Red Sox Stink 2007

Someone posted the following comment to one of my blogs…

Randy Johnson - 7-5 3.51 ERA - 41 years old

Javier Vasquez - 7-5 4.45 ERA - 28 years old

Great trade.

…and signed it ‘david@dobrindts.com’.

How do I know this was a Red Sox fan?

1. Trademark second-guess 20-20-hindsight Monday-morning-quarterback nonsense. It’s so easy to question a trade AFTER it happens and AFTER it appears (short term) to not work out. Good job, very astute. Did you get out of 6th grade.

2. Short sighted. Looking at 3-months of data and making a judgment call on it. Do you think this is exactly how the season will end for these two? Is 3 months of numbers enough to compare the two? So if David Ortiz goes one game without getting a hit and some scrub across the country goes 4 for 5, would you compare those two based on those numbers. Is Campbell a better golfer because he beat Tiger Woods at the US Open? Nice job, Again, very astute.

3. You gave me 7-5 3.51 41 versus 7-5 4.45 28. How about this comparison, bare with me for a moment.

Randy Johnson – 253 career wins vs 133 career loses. 8 seasons with 17 or more wins. 4,255 career strike outs. Lifetime ERA of 3.10.

Javier Vasquez – and its Vazquez, with a Z. A ZEE, not an S. 85 career wins vs. 83 career loses. Johnson has been in the league 10 more years. Great percentage for Vazquez though, real impressive. Great track record. 1,313 strike outs. Quick math. Per year in the majors Johnson has 212 strike outs, Vazquez has 164. Close, very close, but not quite the same. Lifetime ERA of 4.28. Again, close, but not the same. One season with 16 wins.

And if you’ll remember, which is tough to do for a Red Sox fan, that Javier did not do well with the Yankees. He had a good win total but also got a ton of run support.

So to compare these two and call shots after 3 months is kind of short sighted, don’t you think? Remember a couple of years ago when Trot Nixon was doing well they were talking about a straight-up trade for Sammy Sosa and some in Red Sox nation were even saying Trot was better than Sammy. At that time I thought Red Sox fans were nuts. Comparing Trot Nixon to Sammy Sosa is like comparing Randy Johnson to Javier Vazquez…oops, you did that too.

4. The final reason I know it was a Red Sox fan was because they hid behind a fake name. Just leave your real name or email and take the verbal abuse you so very much deserve.

Finally, Johnson has won 5 Cy Young awards. The latest coming 2 years before the trade was done. He won his first around age 32. Since Javier is coming up on that mark, I guess he will win his first one too.

One other thing. Vazquez is making 11 mil this year, Randy around 15 mil. Would you pay 4 more mil for a player of Randy’s caliber? I guess not since you are questioning the trade. Terrible trade?? Yeah, good call. Good thing you are not in baseball.

Posted by David at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Randy Johnson is amazing. He really is. I love that he was lights out last night. But what is more amazing is he is not even close to 300 wins. That, and his name is Randy Johnson with a nickname of The Big Unit. Porn name if there ever was one. But getting back to the wins. He’s got 253 career wins. He’s been in the league for 17 or 18 years. He is up there. His strike out total is pretty impressive and he has a respectable ERA, but just find it strange that he isn’t even close to 300. So I looked at Greg Maddux who has 310. Maddux has been in the league 2 more years but also played on much better teams. Randy is sort of like Mussina with Baltimore where he didn’t get a ton of support for some pretty good seasons.

Anyway, just thought I’d share.

By the way, I HATE the Red Sox. Great job beating up the NL Central, real impressive. Before we have a Bronson and Keith parade, just remember who they were playing against.

Posted by David at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What the (expletive deleted) is going on here. Swept? By Kansas City? SWEPT? KC has gone 78 series without sweeping anyone. SEVENTY EIGHT!! And they did it against our Yankees, the mighty Yankees. Good god that was painful. The thing that scares me is the streakiness of the Yanks. Good teams, and certainly the strong Yankee teams of the past 10 years, would follow a loose pattern of wins and losses. 4 wins, 1 loss, 5 wins, 2 losses, 3 wins, a loss, 6 wins, 2 losses, etc. You get the idea. Not 11-19, followed by 16 of 18, followed by 5 losses in a row. It’s troublesome. We are a third of the way through the season and they need to straighten things out. Pitching is not terrible but no one is the lights-out stopper they need. And if Sheffield does not make it as a starter in the All Star game, I know it’s a joke. After all, Garciaparra is the number one vote getter in the NL for short stops and he is NOT EVEN PLAYING. And Manny is one of the top three outfielders with an average of 250?

One other thing, I HATE David Ortiz. But I love what they’re doing with Faulke. Real proud of that guy. It’s like my buddy Jay at an open bar with good looking chicks around. Sit back and watch the train wreck.

Posted by David at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)