Peter Abraham was one of the best “team bloggers” around when he wrote about the Yankees for LoHud. Then he was poached by the Boston Globe in September to write about the Sox. Word is that Abraham has always been a Sox fan — even when he covered the Yankees.
Abraham has been at it for over two months and apparently he was a huge proponent of the “Adrian Gonzalez to the Sox” rumors. He loves Gonzo so much that he went out of his way to bash Miguel Cabrera. In the piece, he says Cabrera is “not MVP-worthy” and “not quite Adrian Gonzalez.” It’s part of his effort to convince Sox fans that they’ll regret trading for MigCab. Here’s the meat of his absurd rant:
Cabrera is generously listed at 240 pounds by the Tigers. That was probably in 2005. Once an outfielder and then a third baseman, he is now a first baseman and may soon he headed to DH. I’m not a big fan of UZR, but he was at at 2.8 last season after a -5.0 in 2008.
He also is owed $126 million over the next six seasons. Certainly, Mr. Cabrera could see the error in his ways, take up yoga and be slender and flexible come 2015. But the odds are against that.
Then there’s this: As the Tigers were trying to get into the playoffs in October, Cabrera decided that was a good time to go out and get hammer drunk. Mrs. Cabrera was not pleased when he rolled in just in time for The Today Show and the police were summoned. Taken to the hospital, he was found to have a blood-alcohol level of .26.
Is he wrong about any of the facts above? No. However, his writing is extremely negative and littered with moderately amusing blogger-type phrases. Yes, I know he was a blogger before. But I meant a REAL blogger. He was more of a game notes and recap guy that was light on the opinion. One has to wonder if the Globe instructed him to write this way.
Hey, perhaps Pete isn’t up to speed on the Sox use of payroll. They are the team that’s paying David Ortiz $12.5 million last year and this year — and he doesn’t hit or play defense. They’re also the team that’s paying J.D. Drew $70 million dollars with $28 million coming the next two years. In October, Theo Epstein even said that he thought J.D. Drew was worth MORE than his $14 million per year. Nice joke.
Back to Abraham… Cabrera may not be “MVP worthy” but, uh, 4th place ain’t bad. While Cabrera finished with three men ahead of him in the AL voting, Gonzalez finished 10th overall in NL MVP voting. Yes, Cabrera does have a huge contract. But that’s because he’s a superstar that gets paid like a superstar. At the same time, Adrian Gonzalez is entering the final years of his “hometown discount” contract. He’ll make $4.75 million in 2010, has a club option for 5.5 million in 2011 before he’ll need to sign a new contract. And it will be a big one.
Maybe Abraham IS right about Cabrera’s drunkenness and portliness not “playing” in Boston. After all, they are the team that sold Babe Ruth. And look how that one turned out.
Tags: adrian gonzalez, baseball, boston globe, boston red sox, detroit tigers, miguel cabrera, MLB, peter abraham, san diego padres, trade
