Reactionary threads are always dangerous; I think this one is warranted now since we are at the quarter pole and Drew has a .699 OPS and a .592 OPS in May. He has 2 HRs, that were hit off of Chase Wright and Jeff Weaver and a whopping 5 doubles and a triple to give him 8 XBH in a fourth of a season.

He had a terrific spring and started the year red hot, so its hard to put the finger on this. This seems too long for a slump, or is that shoulder that was much argued about in contract negotiations bothering him and keeping him from driving the ball?

Rotoworld had a suggestion that he might be served better in the 2-hole and out of the RBI slot, and with Lowell hitting like a true #5 hitter, we might be able to get away with it. Maybe let Youk lead off and get Lugo to the bottom of the lineup. We have got to get Manny and Drew going because the pitching won't be this good all season long. We're really lucky to be 30-14 with three or four relatively slow starts in the lineup.

Admittedly this might be a bit reactionary, but his alarming slump lately, coupled with being on the hook for 5/70 is enough to scare anybody at least a little I would think.

I dont think he's been right since he had that cold/sickness.

I want Drew moved down, not up. I also don't like the idea of Youk leading off. I'd rather they just switch Lowell and Drew for now.

This guy looks like a true bust right now. We can't overlook the facts about him never being healthy in his career and that he had one 100 RBI season. He isn't worth the huge amount of money he got, plain and simple.

I hope he can turn it around but the facts and his history just point against it...

To be sure, Drew's season thus far has been disappointing, but remember when we all thought 'Tek was done? There's 75% of the season yet to be played. I'm not quite ready to close the door on JD Drew.

I have to admit I have been surprised at how many guys he leaves on..but as stated above it is early he will find his way hopefully soon !

Sure, that's why I added that I hope he turns it around. Yet even struggling a 70+ million dollar player should have better numbers than Drew has right now.

It's not reactionary at all, given Drew's three-year trend entering this year:

2004 - .305/.436/.569 OPS-plus of 158
2005 - .286/.412/.520 OPS-plus of 148
2006 - .283/.393/.498 OPS-plus of 125

2007 - .244/.355/.344 OPS-plus of 88.

I'm afraid that in a year or two we'll look back on the decision to sign this guy as a "What the f---- were they thinking?" kind of move. His downward trend, age, the concerns about his shoulder and general tendency to miss a lot of games with injuries were all warning signs that should have said 'Stay away." Instead, they committed a corner spot to him for five years and $70 million.

I couldn't figure it out at the time because it seemed so contrary to Theo's history of statements about not overpaying, not worrying about good players that got away but rather about the bad deals you gave out, etc. etc.

I hope I'm wrong and Drew gives us five solid years. But right now this one looks like it could turn out to be a more expensive and damaging version of the Edgar, BK Kim and Clement contracts.

There, fixed that for you.

Honestly, this shouldn't surprise too many. I wasn't a fan of this signing and still don't support it. Drew has had a couple of solid years and has shown flashes of his talent. However, there is just something about him that doesn't sit right with me and he is doing NOTHING to make me think otherwise. He is not working the count and putting together quality at-bats. My dog has shown more power since April and he continues to leave too many men on base.

Even if you are in a slump and not producing, you can still help by making productive outs. He isn't even doing that much. $14 Million a year - Ha!!

The biggest thing I see is his lack of aggression at the plate. He seems like he is going up there looking to push a walk. Takes a lot of strikes, and also fouls a lot of hittable pitches off, which suggests something might be amiss with the batspeed. Not a lot of screamers either, his LD rate is pretty low around 14%.

I think Drew is going to be the proof in the pudding for me with Magadan. It's his job to get him out of this.

Drew has largely been given a free pass because of the Sox' record, but when they slump a little the media is going to dig their heels in and go after him. Hopefully he will be out of this malaise before that happens.

Drew looks completely lost right now. He doesn't even seem that sure of himself when a ball lands in front of him in RF. I never thought he was worth much more than half the money. Trot is playing better than his replacement.

who would you rather have playing right field for boston ... drew or abreu? remember, boston was close to getting abreu last july until the yankees outbid them. both have been flops at the plate this season based on the size of their contracts. at least drew plays defense with some form of passion.

i like the two kids in pawtucket -- brandon moss and david murphy. ellsbury is less than a year away from becoming boston's CF. theo sort of went against his philosophy by spending $70M on drew instead of promoting from within.

Really? I don't recall all that many promotions from within. The Sox seem to always trade prospects before they let them play full time. Youk was 27 when they finally let him play full time and Pedroia is the only other position player that I can think of coming up with the team in a while.

If by "outbid them" you mean, "agreed to take Lidle's $3+ million in addition to all of Abreu's contract while giving up junk," then sure, they outbid them. To answer the question, I'd rather have Drew than Abreu.

you're exactly right on the lidle thing. that was the dealbreaker for boston.

taking drew over abreu is probably the consensus choice. that would be a very interesting debate in philly where the fans hate both of them.

