How does Jon Lester get morphed into Josh Beckett? Yeah, they both eat fried chicken on their off days, and yeah, they both have underperformed for the last five months, but Lester's career had been a record setting model of consistency, whereas Becket has bobbed up and down for a decade now, and it is only Beckett who tells people to go pound sand... and Lester is four years younger, to boot.
It is hard to feel very sorry for people who get paid ten million dollars a year to entertain us when they fail to do so, but Red Sox "fans" who post on blogs and who call into the radio shows don't seem to grasp that about one half of a player's seasons will be below his career average, as will about one half of all the months he plays and one half of all the weeks, but as soon as a Red Sox player has a stretch from the lower half of his career, he is a bum. Pedroia was well along a path that might lead to the hall of fame coming into this year, and now he's a bum, and Gonzales, after a slow start, is just above his career batting average and projects for his career season RBI average. So he only hit five homers in the first three months this year, but he has hit six more since then. And what about Ellsbury? He suffers for a year with misdiagnosed crack ribs, comes back and finishes second in the MVP race, and then gets injured again and the fans say he doesn't want to play. He doesn't want to play? For chrissakes, whatever he does this year and next year set his career salary trajectory. The difference between having one more year like last year and having a 2011 Carl Crawford year would mean about oh, $50 million to Ellsbury, and don't you think he might actually LIKE playing baseball? I mean, when he was ten years old, he probably could hit a golf ball farther than anyone he knew his age and could probably hit a tennis ball harder and cover the court better, but he chose to pursue a career in baseball. What would he prefer to do? Play video games and eat chicken?
How many Red Sox fans are aware that Carl Yastrzemski went a full year in the prime of his career, stretched over two baseball seasons, without hitting a single home run? How many of you remember that Rick Burleson, who would run through a brick wall for his team, was maligned by the fans for taking his time returning from an injury when it turned out was that what delayed his return was that he kept exceeding the exercise reps he was told to take and would reinjure himself?
The Red Sox should trade Ellsbury now, while he has a year and a fraction left on his contract, because believe me, he will take the same money from any team that is not in the northeast, but Lester is under control for two more full seasons so he is stuck here. Red Sox fans would be lucky to be stuck with a few more Jon Lesters, if there even were a few more.
I hope this doesn't mean the wheels are going to fall off.
