[Left] Unfrozen caveman lawyer, Boston Red Sox traitor and Hall of Very Good player Johnny Damon.Tonight, the host of Monday Night Raw is New York Yankees free agent outfielder Johnny Damon. I've only seen about 30 minutes of the show, but his acting is as weak as his arm - Very muted and lowkey, with little chance of gunning someone down at the plate or coming across as a strong presence on the microphone. (See what I did there, mixing the two comparisons? Impressive, I know.)
Anywho, Damon's presence on the show reminded me that he is still a free agent, since he (most-likely) overplayed his hand with the Yankees this offseason. I initially heard that he wanted a contract in the two to four-year range, at more than $10 million per year, which struck me as absolutely insane.
At that dollar value, Damon is only good if he can play center field, which he can't anymore at age 36. I'd rather take a flier on someone like Vlad Guerrero or Nick Johnson, the second of which the Yankees are apparently doing. (By the way, this annoys me as a Red Sox fan - I was hoping the Red Sox would sign Johnson as their first baseman, and to keep Kotchman as a decent backup who might regain some of his value with a full year in Boston.)
That being said, I am surprised how well Damon is performing and holding up physically. The general rule is that speed guys like Damon, Rickey Henderson, Devon White, Marquis Grissom and others preserve better than others. However, Damon's iffy middle seasons - his only year in Oakland and 2003 in Boston - made me question whether he was following this career path or not, especially since he last played center field everyday in 2006.
Regardless, the Red Sox have Ellsbury (and now Cameron and formerly Coco Crisp), so it was justifiable for them to let Damon walk. While Ellsbury doesn't have as much power as Damon, I view him as a league average center fielder at a rock bottom price. He hasn't developed as much as I would like, excluding the stolen bases, but it is still worth employing him in order to save the money to sign some other players, like John Lackey.
He sure was nice to look at though. I still have a pink shirt that says Johnny is my homeboy on it. Ha, ha. It's kind of funny now but at one point it time it was my favorite t-shirt.
ReplyDeleteAwww! haha. I was never a huge fan of Johnny Damon the guy, but then again, I tended to identify with scrappy white dudes. My jerseys are of Tim Wakefield, and inexplicably, Jed Lowrie and Mark Bellhorn. (I might be the only person to have a Bellhorn jersey at this point.)
ReplyDeleteYou want to hear something bizarre? The same night that you wrote this post, but before you wrote it, I had a dream that Johnny Damon ended up back with the Red Sox. It was a trade in the middle of a Red Sox-Yankees game (again, it was a dream), but kind of weird, eh?
ReplyDeletehm, Weird! The odd thing is that the Red Sox could potentially use him as an extra bat at DH and OF. I'd love to see them capitalize on the overvaluation of Ellsbury and move him for someone better, and then fill the gap with a one-year bat like Damon. However, he's asking for silly money from the Yankees, and I don't think the Red Sox front office wants to put up with him.
ReplyDelete