I should correct myself. Contracts aside I'd take Drew. But if we could be rid of him after this year like the Yankees are Abreu (assuming the option isn't picked up), it would be ideal.

He's not a gamer and is having a slow start on top of it, that's what. This should come as much of a surprise to anyone who listened to fans form other towns he has played in. To quote my college room mate who is a life long Dodger fan and season ticket holder when we signed Drew "Thank god he did not pick his option here!". He went on to say that it feels like Drew never got a big hit for them and always lacked life. He did praise his ability to pile up stats when the team was up or down by 3+ runs.

When we looked at the numbers we hoped for more and probably J.D. will do better over the rest of the year. However when considering the intangibles, no one should be surprised with the lack of fire.



Great summary, I completely agree. Too big that IF is so big.

Looked like a gamer to me when he crashed into the wall trying to catch an HR.

Wasn't his last two injuries due to a flukey accident?

Being soft is a flukey accident?

EDIT: Sorry, couldn't resist.

No you guys are probably right. He has hit 164 HRs and put up a career OPS+ of 131 but none of it was ever important to the outcome of the game...

Dodgers fans are the stupidest people on the planet. Their minds are ruined by all the bottled water and smog and phoniness.

Drew was hopping up and down on top of the pile when they walked off on Mother's Day with a gigantic smile on his face, but he never shows fire. I guess you have to injure yourself driving from North Carolina to spring training and miss half the year to really be a dirt dog. Maybe Drew should make nothing but diving catches, that way people wouldnt question his fire anymore...

He could punch some water coolers, it worked for Paul O'Neil anyway.


Seriously unless he is injured I wouldn't worry about him that much, he will come around. I do think they gave him 2 to many years though, a 3 year deal would have been better for the Sox IMO.

I think it's worth noting that the Red Sox have an opt-out clause on Drew's contract based on two conditions:


Source: http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2004/12/boston-red-sox.html

Hmm, didn't know that. I would be surprised if he is a Red Sox for both of those years.

Those two clauses are meaningless, in my never-humble opinion.

Re: the first clause you mentioned - "Tito, my shoulder is fine, but my hammie hurts like hell. I think I need to be DL'ed."

Andre: the second one: "Who says I can't play the OF? I'm ready to go busting out there. The mgr has made a subjective judgment that I can't throw well enough to go out there."

I wouldnt count on the shoulder injury opt out... it has to be a very specific issue and will be difficult to prove... Im sure Boras goes down swinging on that one.


Im not sure it will be that difficult. If you remember they spent about 3 months delaying his signing getting this language to be very exact.

He could be injured in a way that precludes the manager deciding he can't play the OF too... like a broken leg.

The shoulder is a very specific thing, though, and it has to be the exact injury they found, not even another shoulder injury will do...

If Drew's shoulder breaks down, he probably won't be able to lift a bat, let alone lie about it and continue playing. As for the second clause, a good example might be if he were to foul a ball off his knee causing a bone bruise, for instance. He might still be able to hit, eventually, but playing Fenway's spacious RF with a bum knee is all but impossible.

Whatever the case may be, I think Drew will be fine for this current season and will eventually post better overall numbers than Trot Nixon. Remember, we won the World Series in 2004 with Kevin Millar and Gabe Kapler playing RF for most of the season. We'll be fine.

Why do we have an automatic out as our #5 hitter? Can we please switch up the middle going Manny, Ortiz, Lowell? We are wasting opportunities when Ortiz and Manny are getting on base.

Last I checked we have another thread like this about Manny. They will both turn it around.

Drew is 14 for his last 87 (.160). Pretty large sample there. He just continually beats grounders to 2B or strikes out. He hasn't hit a rope in a long time. Still waiting on Magadan to work some magic here. He should have killed one of those meatballs Mussina threw up there tonight.

I agree, and I remember when he carried this team for most of April offensively. However, he just looks dejected and defeated when he steps into the box the last week to two.


I don't remeber this guy ever being a good hitter in his career (other than 1990). Of course, he did last 16 yrs in the bigs. Anyways, hopefully Manny is finally busting out or this team will be in trouble offensively when Lowell has his annual post-break swoon, given Lugo and Drew's production this season.



Post all-star break you won't be wanting Lowell to hit 5th. You can book it and lock it, just like the leaves turn in the fall, Lowell's numbers will swoon and most of the pull homers/doubles will become pull outs.

I generally have the highest respect for Francona's management. I'm all for letting a quality hitter work his way out of a slump and i'm confident that Drew will battle back, but it wouldn't hurt to help him along. Sit him a couple games and let WMP swing the lumber and/or temporarily drop Drew in the lineup and take some of the pressure off for a short time. The guy is clearly pressing. He just needs someone to hit the relief valve a bit and ease the pressure. He just looks "tense" in the batters box.

