character and the personality of a player before you walk down the aisle with him….This is a guy who has been on the disabled list seven times in eight seasons. He never has played more than 146 games (while Damon never has played fewer than 145). He has played for three teams in the past four years - how many franchise players do that?

…It would be one thing if the guy were resting on his laurels, but he never has had any laurels.

Damn skippy, Gerry. Damn skippy.

UNRELIABLE UPDATE: From the comments section of this post:

The Red Sox have agreed to a 5-year deal worth $74Million with JD Drew. It’ll be announced on Weds or Thurs, according to a friend of mine who is close friends with a scout for the SF Giants.