FUTURE VS. PRESENT
Hamels trade with the Phillies. After 11 inconsistent but mostly rough starts last season, and then three more starts this season, Owens’ stock has taken a tumble over the last 12 months.
And yet last week he carried a no-hit bid into the eighth inning for the Triple-A PawSox in his longest start in two seasons.
“Everybody goes through a lot of stuff,” Miller said. “My story’s going to be different than Pomeranz, and Pomeranz is going to be different than everybody else. Look at Henry Owens. When we were at your all’s place (in late April), they were trying to figure out what was the deal with him. The guy’s thrown (751⁄ 3) innings, he’s had a handful of starts at best, he’s gone back and forth, they’re in Fenway Park, they’re against the Yankees, stuff like that. And it’s just not that easy. Sometimes you get better at it the more opportunities you get. Not everybody’s coming out of the gates and is great from the get-go.”
What’s clear is that the Red Sox, and most major league teams, don’t have that one young stud to step in from the start and be that guy right from the beginning.
“It’s tough for young guys all over the place, this expectation that you can come in and be good and consistent from the get-go is just unrealistic,” Miller said.” I must have said it a thousand times, the guys that are the outliers are the ( Evan) Longorias and others from my draft class. Like, Tim Lincecum came up and pitched well right away. He’s had lots of hurdles since then, but the guys who come up and get out of the gates and never look back, those are the outliers. Chris Sale stands out — a bullpen-or-rotation questions for half a year, year at most. Now, he’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. Those guys, those perennial All-Stars, those are the guys who sign your $200 million contracts, those guys have less to relate to then the other 700 guys in the major leagues. It’s not easy being in the major leagues, but those 50 guys, those guys are just different to me.
“Sometimes the media is like, ‘Why aren’t you in the MVP race every year, why don’t you win the Cy Young (Award)?’ I say it jokingly but I mean it . The expectations sometimes . . . it’s not hard to look at (late-blooming Cubs ace)
Jake Arrieta — those guys are all over the place.
“Not everybody’s Jon Lester, who is really good and was a steady 200-inning guy right away. Jon’s special and his career is special for that reason, that doesn’t make him — sometimes you want everybody to be that way. I’m sure Red Sox fans want Eduardo Rodriguez to be what Jon was when he was 26 years old or what he was when he was a prospect in his first, second or third year.”
“That’s the reality. And I’m sure lots of GMs would disagree with me.”
Miller paused, and came back to the Red Sox’ current trade to stress again the uncertainty that pervades his line of work.
“The guy you traded away (Espinoza) was somebody that if people would over-generalize to different regimes, (former Red Sox GMs) Ben ( Cherington) and
Theo ( Epstein) probably would
have never given up that guy. Dave’s kind of known for those moves.” . . .
Incidentally, FanGraphs.com provided a close analytic look at the Pomeranz-Espinoza deal. It found enough uncertainty with Espinoza’s future in particular and Pomeranz’ cost and proven record to make the deal more or less a wash at this point.
Stated its report: “Espinoza is fun to dream on, but when factoring his risks in, he’s probably not as valuable as his #15 overall prospect status makes him sound. He’s a good get for the Padres, who should be betting on upside, but this is the kind of prospect that the Red Sox could afford to move. And for Pomeranz, this looks like the right return for both sides.” A salute to Shaughnessy
In addition to Ken Griffey Jr. and Mike Piazza receiving their just rewards for their baseball careers by being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this weekend, local scribe — columnist Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe — yesterday had his well-deserved day. Shaughnessy, winner of the annual J.F. Taylor Spink Award, was honored for his “meritorious contributions to baseball writing,” a most worthy honor for a columnist as caustic and sarcastic as he can be sensitive and tenderhearted.
Shaughnessy has a knack for divining the truest and rawest nerve, whether it emanates from the clubhouse, the manager’s office, or the executive suites where general managers and owners go about their business. Unafraid to poke a stick in the eye of any target (and then show up the following day to take the heat) and willing to celebrate the feats of amateur and unheralded ballplayers and coaches and a good bet to occasionally tug the heart strings with paeans to those battling some very toughluck straits, Shaughnessy has long been a must-read in a town that should consider itself lucky to still have two newspapers.
That Shaughnessy has always been supportive and approachable to a younger generation of sportswriters is no small matter, either. His honor is well deserved. As he would say, rapping the desk with his knuckles, “What a thing!”