« Coco Leaves Game -- Left Hand
Main
Former Sox player, oldest living major leaguer, turns 100 today »
June 19, 2008
AP Photo
PAPI WHO? Let's say David Ortiz had never gotten hurt, and had simply stayed in the lineup from June 1 to today. What would you have said if he'd put up these numbers in 17 games, and 59 at-bats, from that day until now:
DOUBLES: 7
TRIPLES: 2
HOME RUNS: 9
RBI: 21
BATTING AVERAGE: .441
ON-BASE PERCENTAGE: .547
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE: 1.085
OPS: 1.631
Unrealistic, right?
Well, as you've probably guessed, those are the exact statistics from June 1 to today of none other than J.D. Drew. (Numbers provided by the essential Day By Day Database on David Pinto's Baseball Musings.)
The Red Sox have gone 12-5 in Ortiz' absence and Drew is one of the main reasons why. It was more of the same yesterday as he went 4-for-5 -- including a first-inning home run (above) -- in the Red Sox' 7-4 conquest of the Phillies. Steven Krasner examines Drew's torrid stretch and gets reaction from both Drew and Terry Francona about how well he's performed over this period. Drew has suddenly become a center of attention, both locally (Nick Cafardo of the Globe does his own piece on Boston's newest baseball hero) and nationally (Dave Cameron of Fangraphs writes that Drew "has been absolutely sensational so far in 2008, putting up a .315/.424/.576 line that is the best of any American League outfielder). While it's a truism that anybody can be replaced over the short haul, no one anticipated Ortiz could be replaced by someone who would outhit him over a 2 1/2 week -- and counting -- stretch. Yet that's exactly what Drew has done.
And Cameron concludes by telling people who criticized the Red Sox for Drew's signing that "you can all apologize now."
THE BENEFICIARY: Justin Masterson had the worst outing of his brief major-league career -- five innings, 92 pitches -- but, thanks to Drew and friends, still got credit for the win. Krasner finds him appropriately grateful.
PERFECT TIMING: Coco Crisp's offensive resurgence on the road trip (Day By Day Database) couldn't have come at a better moment. The Chicago Tribune reports the Cubs are interested in Crisp again and sent special assistant Ken Kravec to scout him during the Sox' journey through Cincinnati and Philadelphia. In addition, the Tribune says the Cubs may be willing to part with Rich Hill in a multiplayer trade involving Crisp. In that light, the Sox hope the optimistic take on the hand injury that forced him out of yesterday's game is accurate.
'STICK WITH THE PROCESS': That's the mantra of both Manny Delcarmen (projo.com) and Dustin Pedroia (Boston Herald), and it worked for them yesterday.
CONGRATULATIONS . . . AND WE'LL GET A LITTLE SOMETHING OUT OF THIS, TOO: Krasner reports Terry Francona was delighted the Celtics, coached by his friend Doc Rivers, won the NBA championship. The Sox have plans to honor the Celts before Friday night's game with the Cardinals and they may use the event to trot out those green jerseys again, which they try to do once a year to boost merchandise sales. (Boston Herald)
TAKE THE DAY: They're both ailing, and the scheduled day off today would give them a bit of extra rest, so Francona held Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis out of yesterday's lineup. (projo.com)
LET'S GET REAL: Five Red Sox players lead the All-Star voting at their various positions, but only Ramirez makes Dayn Perry's A.L. All-Star team. (foxsports.com)
HE KNEW THEM WHEN: Joe Haggerty, on his Hacks With Haggs blog, talks to Mel Zitter, who coached both Ramirez and Julio Lugo when they were teenagers in New York City. He said Ramirez was "quiet," Lugo "cocky" as youngsters.
BUT WHO KNEW HE'D COME TO THIS?: Lugo gets a mention on Bugs & Cranks' All-Worst Contract Team. You might be interested to know that Mo Vaughn is the starting first baseman on that particular nine.
LOOKING AHEAD: The Chicago Tribune talks to the folks at accuscore.com. who say the Cubs have the best chance of any National League team of making the World Series. As for playoff chances, accuscore lists the Red Sox as having an 83.2% chance of qualifying for the postseason. The Rays? 38%.
NON-BELIEVERS: Las Vegas oddsmakers apparently aren't too impressed by the Rays' first-half success either, as they only have them listed at 10-1 to win the American League pennant. (Los Angeles Times) That does, however, beat the 75-1 odds they were given at the start of the season. The Red Sox remain the favorite, at 7-4, followed by the Angels, Yankees, White Sox and Indians before you get to the Rays. (Indians?)
LOWER THOSE ODDS: Las Vegas may have to keep rethinking things if the Rays continue playing as they did last night, when they beat Victor Zambrano -- more on him below -- and the Cubs, 5-4, in a nationally televised game. (St. Petersburg Times) And today Tampa Bay welcomes back James Shields, whose six-game suspension is over just in time for him to pitch the series finale against Chicago. (Tampa Tribune)
NO, NO, HE'S GOING TO THE YANKEES. JUST ASK ANYONE IN NEW YORK: The blog Devilrays Locker -- time to change the name, don't you think? -- wants Tampa Bay to make a run at C.C. Sabathia, drooling "wouldn’t it be beautiful to have a playoff rotation that starts with Scott Kazmir, James Shields and C.C. Sabathia?"
