I didn't realize that they were that close in age - Drew is a little over a year younger, I thought it was more like 3 or 4 years. No question, the fans loved the way Trot played the game, but the downside is that the way he plays has worn him down -each Trot year is like dog years. Drew has been on his best behavoir, because while no one will confuse him with Trot as far a demeanor goes, he has not been a head case nor a big mouth here.
If you disregard the salaries (fully understanding that Boston can afford the money), Drew is having a better first half of 2007 and the expectation is that he will have a better second half. Trot is hitting where folks here thought Trot would hit. While I would like to see him hit better (except when playing the Sox), I really don't think that he will and it will turn out that Theo made the right call.
The difference is that Trot's best years were not as good as Drew's best years and the Sox think that Drew has 5 years left in him or that their opt-out clauses are good enough to protect him.
Has Drew been worth 14 million so far - clearly no; but he has shown enough talent that there is hope that he'll justify the investment. Then again, the market has gone nuts and 14 million just doesn't buy as much outfielder as it did a few years ago.
Just as Burk48237 pointed out that the Tigers seem to be more willing than most teams to draft promising college and even high school pitchers even when they have aggressive agents and exorbitant signing bonus expectations, the Sox are more willing to take on medical risks figuring that their medical staff and access to some big-name specialists gives them an edge. Whether this medical advantage is real or a figment of their imagination is a legit question and whether they will be as successful as the Tigers have been with young pitchers remains to be seen.
Regarding adjustment - Drew's is bigger going from the National to American. That is one good thing about interleague play is that it does provide a pretty clear idea of the relative strenghts of the leagues and, the AL has been clearly the stronger.
The JD Drew signing was a headscracher here. For the dollars, people expected more. But he is a Red Sox now and we hope he'll start contributing more regularly. But even with the slow start, he is outpacing Trot's 2006 which ended up 114 games, 59 runs; 52 RBIs, 8 HRs, .268 average.
