Short days, long nights
'Tis the season for second guessing …
Bill:
I don't know if it's due to a short days and long nights, but I spent the whole weekend depressed about the offseason moves.
Mike:
You still think they overpaid for Renteria?
Bill:
Yeah, but more so this Clement deal. Turns out the guy's a big fucking question mark and a potential Olsen twin emotional breakdown waiting to happen.
Mike:
Since when is baseball strategy risk free? As for question marks and head cases, what they fuck was Pedro Martinez exactly?
Bill:
True. I'm just not comfortable with what seems like a backslide into the old ways … Team doesn't resign Martinez, so they feel they must make a move and overpay Renteria. Team loses Schilling to the DL for all of April so they panic and sign Clement, a big uncertainty at a big price.
Mike:
Lighten up, dude. The Baseball Prospectus guy, Will Carroll, thinks that Clements was a "great signing." If you really want to be depressed, imagine you're a fan of the Washington ex-Nationals.
Bill:
What a fucking fiasco. Is it true, as Gammons reports, that they'll play the next two years in Norfolk?
Mike:
Yep. Nor-fuck. The one city on the East Coast that even Baltimore can look down upon.
Bill:
Angelos must be pissing in his pants with joy.
Mike:
Knowing that bastahd, he probably considers Norfuck part of his Baltimore market little Ted Turner wannabe that he is.
Bill:
They aren't going to be the Norfolk Nationals are they?
Mike:
That would be lame-o. Hey, considering that Norfolk is the home port of the US Atlantic fleet, I think the Norfolk Seamen would be appropriate.
Buster Olney is a moron...in his NYTimes article on the Clement signing he compared the $25mm deal to the first offer the Sox made to Pedro, stupidly ignoring the fact that the Clement deal is 3 years and the first Petey offer was for two (and that it was a starting point which was significantly improved upon). Olney's just another MFY-fan sportwriter looking for anything to use in bashing the Sox front office.
Oh and Alex Belth (whom I think you've referenced here) claims the Sox overpaid Renteria...yo' Alex, I'd much rather 'overpay' Renteria $40mm over the next 4 years then GROSSLY overpay Derek 'Most Overrated Player in History' Jeter $120mm over the next 6 years...
Posted by: AJM | 2004.12.20 at 10:13 AM
Oops! I hadn't noticed that you were already linking to Alex calling Renteria overpaid...well, my comment still stands. If he thinks Renteria's overpaid I'd love to see him try to rationalize giving Jeter $20/mm per year for the next six seasons....hell of a lot of dough to pay for 'intangibles'.
Posted by: AJM | 2004.12.20 at 10:21 AM
Winter blues or not, Theo does not follow the rules of the old regime. If took Clement, he did it for a reason, a la Senor Octobre - hell, everyone but Theo treated Ortiz like he had a bad case of herpes (simplex 2!). As for Renteria, he's a horse - durable, great speed and good pop with the bat - and not clubhouse poison like a certain SS in Chicago.
Posted by: Follower of Tito | 2004.12.20 at 10:30 AM
Theo Epstein is familiar with Clement from the Padres organization. I believe if he had any huge misgivings about him, this deal wouldn't have gone through. And it's not as if Billy Beane was ever going to ship his young stud pitchers into any team in the AL. Clement was one of the few options the Red Sox had.
Posted by: Empyreal | 2004.12.20 at 11:55 AM
ouch!!! go easy on Norfolk, there are some transplanted members of RSN down here too. although i must admit, if not for the Navy there's no way i would want to live here.......
Posted by: Chris | 2004.12.20 at 12:10 PM
For fuck''s sake ;) are the nationals
a mess or what?? We should have them play
at Fenway on the days the sox are out
of town...
Posted by: DaveL | 2004.12.20 at 03:29 PM
Fuck Angelos. Fuck Linda Cropp. I want my $35 back from the DC City Council.
Posted by: da kine | 2004.12.20 at 11:20 PM
Funny you should say that DaveL. Wasn't too long ago that was a realistic thought: http://espn.go.com/mlb/news/2002/1024/1450403.html
Posted by: MikeyT's | 2004.12.21 at 03:15 AM