Money player: Why the critics of J.D. Drew may be off-base

[Mr Crunchy]

Drew almost had as many RBI as Lowell last year?

He's obviously underated but its evident that Drew believes he's the real deal and he thinks he absolutely delivered as the most expensive guy on the roster.

Ok bring it on, I cant resist playing with you guys and neither can you guys resist defending him as if he were mother Teresa with a bat,especially my good friends Kg and Dipre.

I beg that in October you ream me out after Drew wins the triple crown and world series MVP.

Steve Buckley is being himself today, I hate him.

http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view

Seriously speaking you can mail his #s in if he stays on the field for 140 games.

17/65/.275...80runs...slugging .500..100k's 30 dbls ..and an impressive .900 ops as well as a good glove in right..Those are consistant #s and lets face it, lefties will lose power #s in Fenway, especially the gap hitters...Problem is we signed him to hit 5th and he hasnt earned that slot in 3 years here.

I think hes better suited for 2nd with his obp on or at .400 every year but then you got to think about moving Pedroia out of that hole..I think Pedroia and Ells are going to be a great 1-2 punch so they wont be f***ed with or will they?? Who knows....I do know they all need to be healthy.

Offensively we're an enigma this year, Drews consistancy will be essential to this teams success,more so than ever but Id trade some of those OBP#s for more power...

Where does he hit this year? I think 6th. in front of Beltre Cameron and Scutaro.

I certainly dont hate this guy as much as I used to

Im surprised that this guy hasnt developed the Fenway swing that made Vaughn and Boggs famous, that walls got to be tempting for the inside out approach and I think this guy handles the stick as good as anyone we got...Anyway to put things in perspective Drew and Lowell had essentially the same #s on offense yet we cant even give Lowell away this year?

I say we keep him as Beltre isnt a kid anymore and has been banged up.

we're going to be paying the heavy load on Lowells money as it is and what the f*** is wrong with Lowell spotting Ortiz at DH,Youk or Youk at 1st or even taking the job over if Ortiz cant get out of his own way this summer.

Lowell is a good guy, a cancer survivor, a guy you want to be in a foxhole with and he says hes healthy.

Why give him away for nothing when he can help here?

I think he wants to play every day but hes not a fool.

I ask the panel at his age would you rather make the 12M playing part time with a chance of winning it all again or would you rather play full time for a 2nd tier club that maybe using you the same way??

[Dojji]

17/65/.275...80runs...slugging .500..100k's 30 dbls ..and an impressive .900 ops as well as a good glove in right..Those are consistant #s and lets face it, lefties will lose power #s in Fenway, especially the gap hitters...Problem is we signed him to hit 5th and he hasnt earned that slot in 3 years here.

 

You realize that that line is better than most of Trot Nixon's seasons by a considerable margin.

 

Only in 2001 and 2003 did Trot Nixon, probably our vision of the prototypical #5 hitter, actually outperform JD Drew's average career performance. And Nixon did a lousier job of staying in the field than Drew does.

 

This is a team with a lot of money. the most I expect of a guy we're paying a lot of money to is to be measurably better than the guy who came before him and well above average on the whole. Drew gets both check marks.

[a700hitter]

You realize that that line is better than most of Trot Nixon's seasons by a considerable margin.

 

Only in 2001 and 2003 did Trot Nixon, probably our vision of the prototypical #5 hitter, actually outperform JD Drew's average career performance. And Nixon did a lousier job of staying in the field than Drew does.

 

This is a team with a lot of money. the most I expect of a guy we're paying a lot of money to is to be measurably better than the guy who came before him and well above average on the whole. Drew gets both check marks.

Why are you bringing up Nixon? Crunchy didn't mention hi, and as far as I know, he isn't even on a MLB roster. Don't you think that he is a bit irrelevant to a discussion about Drew?

[Dojji]

Would have thought it blindingly obvious that the most appropriate person to compare Drew to was the person who preceded him at his position.

[a700hitter]

Would have thought it blindingly obvious that the most appropriate person to compare Drew to was the person who preceded him at his position.

That may be obvious to you, but since the post you were responding to didn't mention Nixon or compare Drew to Nixon and since Nixon is out of baseball, he is irrelevant to the conversation. Nixon is not and has not been for some time a RF option for anyone. If the discussion regards Drew's worth to the team that would be relative to his current teammates and other current major league Ofers. Should we compare him to Dewey Evans too?

[Paradisecity]

I would like to compare Clay Bucholz to the player that he preceded him in his position for our team, John Smoltz.

 

 

 

Clay Bucholz is the best pitcher ever.

[Dipre]

My initial point was about health. People bash Drew for durability, but Nixon "The Dirt Dog" wasn't very durable either, and he's the name poeple always bring up to attack Drew.

[Paradisecity]

Regarding Nixon I completely agree: he was never on the field, and to be honest never turned out to be the player that the hype had him becoming years earlier.

 

I just don't think you can compare guys when you bring in one that costs twice as much as his predecessor (who wasn't exactly cheap himself).

[Dipre]

Fair enough.

[TheMino007]

I never compared Nixon to Drew, Drew blows Nixon away by miles in terms of talent and production.

[Dipre]

Not meant specifically for ya there, buddy, don't sweat it.

[Dojji]

What other dirt dog were we supposed to compare him to?

 

Troy O'Leary? Brian Daubach? Shea Hillenbrand? Reggie Jefferson?

[jacksonianmarch]

Nixon was beloved because he would get his jersey dirty, he killed Roger Clemens and he was home grown. He was an okay major leaguer with 2-3 really solid seasons. Thats it.

[Dojji]

Thanks, Jacko, but we didin't really need the obvious to be rehashed yet one more time.