8/29 - vs Toronto Blue Jays

[Maxbialystock]

This is so full of BS I may need to get out my boots.

 

People are down on Hanley because of one thing and one thing only; he's not performing to expectations. It's not because of dreadlocks, skin color or anything else. People were on him two years ago because he didn't perform. He put up good numbers last year (especially in the second half) and guess what, very little criticism. This has not been a good year and the critics are back. Ditto Young, he's not having a good year and isn't really doing the job he was brought in to do, hit lefties. Nothing to do with his beard (which quite frankly, I had not noticed).

 

What's the excuse for the criticism of Moreland for much of the season? Sale and Pomeranz are loved because they've been pitching well. Porcello has not and guess what, people are down on him.

 

Want to go back to the Manny era, how many people liked JD Drew? Don't recall a lot of "hate" for Pedro, but Schilling sure gets his share.

 

Bottom line in Boston and every other town, if you do well, most fans will love you, if you don't; they won't.

 

All good points, especially Manny vs. JD Drew--thanks for the reminder. I forgave Manny the dreadlocks and even Manny being Manny because of that great bat. And I positively, absolutely never liked JD Drew even though he was pretty darn close to a bonafide five tool player: hit,hit for power, throw, field, and run. He was just too darn fragile for my taste, and by far his best year was before he came to Boston where is best rbi total was 68.

 

As for HanRam, I still don't like the dreadlocks, but, as illinoisox says, his performance doesn't make up for my hair fetish (I'm pretty sure it's not racial, but of course can't prove it). The performance case against HanRam is simple. He has the 4th most at bats on the team, and his OWAR (offensive wins against replacement) is 0.2, and the next lowest is 1.2.

 

His overall WAR, 0.3, ranks him as the 148th best player in the AL, but at $20M/year of course. Better value than Pablo, for sure, but the Sox right now are paying Sandoval not to play for us, so that's a pretty low standard.

 

He's still in the Sox uniform, however, and because of that I root for him whenever he does something good, like last night's very timely dinger.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Maxbialystock