Your Thoughts Exactly

Mo Vaughn was the first. There was no reason for him to go, in fact ironically it was trading for Pedro and the contract we gave him that was probably most responsible for pushing Mo out the door. One of the saddest days of my life as a sports fan, I still believe that Mo and Boston were the perfect fit that his career would have turned out differently if he had stayed with the Sox, and that he may have been able to push us over the top in 1999 and 2000.

The reality of the sports world however, is that athletes move around, and not always because they are old, or because someone better comes along, but because of money, and because of a soured relationship between player and management. Since Mo, I have seen Drew Bledsoe, Lawyer Milloy, Nomar, Antione Walker, and now Pedro move on. I’m getting used to it. Ty Law will be next this offseason, unless the Red Sox foolishly trade Manny.

A fan has three possible reactions when it comes to a player like Pedro: they can pretend that they are the GM of the Red Sox, analyze the value of the contract and the process of negotiations, and base the decision on what they would have done, they can go back and harp on statements the player may have made about wanting to play in Boston and hold them over the players head, or they can realize its part of the game and let the man move on, appreciating all he has done for them.

With Pedro, I will gladly take the third option. If I was GM, Pedro would be one of the players about whom I would be unable to maintain a level of rationality. 5 years 75 million? All yours.

Conventional wisdom appears to be that even a three year guaranteed deal was too much, though the facts may say otherwise. Pedro has an injured pitching shoulder, although he did pitch his highest amount of innings since 1998 the past season. Pedro is losing velocity, although his velocity has been a consistent 91-93 the last three years. Pedro is too old, although he is only 33 and there are an abundance of examples of pitchers who have succeeded in the present day MLB into their late 30s and 40s.

Of course the press is trying to paint Pedro as a bad guy, as every media person has written something along the lines of “people have never forgotten Pedro staying behind for game 6 of the ALCS.” Well you can’t forget something you never learned in the first place, because at the time, I don’t remember reading shit about Pedro missing this game. Evidently, he stayed behind to get medical treatment so he could pitch in Game 7 if needed. Oh the horror.

Like the Mo negotiations, the Red Sox screwed this up. They could have had Pedro if they had given him their final offer (3 years 40.5) million up front. Pedro asked for perks…well guess what, he’s not the first pitcher to ask for them nor will he be the last. Examples include Roger Clemens and Kevin Brown, who were exempted from traveling with their teams when they only had to make home starts. The Red Sox had to play cheap though. Their obsession with maximizing every dollar spent is a good general principle with regards to building a team. However, there is another side to this. We aren’t the A’s or the Twins. Our team is loaded. We can afford to pay Pedro to sit on the DL, even if that is the outcome. We paid Manny 22 million last year, was he worth that much? Probably not; unless you take into account that, oh yea we won the World Series and he was MVP of the regular season and the Fall Classic. We can afford to pay a premium for special players. Pedro is in that category. Rather than attempt to pinch pennies, we should have given him what he wanted. Now, we will probably throw 9 mil a year at Matt Clement. Even if they perform at the same level over the next four years, I’d take Pedro at the Mets’ price.

As for the man, I wish him luck with the Mets, and will be rooting for him to win every start, and hopefully add a few more Cys to his collection. Thanks for seven great years. Viva El Gran Pedro.