Nomar Garciaparra, he of 1231 hits, 173 HRs, 669 RBIs and 272 doubles, officially disgusts me now. I am sick and tired of Anthony Nomar Garciaparra.
Nomar Garciaparra’s quick and dirty history with contract extensions:
Spring 2003 – Red Sox offer Nomar Garciaparra four years at 15 million. (Just so you know, that’s 60 million.) Tellem rejects, negotiations closed.
Fall 2003 – Arn Tellem, Nomar’s agent, asks for 17 million a year for five years. The Red Sox counter with a decrease of their initial offer, offering 12 million for four years. An angered Tellem closes negotiations for the time being.
Winter 2003/04 – Nomar learns he is about to be shipped to Chicago for the White Sox’s Magglio Ordonez. Replacing him will be A-Rod. An alarmed Nomar calls into a radio station on his honeymoon and says he wants to remain a Red Sox.
Winter 2004/Spring 2004 – Nomar says he considers himself having been traded, so he’s already worked through all the emotions of being traded from the only team he has known. This is a veiled threat – I will walk away, I have no qualms now.
Spring 2004 – The Red Sox offer another contract, four years with an option of a fifth at 13.5 million dollars. The Globe reports that signing Nomar is the top priority of the Sox.
No, no, no! Worst thing I could have heard.
First off, Pedro is the first priority, not Nomar. Then it’s Varitek. Then Lowe. Then Nomar. Pedro is the face of the Red Sox – not Nomar. Hell, Kevin Millar is more the face of the Sox than Nomar. “Nosemar Grouchyaparra” does not like the media. He reached out to the media when, whaddyaknow, he was about to be traded – oh wait, he says he WAS traded.
Almost every picture of Nomar shows him being grouchy. And this is not including pictures of him winning games, or chatting with friends. When he’s with the media, when he’s doing other things … is he smiling? I think not.
The man rejected four years at 60 million. Jim Thome, one of the premier first basemen in the league, signed a six year, 85 million contract last year with the Phillies. That averages out to 14.16 million a year, or 56.6 million over four years. And we wanted to pay Nomar more. One would argue that Nomar is much more valuable than Thome because of his position – agreed. But a cursory glance at Nomar’s career statistics then point out – Nomar’s done. His prime peaked at 26.
Read a previous article I wrote on Nomar that is relevant.
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Why would you ever want to get rid of Nomar? Cause of the money issue? Look at the SS around the MLB, of course he’s going to ask for more money, because they all jack up his price. Nomar is a great hitter, and a good SS. The last thing you guys over in Boston should do, is try to get rid of one of your better players. You haven’t won a title in 1918, so why try to do that by giving up Nomar? The reason the man is so miserable in Boston, is because he’s treated with such disrespect. The entire franchise had him written off for A-Rod. They don’t pay him what he’s worth. And he still comes and plays hard every year, injured or not.
Dan -
There’s no question that Nomar plays hard. But in this day and age, money is an issue. I just don’t believe Nomar is worth even $12 million. He won’t try to improve.
“Nosemar Grouchyaparra” –thank you, thank you.
Nomar–draw a friggin walk, why don’t you? Two times in your career your OBP has been over .400: but it’s pretty sad that a guy has to hit .350+ before his OBP becomes noteworthy.
Evan–isn’t Renteria a FA after this season? Pretty sure he is, but as of right now, I hear he wants to resign with St Louis. Current projections are in the $8-10m range. After the Pujols signing, however, Morris and Renteria would have to price themselves cheap for the Cards to afford them. So if Renteria actually goes to FA, I think we could lure him to Boston with $10-11m. Take whatever the Cards offer, and top it by a million or so. Which is throwing money away, yes, but from our point of view, it’s still cheaper than what we would’ve been paying Nomar, so it’s a bargain. That gives us extra money to work with Lowe/Ortiz/Tek (Pedro being our first priority).
Although, to be honest, Renteria’s speed wouldn’t make him the ideal #3 hitter. It’d be a waste, hitting Renteria in front of Manny. Maybe move Nixon to #3: his OBP has always been excellent.
Dan–I could give you about 150 reasons for dumping Nomar, actually, if you really want me to. I can’t stand him. And I’d start with something Evan mentions only in passing, those double damned weak popups. I can’t find the stats, but I’ve looked, because I’m just dying to know how many times Nitwit popped out last year. It’s gotta be an obscene number. I could be wrong, but I would speculate 100+ times, easy.
Which, if you think about it, is little better than 100+ K’s. What good does a weak popup do? Oh, occasionally one of his flyouts would sac in a run, but I’m not even talking about that. Not flyouts, popups. Infield, shallow outfield stuff. Sickening. And if you couple 100+ weak popups with 60 K’s, you’re talking about a detriment to your team’s offense, not a feared hitter–a guy who should be making less money, not more.
And while we’re at it, let’s talk about his E’s. Can you say, “stone hands”?
Quick reply to Sam’s good post – Yes, Edgar is a FA. And the scenario you pose is not out of the question.
You forget to mention that in the very same offseason Nomar Garciaparra was offered 4 years and 60
million that Todd Helton, the only active major leaguer with a higher batting average than Nomar,
signed a 141.5 million dollar contract for 4 seasons. As part of a negotiating tactic Tellem put
down a counteroffer for 5 years and 17 per. The Sox cut off negotiations with an at the time
insulting 12 million a year for 4 years.
But the mistreatment of Nomar didn’t even begin there… when Nomar signed his deal in 1998 he had
a handshake agreement with Dan Duquette that he would revisit his deal when A-Rod and Jeter set the
market… lo and behold in 01 when they both got contracts that year Duke spent his money on Ramirez
instead… 01 passed and in 02 Duke was run out of town and the agreement was void. Garciaparra
deserves better than this. He is the youngest, most loyal, and most talented player on the 2004
walk club… and he MUST be resigned.
I just found this link on the day of the Renteria signing. Evan was right on way back in March. The Red Sox never would have won it all had they hung onto him. It was fortunate that he turned it down. Ironically, Nomar passed on a 4 year/60 million to take a 1 year/8 million contract. Brilliant.