Sunday, August 01, 2004
Why's it always the good ones, that's gots to leave
My Dad says that people are sports fans because, on average, you win half the time, and you lose half the time; and that’s pretty good when it comes to life. Overall, the Red Sox have certainly won more then half their games in my lifetime. So I guess I should be happy about that. Sure we haven’t won the World Series since 1918, but who cares about 1918-1985? I wasn’t alive/baseball-aware until 1986. There are plenty of teams who haven’t won since then.
Last year though, last year. We came damn close, maybe not to winning, who is to say we would have beaten Florida? Additions were made: Schilling and Foulke, as we moved into 2004 with confidence that it was our turn. Now, on July 31st, we have traded Red Sox legend Nomar Garciaparra for Doug Mienticiwthcxaasf and Orlando Cabrera. How did we end up here? And what does this trade mean for the future?
Losing Nomar hurts, he is probably my second favorite athlete of all time, behind the last Red Sox star to leave town, Maurice Vaughn. He was a free-agent to be. He had rejected their past contract offers. He had posted an OPS of 875-900 the last two-plus years, down from the 950+ of the pre-wrist injury. He was, by many accounts, having an awful year defensively, perhaps due to the Achilles injury that kept him out of the first two months of this season.
But, you have to look at what we got back. Mientciewzasoijd is a great defensive first baseman…with an OPS of 650. First base is an offensive position, I don’t care how great his zone rating is: that is minor-league production for that position. He shouldn’t be playing other than late in the game when we have a lead. In addition, we now have to move Millar from a position where he is actually average defensively (1B) to one where he is awful (RF.) Additionally, we will be paying Millar Mienciteiasdiojo and Ortiz 4 million plus each this year and next. I don’t see how that is in the team’s interest, considering they only can play two positions, assuming Nixon returns at full health next year.
Cabrera, meanwhile, is supposedly and ace defensively: with an On base Percentage of .298. Don’t we already have Pokey Reese doing the exact same thing?
When I wrote the report on the Red Sox earlier, I noted that we needed to find additional parts to add offense and/or pitching to supplement the production we had received from our “A” level stars. Rather than find other supplemental production, we have decreased supplemental production; without clarifying our situation beyond 2004, adding, in Mientiasdaiojfctz a salary commitment of 4 million for 05 and 06.
As for Nomar, I will probably be forced to do a sappy tribute blog in a few days. I honestly think he has a few 950 OPS seasons left in him, mostly because he had a 950 OPS through September of last year before he got injured and slumped at the end of the year. To Cubs fans I say: you will no doubt be annoyed by Nomar’s defensive lapses this year, and the 25 percent of Abs he pops up on the first swing. But I think it’s more likely he’ll catch fire for you rather than slump. Good luck to you, and hopefully he can take your team to where mine wants to be, the World Series.
In sports there are your good days, and your bad days, and this is one of the worst.
Last year though, last year. We came damn close, maybe not to winning, who is to say we would have beaten Florida? Additions were made: Schilling and Foulke, as we moved into 2004 with confidence that it was our turn. Now, on July 31st, we have traded Red Sox legend Nomar Garciaparra for Doug Mienticiwthcxaasf and Orlando Cabrera. How did we end up here? And what does this trade mean for the future?
Losing Nomar hurts, he is probably my second favorite athlete of all time, behind the last Red Sox star to leave town, Maurice Vaughn. He was a free-agent to be. He had rejected their past contract offers. He had posted an OPS of 875-900 the last two-plus years, down from the 950+ of the pre-wrist injury. He was, by many accounts, having an awful year defensively, perhaps due to the Achilles injury that kept him out of the first two months of this season.
But, you have to look at what we got back. Mientciewzasoijd is a great defensive first baseman…with an OPS of 650. First base is an offensive position, I don’t care how great his zone rating is: that is minor-league production for that position. He shouldn’t be playing other than late in the game when we have a lead. In addition, we now have to move Millar from a position where he is actually average defensively (1B) to one where he is awful (RF.) Additionally, we will be paying Millar Mienciteiasdiojo and Ortiz 4 million plus each this year and next. I don’t see how that is in the team’s interest, considering they only can play two positions, assuming Nixon returns at full health next year.
Cabrera, meanwhile, is supposedly and ace defensively: with an On base Percentage of .298. Don’t we already have Pokey Reese doing the exact same thing?
When I wrote the report on the Red Sox earlier, I noted that we needed to find additional parts to add offense and/or pitching to supplement the production we had received from our “A” level stars. Rather than find other supplemental production, we have decreased supplemental production; without clarifying our situation beyond 2004, adding, in Mientiasdaiojfctz a salary commitment of 4 million for 05 and 06.
As for Nomar, I will probably be forced to do a sappy tribute blog in a few days. I honestly think he has a few 950 OPS seasons left in him, mostly because he had a 950 OPS through September of last year before he got injured and slumped at the end of the year. To Cubs fans I say: you will no doubt be annoyed by Nomar’s defensive lapses this year, and the 25 percent of Abs he pops up on the first swing. But I think it’s more likely he’ll catch fire for you rather than slump. Good luck to you, and hopefully he can take your team to where mine wants to be, the World Series.
In sports there are your good days, and your bad days, and this is one of the worst.
# posted by Marmaniac @ 2:24 AM 
