December 6th, 2006 → 10:24 am @ Seth Mnookin // No Comments
We’ve already heard a lot — and will continue to hear a lot — about how the Red Sox just committed $30 million dollars more to J.D. Drew than they were willing to offer Johnny Damon. Two small things on that tip:
A. That’s simply not true.
B. Drew’s agent — I think he’s some guy name Scott Boras — pretty much guaranteed Damon wouldn’t return to the Sox when he outright lied to the front office about what other deals were on the table.
Honest. I know. I wrote all about it in my book — which all of you should own by now (and have I mentioned it makes a great holiday present?). Here’s a quick excerpt detailing exactly what went down…
Shalomar
18 years ago
THE OFFENSE IS OFFICIALLY DOWNRIGHT NASTY
JD Drew and Lugo are going to be studs in the lineup. They can both fly and smack the crapola out of the ball. Everytime I saw Lugo coming to the plate in a Tampa uniform, I was displeased – he would end up smacking a double down the left field line and flying around the basepaths. And he is apparently a great clubhouse guy ( I loved Gonzalez’s D think they probably should have kept him, but he did hit an awful lot of popups to right field with ducks on the pond. Here’s a prediction: JD Drew will be in the top 3 MVP voting within 3 years, mark my words. And I think Lugo will be another pal for Manny, who is undoubtedly pleased about the reloading. Ease up on Manny, part of the reason he is such a great hitter is because he is so loopy – look at Trot and Youk, who are intense head cases and thus go thru prolonged slumps. Finally, do you want Sox mgmt to not spend $ and have a mediocre team, or spend a lot of their cash and have a devastating lineup and ace staff?
elsid
18 years ago
Great clubhouse guy?! The Sox just picked up two terrible character guys. JD Drew’s teammates were happy to see him leave LA & he was unpopular in St Louis, the “Happiest Place on Earth”. On top of that, he can’t stay healthy enough to play 135 games/year – why he’s nicknamed NANCY Drew.
Lugo is another Wil Cordero situation. Why doesn’t anyone bring up the fact that Lugo was arrested for bouncing his wife’s head off the car hood in the Astrodome parking lot several years ago?? Also, he was traded from the toilet of Tampa Bay to a playoff chase in LA and had the stones to bitch about playing time.
That was a colossal waste of resources by Boston. Their payroll flexibility has been compromised along with the clubhouse atmosphere.
HFXBOB
18 years ago
I’ve also had my fill of the comparisons between the 10 million offer to Damon and the 14 million to Drew, but mainly because people aren’t considering the rampant inflation (or insanity) that has affected all baseball transactions this offseason. I mean, Ted Lilly of the career 59-58 record and 4.60 ERA looks to be on the verge of signing for 10 million a year. If Damon was a free agent this offseason he’d probably start the bidding at 15 million.
crimsonohsix
18 years ago
But the front office should have had some foresight into market conditions for the off-season and signed Damon last season. Henry made his fortunes in futures trading, for Pete’s sake. You’re telling me that he is willing to spend millions on sabermetrics research but he doesn’t have any models that can predict baseball market inflation from year to year???
Ogie Oglethorpe
18 years ago
HFXBOB is right on the money. Sportswriters comparing the two offers are basically assuming that there readers are not smart enough to realize that the two offers were made in completely different environments.
Seahedge
18 years ago
Boras should have had Damon signed for one year then exploited the market. If Boras didn’t know…..
zoowah
18 years ago
Chad Bradford signed a 10.5 million contract this year.
Could anyone forsee it?
Anyone?
zoowah
18 years ago
On a different topic:
Eric Wilbur.
Am I the only one put off by the snarkiness of his writing, especially when it comes to trades?
Ugh.
crimsonohsix
18 years ago
Even if Boras knew for certain the market would rise, he wouldn’t have recommended Damon to sign a one year deal. Reasons why:
1. Damon wanted a multi-year deal
2. If Damon got injured Boras would lose a lot of money
3. If Damon went with another agent in the 2nd year Boras would lose a lot of money
The Sox must have known that the market was rising – that’s the only rational justification I can think of for their seemingly bloated Beckett and Crisp contracts mid-season. I just wish they had offered Damon something sweeter.
And Seth, do you really think that Boras wouldn’t have asked Damon to listen to offers from Boston, even if they had been higher? He may be a greedy, slimy shmuck, but he doesn’t hate money.
Trouthead
18 years ago
Listening to Kennedy et al on XM. Constant remarks about how the Sox should have offered Damon more money and how Drew is not worth the $$. Seeming little understanding of different markets, and different time and places. There appears to be an expectation that Theo and John Henry should have a crystal ball to look into the future, and then make their trades. Tough to catch lightning in a bottle once, let alone every year.
cursemyreverse
18 years ago
I’m glad that we didn’t sign Damon again, for last years money or this years. His act was getting a little old frankly, as the mouthpiece for the Boston Media, and as the self anointed team spokesman. (not a great marriage) At least Schilling the loudmouth has a brain, and thus independent thoughts. I loved how Damon treated fans and I loved how hard and happy he played, but his arm or shoulder or ankle is going to come clean off during this contract, and I’d bet he is at least just as injured as Drew is over the time. And Drew has better stats and is younger. Geez, give Drew a chance – on paper he is Trot Nixon Plus. And Nixon didn’t exactly play while injured either – and I don’t recall myself or anyone else holding it against him.
