John Lackey & JD Drew: #2 & #3 Highest Paid Red Sox and Why JD Drew Takes All The Heat For It.

And with the 5th pick in the 1998 Major League Baseball Entry Draft, the St. Louis Cardinals select J.D. Drew, Outfielder from Florida State University.

Who would of thought that pick, a kid from Tallahassee, Florida with so much potential would be a major let down time and time again. A Career .279 hitter, his best .323. and his worst .225 (currently) he has never consistently been a power hitter or an average hitter. His smooth swing and intangibles have had scouts raving and shaking their heads for 13 years and JD even got Theo, the Boy Wonder, Epstein to fall for his trick. $70 Million over 5 years and thank god we are in the fifth year of this deal. JD is owed $14 Million this year; the third highest paid player on the Red Sox. He makes $1.5 Million more than David Ortiz, $1.725 million more than Youk, and makes a ridiculous $7.7 Million MORE THAN ADRIAN GONZALES. 100% one of the worst moves Theo has ever made, he bought in to what Scott Boras was selling and we have been paying for it since.

Now onto John Lackey. Lackey hasn't had the amount of time to prove himself like JD has but his performance was nothing short of disappointing. Lackey is the second highest paid Red Sox with a salary of $15,950,000. I 100% was and still am for John Lackey's acquisition but I do feel like they over paid by 3-6 million per year. Last year, his first year in a Sox uniform Lackey had a 4.40 ERA and a 14-11 record. This year his ERA is 6.70 and he is 7-8. His last 3 starts have been a lot better and I am looking for him to finish the year around the same ERA and record as last year; if I had to predict, I would say a 4.65 ERA and a record of 15-11. 

When you really look into the numbers its easy to see a resemblance of his 2003 season and his 2010 season.

YEAR      2003      2010

ERA         4.63       4.40

WHIP       1.42       1.42

W-L         10-16      15-11

IP              204         215

H              223          233  

R              117         114

ER           105          105

BB            66           72

SO            151         156

As you can see, freakish similarities in those seasons. In 2004 Lackey did slightly worse than he did in 2003 and then turned it around for the 2006-2009 seasons; I am expecting the same thing to happen with him this year and the years to come. He has straight up sucked this year so far, but I see him starting to finally be comfortable in Boston and start to put solid starts together. I can see him finishing this year on a roll, getting his ERA down and having a great 2012 season.

Its very clear that both JD Drew and John Lackey have both underachieved and are way over paid, but why is JD Drew the only one taking the heat for it? Well it's pretty simple; He never was and never will be a Boston player. Boston fans love their dirt dogs; Trot Nixon, Dustin Pedroia, Youk, Tek, Pap, etc. They love the guys who go balls to the wall and comes through in the clutch. JD Drew comes off lazy, a pre madonna and acts like he could care less about baseball. He always has the stupid grin on his face after he strikes out, never throws a tantrum, never shows emotion. There is no way JD Drew isn't a competitive guy; you don't make it to the big leagues without being a competitor, he just doesn't show it. On top of all those reasons, he has plain and simple sucked. One of my favorite JD Drew stories is in the 2007 ALCS you will recall the Red Sox we trailing Cleveland 3-1 coming back to Boston. I just so happened to be at Game 5, Curt Schilling vs Fausta Carmona. In the first inning with 2 outs, bases loaded, the score 0-0; JD Drew comes to the plate. Everybody and their mother was pissed he was the one at the plate. The guy behind me starts screaming "Get Nancy Drew out of there!", "This guy is a Bum!", "He's going to watch 3 strikes go by!". I was thinking to myself that 1. this guy was already in the tank and it was only the first inning so I was probably in for a long night, 2. He's probably right because JD Drew sucks. about a minute later JD hits a line drive to center and by some act of God, it carried and carried and carried, and barely went out for a grand slam. The Fens erupted, people high fiving people, babies being consummated, girls flashing the crowd. Ok, well, not the last 2 but you get it.  Im high fiving everyone around me and the guy who was yelling before grabs me and screams "I KNEW HE COULD FUCKING DO IT!!!!" in my face.  Maybe you had to be there? I thought it was funny, but true story.

Now everything I just said about JD Drew is the complete opposite for John Lackey. Lackey is a gamer; he shows emotion, he doesn't like to be taken out of games and he will scream at Tito if he's not happy. That's what Boston fans love; a guy who wants to grab the game by the balls and own it. Not to mention Lackey's wife is an Alum of UNH (My School) go cats, and she is what one would call.... hotttttttttttttttttt.