Johnny Damon is a Yankee. A little bit of my sports passion just died.
And this made me vomit a little in my mouth.
At the time, my Red Sox fandom was hurt by the fact that the lovable, cavemanesque Damon shed his trademark beard and went to the rival Yankees. Now, I don't want any part of him. Not because many label him a "traitor" for leaving the Sox, but because we traded a 24 year old, fast, outfielder who was adored by the community for one that is 36, slow, and has a poor arm. I get that we also got pitching out of the trade and the enjoyment of watching Mark Schlereth wearing the old English D everytime he shows up on Mike and Mike. And I understand that Granderson may have left us soon anyway. But I hate buying an expensive guy that is past his prime.
And in 4 months, I'm sure I'm going to be writing the third post in this series: Why I Love What Johnny Damon Brings to the Tigers.
3 comments:
Keep thinking about it this way: Verlander or Granderson? Man, I know it's tough because straight up it looks like we got Granderson for Damon, but here's some other thoughts:
1)In the AL Central, we are a contender! We've got three horses at the top of our rotation (Verlander, Porcello, and Scherzer), and a solid bullpen with Valverde, Coke, and Schlereth. Our lineup still includes Mags, Guillen, Inge...and Miguel fucking Cabrerra! Plus a great infusion of young talent in Sizemore and Jackson. We should be in the race this upcoming season; it's not like we're in complete rebuilding mode.
2)Looking deeper into our lineup...it's a little weak. There were three glaring holes in my opinion: No leadoff man, no left-handed presence to balance it out, and too much reliance on young guys and unstable vets like Inge to produce. Our one-year Johnny Damon rental addresses all three of those needs.
3)Curtis could NEVER hit lefties...while Damon's defense and arm blows giant chunks, the guy is not a liability offensively.
The only part that sucks about this acquisition is that his name is Johnny Damon, but the more I keep thinking about it, there was no one else available in the free agent pool who could possibly offer the things we needed as a club....sadly.
It's one year, so let's all suck it up, and hey, perhaps he'll grow that cave man beard back and he'll bring back memories of his Sox days for you.
I'm keeping an open mind about Damon until I see him in action for a while.
I changed the address for my blog...it's now:
http://randomincongruence.blogspot.com/
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