So it's been awhile since I've launched a rant, despite the Sox absolutely falling off the planet since my last post. It's just been one of those kinds of seasons so far. Middlebrooks done, Papi misses most of the second half, Ellsbury's 1 dinga, the mass text messages, the skipped Pesky funeral, the Shoppach trade (joke). Nope, just no sense in blasting a team that's never been better than 4th place all year. How often do you hear people ripping on the Cubs or the Astros anyway?
But we've entered a new era. Cherington has officially wiped out the legacy of Theo by moving Adrian, Crawford and Beckett for prospects. Bravo good sir, bra-vo. It's about time someone over there comes to their senses and makes some moves. Gatta admit I was a bit taken aback when I first heard Adrian's name involved, but I've come to accept and embrace it.
This team has showed more life when it's been made up of the young, hungry guys trying to make a name for themselves and trying to establish themselves as major-leaguers. Take Ciriaco, for example. Guy's 15-32 against the Yankees (.469) and 11-14 on Fox. Imagine that guy in the postseason? How about my boy Will da Drill? Before suffering the devastating wrist injury, he was hitting .288 with 15 longballs and 54 RBI in 267 ABs. If you call that roughly half a season, you'd have to think he'd be able to launch close to 30 bombs with around 100 RBI over a full campaign (assuming he's not ruined for life after a particularly serious injury for baseball players). In comparison, the $20 million man Adrian Gonzales totaled 42 jacks over 1114 ABs in close to two years with the Sox. Will makes the league minimum.
The new feel to this team is something I think most fans like, or at least will learn to like in time. Any time you can grab a couple low-money, high-potential pitchers, you're putting yourself in a favorable spot. If the Red Sox teams of recent years have taught us anything, it's that you can't buy championships. You don't go out and buy the biggest-name, biggest-money free agents available (Drew, Lackey, Crawford, Jenks) just because it seems like the right thing to do, or just so the Yankees can't get them. Look at the second-place Rays, sitting comfortably at 70-57. Ben Zobrist, who makes $4.5 million, leads the team in batting average at .263 (Upton is second at .246, making $7 mil). The reason they've been hanging around the top all year (and for the last 3-4 years): Cowboy up!
Those guys are a team. If one guy gets a mohawk, the whole team gets a mohawk, even Maddon (can you really see Bobby V cowboying up?). They buy in. The Red Sox need guys who are willing to buy in. It's hard to get established "stars" and multimillionaires to buy into anything. It's pretty easy to get hungry 23-year-olds to buy in. And I think the boys upstairs have finally come around on this.
So I'm looking at this as a glass-half-full scenario. You dumped a ton of dead money and picked up some more hungry talent. You did work to solidify the starting rotation for years to come. And you (hopefully) cleaned up the culture of that clubhouse. If only you could have thrown Lackey into that deal... But it's a good start, and I'm looking forward to the new-look, new-feel 2013 Red Sox.
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