The Baseball Reporters Show Recap 6/22
As it turns out, J.D. Drew won't be heading to the DL after straining his right hamstring in Friday's game vs. the Dodgers. He will be out of the lineup tonight and tomorrow and Tony Massarotti is worried that the Red Sox can't afford to lose J.D. Drew for this important west coast road trip. The Sox will face the #3 and #5 ranked pitching staffs in the MLB when they take on the Colorado Rockies and the San Francisco Giants this week.
J.D. Drew's absence from the lineup tonight couldn't have come at a worse time. The Yankees lost last night to the D-Back's so entering tonight, the Sox are only .5 GB from the AL East lead and are tied with the Rays for 2nd place.
The Red Sox are going to face 5 RHP on this road trip and Tony believes it's critical to have lefty bats in the lineup because as it is, Ortiz won't be playing much considering they'll be going without a DH.
Tony on having balance in the lineup, "The whole lefty/righty thing in baseball is huge. You face so many right handers during the course of the year, you need to have good, productive left handed hitters in your lineup. It is really important. Against right handed pitching this year, they are ranked #1 in the American League in OPS. I expected them to be in the top 2 or 3 against lefties and they're #1 against lefties as well. Speaks to the balance of their offense that they're hitting both righties and lefties. In terms of regular players, who do you think the top 2 guys are in OPS against right handed pitching? David Ortiz is #1 and J.D. Drew is #2. So, do you really think that they're lineup is not going to suffer against right handed pitching without Ortiz and Drew?".
Some people just don't understand the value of a guy like J.D. Drew. Over the past 2 seasons, not including this one, J.D. Drew is ranked #13 in all of baseball in OPS. So in terms of offensive production, J.D. Drew is ahead of players like Adrian Gonzalez, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, and Jason Bay.
The Red Sox will start a 6 game west coast interleague road trip tonight in Colorado. Jon Lester gets the start and will face Jhoulys Chacin.