Maybe the guy needs to get laid...that might help with his problems at the plate

All else being equal...his $alary alone presumably makes that remedy available to him any second of the day.

Peter Gibbons: What would you do if you had a million dollars?
Lawrence: I’ll tell you what I’d do, man, two chicks at the same time, man.
Peter Gibbons: That’s it? If you had a million dollars, you’d do two chicks at the same time?
Lawrence: Damn straight. I always wanted to do that, man. And I think if I had a million dollars I could hook that up, cause chicks dig a dude with money.
Peter Gibbons: Well, not all chicks.
Lawrence: Well the kind of chicks that’d double up on a dude like me do.
Peter Gibbons: Good point.

Drew definitely needs to sit, but probably won't tonight with Schill throwing. Too many flyballs. Drew has hit Pettitte pretty well, so let's see if tonight gets him going.

With Youkilis hitting well no matter where they put him in the lineup perhaps a move to the 2-spot would work well for Drew? With his speed, OBP prowess, and decent splits vs. LHP I think he'd be fine there and probably see some better pitches in that spot. I know that he's generally a 3-4-5 guy, but that might be the trick to break him out of his funk.

It makes me uncomfortable to put a potential black hole in front of Ortiz and Ramirez against the MFY. I'd feel better swapping him with Lowell for a game or two.

Let's work on nailing the coffin!

I don't mean immediately, but I think it's something they should look into doing in the future. And he's not exactly a 'black hole' there. If that's the case, then why would you want him as your #5 hitter? He is probably more important at the #5 spot than he would be at the #2. By making the switch you put him in a position to see pitches to hit and you put Youkilis behind Manny, so maybe that adds some cushion to get Manny some better pitches as well.

I have no backing or real reason for saying this, but I just don't want Lowell hitting 5th. I really dig him hitting lower in the order.

I'm with you 100% as to Lowell in the long-term. He's hot right now and i'd rather have Lowell in the 5-hole to help polish off the MFY rather than rely on Drew there until he pulls out of his funk. I intended this as a short-term solution rather than long term. I like and respect J.D. Drew and have every confidence that he'll bust out as a fearsome hitter once again...but right now...he's about as black a hole as the Sox have in the lineup.

SPLIT G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BA OBP SLG
Last 7 4 15 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 .133 .278 .133

That "U"-gly with a capital "U"



I don't think anyone's going to pitch to Manny for fear of facing Youks despite his torrid bat.
I understand where you're going with getting J.D. some fat pitches to see, but the way Lowell is swinging the bat right now, Drew is actually seeing some pitches to hit. He's just not making solid contact.

I think, in some ways, this actually runs counter to my suggestion that Drew and Lowell should temporarily be swapped in the lineup, because the MFY might pitch around Lowell to get to Drew in the 6 hole. Then again, this might give Drew the motivation he needs to punish them for treating him like a Mary!

All this talk of automatic outs..

Sure, the guy isn't getting hits.. but he's still getting on base pretty regularly.. I think he has the second most walks on the team, right after Papi.

Just saying..
at least he's still getting on base.

Uhhh...i apologize for my failed attempt to line up my STAT headers in the previous post, but J.D. is carrying an "I blow pygmies on a step ladder" OBP of .278 over the last 7 games!

He also has an OBP around .350 on the season, which is a little bigger sample size. He's been terrible this year offensively but his OBP has been fine so I don't think auto out works for him.

He always works at bats... I dont think he lost lost at the plate at all... the results just havent been there. Im really not worried in the slightest. Even if we were losing I wouldnt be worried, although Id be cursing him out every time he made an out... but with our record and run scoring I cant even work myself up to doing that...

I don't disagree with you over the course of the season. I like Drew and have great faith in him. I'm only talking about the immediate short-term (read back through the thread). I think he needs help getting jump-started...and IMHO, TeMPORARILY getting him out of the 5-hole might help.

I'm more worried about beating the MFY tonight than anything else.

I'm hoping that this bad start to the season for Drew so far is just his adjustment to AL pitchers. It'll be interesting to see if his numbers spike during interleague play in June, as they did for Alex Gonzalez last season.

Mussina was pretty awful last night (worse than many NL starters). J.D. is just slumping. It's not like he's feasting on non-quality starters either. He'll pull out of it...we saw him stomping on pitches the first couple weeks of the season!

Drew's OPS over the past month, a large enough sample size, is .475.

That's awful - Nuf Ced!

From the Boston Globe:

Well, in every slump you can see something positive. We already have a good offense basically without Drew and when he comes around, it can only help...

Let's see: fast start over the first couple of weeks, then serious slump for a month. Can't really be adjustment to the pitchers, as the initial success argues against that. Hitting in front of a very hot Mike Lowell, but still can't buy a base hit. Opts out of a game against a pitcher he normally crushes. Hmm... Hiding an injury, perhaps?