Additionally people need to chill on living in the past, why don’t we start crying about Jeff Bagwell or Eckstein again. Maybe you want to hear about Babe Ruth again? And if you think the market reasonings were the same last season and this, you are not paying attention. Damon is gone. Very gone. End of story.
If Seth says that Damon/Boras pulled a fast one on the Sox, then I trust him over pure conjecture, I seem to recall he was sort of plugged in at that point. Anyone else here talking to the front office intimately last offseason? Have you read the book?
Centerfield13
18 years ago
I’m a Sox fan in exile, carpet-bagging in Florida, so I’ve had the pleasure of cheap Sox tickets at the Trop, plus being able to follow the Devil Rays. One of those comments is sarcastic…
Anyway…people need to lay off Julio Lugo and forget the Wil Cordero references.
1. He’s a good guy, and was all around well-liked in Tampa.
2. The charges from Houston were dropped, and the Astros definitely over-reacted when they released him.
3. The comparisons between him and Cordero cannot have anything to do with playing ability, but rather ethnicity and criminal charges. I think Cordero’s weren’t dropped, by the way, so there’s even less similarity.
When it comes to playing ability, Lugo is far, far better than Wil Cordero ever was. Cordero essentially became a DH for teams who needed bench power, while Lugo can field, run, and hit pretty well.
I’m excited about how the Sox will look in ’06 if everything pans out. It won’t be as scary a line-up as 2003, but who cares? As long as we don’t have Dustin Mohr and other rejects, we’re in good shape.
tinisoli
18 years ago
Re: Johnny’s celebrity act getting old…
I’d be willing to wager that Theo, Henry, and Lucchino are equally queasy when Schilling is on WEEI or pulling his “I’m the only one who speaks the truth” messiah routine. In general, I wish all of these guys would just STFU and play, whether it’s refraining from screaming at an ump when you’re not even in the game (Trot), talking about “towelheads” (Timlin) or stumping for a presidential candidate (Schilling). There exceptions to the rule, but for the most part the most compelling thing a pro athlete can do is practice his craft well.
Ogie Oglethorpe
18 years ago
Well played cursemyreverse. Damon never saw a microphone or camera he didn’t like. He also never had anything meaningful to say. I liked him as a player and as a personality at first but enough was enough. All the people crying for Damon are a joke. Sure he wanted to play here but he was going where the richest contract was offered. Once he signed with the Yanks he was dead to me, once he started recruiting Manny and Papi to the Yanks he became somebody who I’d like to see fail, miserably. Let’s move on. If you don’t like the current Sox lineup and still want to root for Damon maybe you should move on too.
crimsonohsix
18 years ago
David Ortiz had a breakout year in 2003. A bunch of statisticians predicted he was undervalued.
So why is it so hard to predict changes in baseball market inflation? Wall Street traders manage to predict real-life inflation (CPI, PCE) quite accurately on a monthly basis.
HFXBOB
18 years ago
zoowah, in response to what you said about Eric Wilbur. First in his defence I think he’s smart, does his homework, and isn’t shy about speaking his mind. So I read him. But I agree about the snarkiness. The entry today was a perfect example. He got in shots at Drew, Nixon, Lugo and many other players, and of course Sox management took heat for just about everything they’ve done the past few years. Wilbur even took some good stuff Grady Little said about Drew and spun it around to look bad because of who said it. The biggest irritation for me is that beating the dead horse thing. Last year he would not let up about the Arroyo deal, and this year we’ll probably hear about it all over again. It gets old.
Jenny
18 years ago
Seth, can you clarify the Josh Beckett deal for me? The way I understand what you wrote about it in the book, it was railroaded through by Lucchino in an attempt to shift media and fan attention away from internal problems in the wake of Theo’s resignation. This was done over the objection of several baseball ops guys, specifically Jed Hoyer. Given the close relationship between Jed and Theo and thus the probable similarity in their viewpoints, I have been assuming all year that had Theo still been GM, that trade would not have occurred. Is this your take? Every time I try to advance this view to others, they call me a ballwashing Theo apologist or something of that ilk. One sportswriter (Bill Madden?) even wrote in all seriousness that the trade was Theo’s fault because he was “in the building.” Some help here? I know it’s not Damon-related, but that section of the book was really self-explanatory.
This morning in the Middle East, er, the Matsuzaka negotiations (And: Is Scott Boras pulling a Fonzie?) at The Feeding the Monster Blog — In which the author discusses Boston, the Red Sox, the media, and very occasionally popular music.
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