WISHFUL THINKING: Indians assistant GM Chris Antonetti says Sabathia's not going anywhere because Cleveland's still in the race. But several scouts say they're not good enough to make a run at the division title. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
WEBSTER'S DEFINITION OF 'DESPERATE': Signing pariah Sidney Ponson -- which is what the Yankees did yesterday (New York Post) -- would seem to qualify. Or maybe they missed Joel Sherman's spot-on description of El Sid: "David Wells, minus superior talent . . . Bloated, boozy and disruptive . . . " The blog It Is About the Money, Stupid calls the signing one of the Yanks' "stupid decisions du jour."
THANK GOD FOR INTERLEAGUE PLAY: By my count -- and I could be wrong; I quickly added up the numbers in today's newspaper -- the American League is 66-44 against the National so far this year, and no one's benefitted more than the Yankees . . . at least in this latest round of matchups. After losing two straight to the Mets last month in the in-and-out interleague weekend, they made it five in a row over N.L. teams, and six in a row overall, with an 8-5 win over Jake Peavy and the Padres last night (New York Post), which puts them six games over .500. The offense was led by Alex Rodriguez, who homered for the fourth consecutive game and the victory was nailed down in the end by Mariano Rivera, who, before the game, talked about the fact that he and his San Diego counterpart, Trevor Hoffman, have combined for over 1,000 career saves. (Both stories New York Daily News) And while it may be more because of the Mets than anything they've done, Shaun Powell of Newsday says the Yanks are once again "the undisputed baseball heavyweight in town."
THE HIGH ROAD: Though he thinks "I deserve better" than to be fired in the middle of the night -- or, actually, late at night on the West Coast, which is where he got the word -- Willie Randolph wouldn't rip the Mets or Omar Minaya as he met reporters outside his house yesterday. (New York Daily News)
THE LOW ROAD: But Randolph's friends think his replacement, Jerry Manuel, angled for the job by undermining Willie to Mets management, particularly vice-president of player development Tony Bernazard, whom, the New York Post reports, is "a known Randolph detractor." When asked about it yesterday, Manuel denied the charge. (As for Bernazard, Newsday's Ken Davidoff didn't hear many kind words when some well-connected friends offered their opinions of him.)
THE LOWEST ROAD: Furious at what he considers the cowardly way they fired Randolph, Mets fan Martin Silver sent five whole chickens to owner Fred Wilpon. (New York Daily News) He also says he plans to return his season tickets.
THE ROAD BACK: The Mets won their first game under Manuel, beating the Angels in 10 innings on Damion Easley's home run. (New York Post)
THE ROAD TO GLORY: Writing on sportingnews.com, David Pinto notes that Randolph was dismissed 30 years after the Yankees fired Billy Martin in midseason, lists the similarities between the situations and wonders if a Yankee-like resurgence is in the Mets' future.
ZAMBRANO REVISITED: More on Carlos Zambrano: He had to leave last night's start against the Rays in the seventh inning because of shoulder discomfort and he's flying back to Chicago to be examined. (Chicago Tribune)
THE TIME IS NOW: Saying that every major-league game "is an accident and lawsuit waiting to happen" because of the danger represented by the flying shards of broken maple bats that we see several times every night, SI.com's Tom Verducci urges MLB to ban the use of maple bats immediately.
TAXMAN COMETH: Prince Fielder has no comment on reports he owes the IRS $409,149. (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)
IT'S NEVER GOOD WHEN 'TOXIC' IS A WORD USED TO DESCRIBE YOUR CLUBHOUSE: But that's the word Jose de Jesus Ortiz uses in talking about the Astros. (Houston Chronicle)
LOCAL BOYS: In his second rehab game at Vero Beach, Rocco Baldelli hit two home runs. (Outs Per Swing)
WHISPERS: Jason Lloyd of the Journal-Register News Service thinks the Indians-Rockies series could help Cleveland decide whether or not to make a run at Matt Holliday or Garrett Atkins . . . Some scouts think the Giants' Randy Winn could draw some interest at the trade deadline, particularly from Atlanta (San Francisco Chronicle) . . . The Mariners may soon release Richie Sexson (Everett Herald) . . . Judging by J.P. Ricciardi's comments, you can be fairly certain the Blue Jays have no use for Adam Dunn. (National Post)
THIS IS HOW IT'S DONE: It's rare that a trade helps both teams, but Bob Nightengale of USA Today says last winter's Reds-Rangers deal that sent Josh Hamilton to Texas for Edinson Volquez and a minor-league prospect was, in the words of fired Cincinnati GM Wayne Krivsky, "the perfect trade, the perfect match."
HERE AND THERE: Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit suffered a concussion after taking three foul tips off his mask (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) . . . Hideki Matsui sat out last night's Yankees-Padres game after getting fluid drained from his knee (New York Daily News) . . . The new Yankee Stadium will feature a year-round Hardrock Cafe. (AP via nj.com)
OLD FRIENDS: Even though Dave Trembley says the bleached hair makes him look like "a box of Crayola crayons," Kevin Millar delivered the game-winning hit for the Orioles in the 10th inning last night (Baltimore Sun) . . . One day after hitting a two-run homer in a rehab game for Las Vegas, Nomar Garciaparra woke up with discomfort in the strained right calf that landed him on the 60-day disabled list and didn't play yesterday. Nor will he play today (Los Angeles Times) . . . Derek Lowe bested Bronson Arroyo as the Dodgers beat the Reds. (Los Angeles Times)
-- ART MARTONE
Posted by Art Martone 
at 7:08 AM | Permalink
