Tony Masserotti via Boston.com:
“And before anyone suggests that Damon has benefited solely from the laughable right field at Yankee Stadium, let’s remember that his game-tying home run last night was a laser that landed in the Yankees bullpen, just to the right of the 385-foot mark. Even fireballing young righthander Daniel Bard couldn’t get his fastball by Damon. Over the last three years of a contract during which Red Sox officials believed Damon would be grossly overpaid, Damon has more hits (424 to 311), runs scored (267 to 222), home runs (50 to 42) and RBIs (199 to 171) than J.D. Drew, who makes an average of $1 million more per season (edge Drew, $14 million to $13 million) and is signed for two more years. Damon, by the way, will be a free agent in the fall.
Oh, and did we mention that the Red Sox rank 13th among the 14 American League teams in on-base percentage from the leadoff spot since Damon departed? Damon might not be hitting leadoff for the Yankees anymore — he bats second — but he certainly could do it for the Red Sox.”
Johnny Damon has played much better, on the wrong side of 30, then most would have expected. In fact, he has been a better player the past two seasons, than he was the previous two. But how could anyone have foreseen that? How could anyone have known that he would age so well?
The Red Sox made a choice to let Damon walk, they let him accept more money. And that is the other part of this equation; the Yankees offered him more money and an extra year if I recall. So naturally, Damon went elsewhere.
But comparing him straight up to Drew isn’t necessarily fair. Coco Crisp was Damon’s successor, not Drew. Crisp was brought in, and the results were mixed. Sure, he couldn’t hit much at all. But Crisp was arguably the most valuable defender in all of baseball during a 2007 World Series run that resulted in a bunch of rings. Crisp was then moved to give the role to Ellsbury of course. So let us just say that it could be much worse in center field. Ellsbury is still learning the game, and should be a solid all-around player, eventually.
Drew was brought in to replace Trot Nixon, and a declining Nixon too. At age 32 Nixon was a sub-par player, so Drew gave them a player on par with the average player, if not a little better than that. Nixon disappeared off the face of the baseball planet, while Drew actually played some decent baseball.
Now, I have never defended that Drew contract. Not the length of it, not for a player that misses time each and every season. But I understand the reasoning. They wanted to get better, plain and simple. Nixon was the hometown favorite, but he was finished. And the front office knew that, much more than most of the fans did.
Masserotti also states that Drew is having a “disappointing” year. Disappointing how? Is it disappointing because people still feel like he is all of a sudden going to become a great player? He isn’t. He is a pretty good player, and that is all he will ever be. The guy has had one truly great season, and I would be very surprised if he had another.
But to the stat archive…
Drew and Damon have been remarkably similar in terms of overall value over the 2+ seasons that Drew has been in Boston. Damon leads in total ‘WAR’ 8.4-8.1. In terms of dollars, according to Fangraphs, Damon has been worth $37.1-$35.8.
Drew has the higher OPS of .867-.821.
Drew also has a significantly better UZR at 6.6 to Damon’s -2.1. Drew is clearly the better defender. But Damon leads all the counting stats because he plays more often, and his overall ‘WAR’ is slightly better. If one were to compare the past three years, the players could almost be interchangeable. So I guess, comparatively, since Damon is paid a small margin less, that he is the better bargain. But the difference is marginal.
Anyway, Drew was brought in to play right field. Not center field as Damon was playing when his contract expired with the Red Sox. I guess the Red Sox could have projected that Damon would need to shift to a corner outfield spot a year or two down the road. But who in their right mind would have felt that his bat could have also “projected” for a corner outfield spot? At age 34 and 35 nonetheless?
And let us not forget those home/road splits. On the road this season, Damon has an OPS of .788, compared to .979 in new Yankees stadium. Maybe that stadium IS freakishly helping these players numbers. Damon isn’t failing much at home. But on the road he is average at best. In past seasons, his splits have been similar. But not this season.
According to that pesky ‘WAR’ metric, both Damon and Drew are having about the same year, with Drew actually having a better number. But again, the difference is marginal.
So Tony Masserotti, the difference between the two players isn’t much. And the positions aren’t the same anyway. Damon would have been resigned to play center field and would have had to shift to a corner slot eventually. So in theory, he could have played right, I guess, if they wanted an arm that wouldn’t thrown any base-runners out. And he couldn’t have played left, because that spot was locked up, and has been locked up during Damon’s current contract.
The Yankees valued Damon more, they got him. Are we really getting to get on the Red Sox organization for not wanting to pay Johnny Damon? His play at this age has been somewhat of a surprise to anyone around baseball, I’m sure.
