Getting What You Expect
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: J.D. Drew
Broken Drew
J.D. Drew suffers from a broken finger:
“J.D. has got a broken finger, for what that’s worth,” Epstein said, responding to a question about whether he’d like to see Drew “suit up and give it a try.” “He’s got an avulsion fracture of his middle finger. He needs to heal. Hopefully he can come back from that. We haven’t ruled anything out with him. Obviously, he wants to be out there. He got back, in his rehab game, went 3-for-3, and then in his last at-bat, broke that finger. He’s doing the best he can. We want to try to get him back as soon as we can. The same is the case for a number of other guys we’ve had out that we’ve had out for a long time here.”
The Red Sox are 47-30 when Drew plays, 38-31 without him.
Drew Triples
Terry Francona moves J.D. Drew into the lead-off slot, and Drew responds with a triple in the bottom of the first. It was Drew’s second extra-base hit of the season. He hit it off the wall in center, and Corey Patterson misplayed the carom.
Update: Jed Lowrie drives in two for an early Boston lead. Lowrie extends his hitting streak to seven games, with a dozen hits in that time.
Drew Comes Through
J.D. Drew works the count full in the bottom of the seventh, then singles to drive in two runs to extend the Red Sox lead to 9-6. With two singles, Drew raises his batting average to .294 and his OBP to .333. The square are now in order, as Boston scored 16 runs coming into this game, nine today and 25 for the season.
With-Drew?
J.D. Drew is talking about retirement:
“When I signed in LA I thought that I’ll have 11 years in the big leagues and I’ll weigh my options then. When I opted out (and signed with the Red Sox) I thought I easily had five years in me. Now I’m in a position, after next year, I’ll have to make a decision if it’s conducive to me going home and being with my family full-time, or if the family lifestyle is able to survive the rigors of a baseball season.
“I don’t think people realize the intensity of being gone. It’s really, really difficult. Then there’s where I stand in my faith and my commitment. Those things pull heavily when you start to get to this point in my career. There are so many things I want to do in the mission field and different things like that. It’s definitely going to be a thing where I’ll get ready for the season and as it goes along see what happens.”
Drew appears to have important interests in his life outside of baseball. A long, productive and well paid career will allow him to pursue those interests. We’ll see what happens, however, it must be very tough to walks away from earning millions of dollars a year.
Hat tip, Hardball Talk.
Consistent Drew
J.D. Drew drove in two runs in the Red Sox 5-3 comeback win against the Athletics Sunday afternoon. That gives him 62 RBI on the season. In his four seasons with the Red Sox, he drove in between 62 and 68 runs. The number of games he plays doesn’t matter, his slugging percentage doesn’t seem to matter, he always manages to end up in the 60s in RBI for Boston. of course, that’s one of teh complaints, as someone with his power should be driving in more runs.
The win means the Red Sox gain a game on both New York and Tampa Bay. With the White Sox and Twins also winning, it turned out to be a pretty good day for the massive tie scenario in the AL, especially for the three-way tie between the Rays, Twins and White Sox.
Drewing the Orioles
J.D. Drew hit two home runs against the Orioles tonight as Boston went on to a quick 3-2 victory over Baltimore. Drew now owns ten home runs on the season, five of them coming against Baltimore. Since joining the Red Sox, Drew has hit 64 home runs, 13 of them against Baltimore. In second place are the Blue Jays with seven Drew shots against them.
Drew Injured
J.D. Drew made the catch but lost the hamstring:
In the first inning of the Red Sox’ 10-6 win over the Dodgers last night, Drew hit his eighth home run of the season to provide a 3-0 lead. In the third, he denied Manny Ramirez of a hit by making a shoe-top catch to end the inning.
But that’s when Drew’s night ended. Following the catch, Drew took two steps before he limped off the field with a right hamstring strain. He needed to sprint to catch Ramirez’s sinking liner, and once he reached the dugout, manager Terry Francona knew Drew could not return.
“The right hammy is pretty sore,’’ Francona said. “He said initially he felt it pop.’’
Drew is hot this June, but luckily for Boston so are the rest of the hitters. Boston keeps finding outfielders who can contribute, so we’ll see if their farm system keeps paying dividends.
Longball Comeback
The Red Sox come back from a 4-0 deficit after Texas bats twice, and Boston used the long ball to get there. Mike Lowell gets the start at designated hitter against the left-hander Harrison, and hits a solo shot in the second. J.D. Drew, still in despite hitting as poorly as David Ortiz, hits a grand slam in third to give Boston a 5-4 lead. That should keep the critics off his back for an evening.
Praising Drew
Amalie Benjamin questions the critics of J.D. Drew, and even bring WAR into the conversation. She also brings up the big hits:
Drew has gotten the hit so many times that some in the organization privately wonder why David Ortiz has gotten all the praise.
There was the two-out grand slam off Fausto Carmona in Game 6 of the 2007 American League Championship Series, the ninth-inning tie-breaking homer off Francisco Rodriguez in Game 2 of the 2008 ALDS, the home run and game-winning RBI in the Sox’ epic comeback in Game 5 of the 2008 ALCS, the homer in a loss in Game 3 of the 2009 ALDS.
At least one member of the Sox organization was so confident in Drew’s abilities that against David Price in the eighth inning of the 2008 ALCS, he considered Drew exactly the person he wanted at the plate, even though it didn’t work out.
“I think he’s a guy that rises to the occasion,’’ the scout said. “I’ve seen him play quite well in the playoffs. I’ve seen him get some awfully big hits for this ball club. I think he has risen up to the expectations that I would certainly give to him based on when I first saw him. He’s fulfilled my expectations. I think that probably there may be some people that would disagree with that.’’
Drew takes a lot of walks with runners in scoring position, even excluding intentional walks. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it means he leaves lots of men on base for someone else to drive in. Ortiz and Ramirez were not as extreme with walks in those situations, which led to higher RBI totals. Good for the club or not, fans do not like sluggers to pass an RBI opportunity on to another player.
Players A to Z, J.D. Drew
J.D. Drew plays outfield for the Boston Red Sox. I’m finishing up a freelance piece on Drew, which I’ll link to eventually. The gist is that Drew is an all-around excellent hitter, but despite his power doesn’t drive in a lot of runs. That’s why there is such a huge difference of opinion on the player. The Red Sox understand the value of his hitting and fielding, but he does seem to pass up a number of opportunities to drive in runs.