I haven't seen any columnist or blogger come out and say it yet, but in the wake of the Ortiz injury, there are signs and portents that a "sign Barry Bonds" feeling is starting to rumble within the depths of Red Sox Nation. Setting aside the fact that the Red Sox' very own Senior Baseball Operations Advior publicly counseled against signing Barry Bonds a mere week ago, Art Martone of the Projo SoxBlog tells Red Sox Nation to chill:Signing Barry Bonds right now, at this moment, is a panic move and we've seen here panic moves have gotten the Red Sox in the past. It led them to trade Josh Bard and Cla Meredith for Doug Mirabelli. It led them to bring in (the other) Javy Lopez as a backup catcher. One of the best things about the last two years is that the team has built such organizational depth that it's lessened the need for panic moves . . .I agree with Art. The Red Sox are only a game and a half back. It's not the time for desperate measures. They should rotate Casey and Ramirez through there for a while and see what they've got. If a month goes by and it appears that Papi is out for the season, reassess. There will be a lot more available guys out there by then -- Adam Dunn? -- and many of them will be better options than Barry Bonds.
. . . Maybe it'll all change. Maybe two weeks of Sean Casey as DH, or of an everyday outfield of Jacoby Ellsbury, Coco Crisp and J.D. Drew (with Ramirez as the DH), will demonstrate the need for more offense. Maybe the news on Ortiz will get worse, and the team will decide it needs to find another big bat. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Don't make decisions based on maybes. It's June 3. There's plenty of time to decide what the right path should be. Right now, Barry Bonds shouldn't be on that path.
As I and many others have said in the past, the biggest thing anyone has to worry about with respect to a Bonds signing is a fan revolt and the intense scrutiny the front office would be subjected to in the event Bonds falls on his face (which is very possible).
With the exception of the Bronx, I can't imagine those things being more likely to occur anywhere else than in Boston. Theo has tons of goodwill on his side, but the same could have been said in 2005, and he left Fenway at the end of that moderately tumultuous season (a) having resigned; and (b) wearing a gorilla suit.
In other words, it's a stressful job, and my guess is that he doesn't need any more of it.
4 comments:
Boston ain't exactly a race-friendly town, and Barry Bonds ain't exactly Barack Obama.
I'm perfectly OK with DH'ing Manny and running out a scary-hellacious defensive outfield that involves Ellsbury in left.
John, that ain't exactly an informed point-of-view.
John - I recently moved to Ohio and prior to that lived in Boston for 26 years. I'm 30 so I've spent an overwhleming amount of my life there and think that the idea of Boston as unfriendly to non-whites is vastly overplayed. I'm Latino, grew up in an underserved urban neighborhood in Dorchester so my view isn't exactly tinted by rose-colored glasses. I've also traveled to many cities in America and think that racism is pretty much the same everywhere. Some cities might not have as many people of color in positions of power and leadership as say Atlanta, Columbus or DC, but the results are not much different. Blacks and Latinos still attend shitty schools at a disproportionate rate and sometimes the media treats Black and Latino public figures a little more harshly. This is how it works in New York, Boston, LA, Denver, St. Louis, Chicago.....
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