Sunday, August 26, 2012

The Trade, the end of an era that never was!


In December 2010, off the back of an injury plagued, hard fought season which ultimately ended mediocrity, and being also-rans, the Red Sox made a ‘splash’.

 
This wasn’t a regular ‘splash’, this was Sam Allardyce/Rex Ryan (delete as appropriate) jumping in a swimming pool off a 10 foot diving board level splash.

 
After executing a trade to bring slugger Adrian Gonzalez and his “Fenway swing” to Boston, the big names continued as they inked Carl Crawford, arguably the best player in the history of division rivals Tampa Bay to a monstrous contract. (7 years $142 million)

 
With these two at the helm, to go along with stalwarts like Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz the team possessed a potent, almost impossible lineup for opposition pitchers.

 
For a few months last summer, the team brushed every other team aside, a class above the rest. Adrian Gonzalez looked like he could hit a baked bean with a twig, and Josh Beckett was returning to a level not seen from him since his miracle playoff run of 2007. It was almost the resurrection.

 
Then the calendar flipped to September. September 2011, a month that will be etched into baseball lore, not just in New England, or across Red Sox Nation, but the whole of baseball. The team crumbled.

 
The team won 7 of there last 27 games, missing out on the playoffs, watching a potential World Series title fall by the wayside and the exodus began. We know this story!

 
What we didn’t know, is that after replacing the manager, seeing the General Manager leave for ‘friendlier confines’ the exodus wasn’t finished, it was just on a break, a la Ross and Rachael.

 
This week saw the break end, the team fold, the season finish prematurely and the future becoming the present.

 
The Red Sox have been abysmal this season, on the field they’ve underperformed (eyes glare towards the pitching). Management has underperformed, with manager Bobby Valentine taking little to no time alienating key members of the team with a detrimental comment regarding Kevin Youkilis. He was eventually traded to Chicago for the equivalent of a broken bat and a split mitt.

 
The trade that we saw this week signalled the end of an era that never really begun. Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford were joined on a chartered jet to Los Angeles by Josh Beckett (the recipient of many Red Sox fans’ fury) and Nick Punto (journeyman utility infielder nobody will remember) to officially become members of the Dodgers.

 
However, the Red Sox certainly didn’t just ‘give these guys’ away. In return the team receives Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster (the two core prospects in the deal), James Loney,  Jerry Sands, and Ivan DeJesus, to go along with 250 million dollars (gulp!) of cap relief.

 
De La Rosa, just returned from Tommy John surgery, a flame-throwing righty, supposedly the prized asset from the deal, along with Webster, who is potentially a top of the rotation starter, and immediately slots in at #4 on soxprospects.com.

 
The key to this deal for many, me included, is ridding the extotionate, borderline insane contracts of Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford.

 
Beckett, who in the past 2 years, has instigated a negative clubhouse culture, drunk beer, ate chicken, whilst looking slightly more out of shape every start, and progressively throwing slower, will take his 4 year $68 million (with 3 years remaining) with him.

 
Crawford, who had a difficult time adjusting last season, and was plagued by injuries this year will leave with fans wondering “what if?” However the chance to erase the 100 million plus he’s owed over the next 5 years was too much for the team to pass up.

 
The downside is losing Adrian Gonzalez, arguably the best all round hitter the teams had since Manny Ramirez was in his prime. Averaging .317 20+ homeruns and 115+ RBI’s per 162 games with the team, will be hard to replace.

 
However, with the team lacking any quality starting pitching this season, and the team out of contention for a playoff spot, rookie GM Ben Cherington sought to get younger players with high potential, an alien concept to us fans, who have been spoilt with playoff berths and world titles over the last decade.

 
The trade, to me, strikes as a good transaction, with the long term interest, (like taking Andrew Luck in a fantasy keeper league).

 
With uncertainty still dominating the headlines, pondering whether any other players will depart in the fire sale, If the manager has a job for next season. (let me spoil that, he has) there’s a real sense of intrigue surrounding the team, and gives Cherington an unenviable task this winter of sorting the mess out.

 Good Luck Ben!