$ox Drop, Bond$ Higher
Last time I spoke about how the Red Sox have replaced the Yankees as corporate baseball. Last night it bit them in the ***.
Consider: no company loyalty. Trot Nixon was a fan favorite, an integral part of the World Champion 2004 squad, who had spent his entire career with the Red Sox. That is, until the Red Sox front office looked at his numbers and decided he was a player in decline. His replacement? Corporate wunderkid and serial disappointment, J.D. Drew. For their $70 million they got a .270 average and 11 home runs.
But Boston has plenty of money to throw at problems. They had so much dough to blow they could afford another wunderkid, Eric Gagne. Let me give you a word of advice, Theo: if the Texas Rangers are offering you a pitcher, run like ****. Of course you’ve probably figured that out after Gagne blew the game for you last night.
The magic of baseball is watching the gritty Trot Nixon come to the plate in Fenway, with the game on the line, and just know justice will be served. Couldn’t you just feel Theo’s ***-hole puckering? It can $uck in an entire “nation”. Such is the vacuum when the soul departs. Guess Sox fans shouldn’t have been so self-righteous about Barry Bonds–and everything else, for that matter. Haven’t heard any histrionics about Manny’s curtain call last night. If there were any of the old Red Sox spirit left, Trot could have taken one after that game winning hit.
— Michael Norton
someballyard.mlblogs.com 
I don’t mind parting ways with Nixon. Drew is the better player at this point, but his contract will never be worthwhile. But Drew was average on offense this year, while Nixon well below average. And both have been noted as being good defensively in the past. So an upgrade was needed and we got it, but not by that much. However, in the next few years Drew will clearly be better, I think anyway. And I am not taking a shot at Nixon, I liked him. He was and is on the decline though. But in a few years Drew will start to decline too. So I am not defending his 70 million dollar contract either. 2 years 30 million would have been fine for me. No long term commitement and to keep him motivated.
http://statisticianmagician.mlblogs.com/
It was convenient how the Red Sox dispatched their ideal to go for a “fiscally responsible” strategy when instead of seeing post-season revenue last season, they saw righteous indignation at their collapse. Both Drew and Julio Lugo have been disastrous miscalculations that the Red Sox were warned about before they signed them. I don’t have a problem with getting rid of Nixon. He’s always hurt and is in rapid decline, but replacing him with the perpetually failing Drew was ridiculous. They may as well have signed Frank Catalanotto for a fraction of the price and gotten the exact same production.
http://paullebowitz.mlblogs.com/
Cool entry Michael!
Chris
Joseph, Paul,
You are both right, of course. The smart money loses Nixon; the smart money also doesn’t pay $70 mil for Drew. My real point, of course, is that baseball is more mystical than money, which is its fascination.
Chris,
Thanks!