12/21/24
June 24, 2012
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Was this Kevin Youkilis' Last Hurrah at Fenway?
posted by yerfatma at 04:36 PM on June 24, 2012
A: Yes. Apparently traded to Chicago.
posted by yerfatma at 04:58 PM on June 24, 2012
posted by NoMich at 05:17 PM on June 24, 2012
His brother is happy.
posted by justgary at 05:45 PM on June 24, 2012
I hate this deal; Youkilis is one of my favorite Sox players of all time, a hell of a hitter (and often underrated- his numbers stack up against the MVP candidates quite nicely). Granted, I can understand wanting to switch to a youth movement lineup- plus the Sox have, if healthy, an absolute glut of talent which never seems to be on the field at the same time. But there's something really weird about trading him for basically non-factor also-rans, and still picking up $5.5M of the remaining $8M of his contract. The numbers since 2010 do look like Youk is entering his "downward slide" phase, and maybe he really wanted to be gone (which raises questions as to what's going on that Boston is now the city that players urgently want to leave)... but I hate the "we still pay part of the salary" deals.
So what exactly do the Red Sox get out of this? They save $5.5M, but for a team like the Sox that's not really a big deal- moving up in the standings by 5 games is far more important to this franchise right now- and get rid of a beloved player. I'm not convinced Youk is done, especially with the resurgence of Ortiz showing that Youkilis could fix whatever ails him, and be mashing for a good few more years. And I say the Gold Glove 1B that was Youk should have stayed there- Adrian should have learned to play 3B, and honestly Adrian's numbers aren't so great that he should be so much safer than Youk.
I guess I just hope Youk is happy, and productive, and enjoys a long career after this. And given the way Josh Reddick- who they were so high on for so long- has been crushing it in Oakland, that says to me something is really wrong with the Sox lately: they have clubhouse issues, they make poor GM decisions, and they're becoming worse and worse at evaluating talent.
posted by hincandenza at 05:57 PM on June 24, 2012
Dan Le Batard with a Championship Rant (nsfw)
posted by tommybiden at 06:29 PM on June 24, 2012
Youk's deal seems like the Red Sox got the fuzzy end of the lollipop, but looking at it more deeply, I don't think so. Lillibridge is the equivalent of a box of new baseballs, and he's roster fodder for Pawtucket, enabling Boston to keep some of their young position players down in AA Portland or in the high level A leagues to continue their development. Zach Stewart will be in the bullpen in Pawtucket, but if anything drastic happens to the Boston bullpen, he might have a chance to fill in. All in all, the trade is to give Youkilis a place to play. If he stays healthy, he gives Chicago a decent bat and a solid glove. He is a lock to be an improvement on the White Sox combined 3rd base offensive numbers. There is an old adage in baseball that you are better trading a player a year too early rather than a year too late. In this case, Red Sox were perhaps 2 years too late.
posted by Howard_T at 08:56 PM on June 24, 2012
The original practitioner of the "Alley Oop" catch in the NFL has passed away at age 77. R. C. Owens and quarterback Y. A. Tittle teamed on the 49ers of the late 1950s to turn the leaping catch into an art form. One thing I learned from reading the link was that Owens was the cause of the "Rozelle Rule" that required compensation be given for signing another team's free agents.