The New Guy. Short history, though most of this is pretty well known and has been covered ad nauseum on Baseball Tonight: Born in Georgia, became a superstar at Florida State, one of the greatest players in collegiate baseball history. He was picked second in the 1997 draft by the Phillies, but he had Lucifer for an agent and refused to sign. He took off to the Northern League for a year, because playing for peanuts in St. Paul was preferable to an “inadequate” bonus and went back in the draft the next year, where he was taken by the Cardinals, with whom he did sign. He played only 45 games in the minors before he had one of the greatest callup campaigns ever, .417/.463/.972 in 14 games.
But since, he’s never been able to stay healthy and only occasionally fulfilled his talent. His career high in games played is 135. His best season, 2001, he hit .323/.414/.613, but played only 109 games. Last year was his second or third-best, but he played only 100. He was traded to the Braves in basically a salary dump this offseason, but the Cards still got Adam Wainwright in the deal (as well as Ray King and Jason Marquis, but the Braves didn’t care so much about them), plus he replaced Gary Sheffield after an MVP-type season, so the pressure is on. His current injury is apparently patellar tendinitis, the same injury that ended Mark McGwire’s career and threatens Jose Vidro’s; Drew had surgery to remove dead tissue in his knee this offseason. I feel better with him in the hands of the Braves’ medical staff than the Cards’, simply because a lot of Cardinal players seem to have injury problems. But this isn’t a little injury at all and we do have to be concerned.
Drew is a free agent after the season. With Boras as his agent, you can bet he won’t re-up without a fight, but if the Braves want to keep him it would probably be better to do now than later… As a sop, the Braves also brought in his brother Tim, a pitcher, but he isn’t to be taken seriously as a bullpen candidate… Real name “David Jonathan Drew”. So on top of all the rest of his ailments, he’s dyslexic?
Drew homered off Jeff Weaver in today’s spring training game against the Dodgers, so apparently he’s feeling pretty good to start the season. Some other good signs: Thomson was perfect in his two innings, Julio tripled, Jose Capellan was tickling 100 on the radar gun (although he gave up three runs), and Alfonseca lost the game in the ninth by allowing three hits and a HBP. The sooner Bobby loses confidence in El Guapo the better.
El Pulpo (the Octopus) not El Guapo (the Handsome Man, I think). El Guapo was Rich Garces.
I think we’re all holding our breath with Drew. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say his health is the key to Atlanta’s season…
Correcto, El Pulpo. Mi malo.
Does it bother anyone else that an octopus has 8 arms and Alfonseca has only 6 fingers? I mean, I get where they’re going with it and everything, but..when a pitcher comes along with only 4 fingers on each hand, I think we should call him El Pulpo. Or maybe one that has 8 fingers on each hand. Either way I’m happier. While we’re at it, I never thought Rich Garces was that guapo anyway, how’d he get that nickname? He’s kind of gordo if you ask me.
Alfonseca also doesn’t have suction cups on the bottoms of his fingers or a mouth at the base of his tentacles (as far as we know). But as long as he’s OK with the nickname, I think El Pulpo is kind of funny …
Calling Garces “El Guapo” is in the spirit of calling big guys “Tiny” or bald guys “Curly” (see, it’s irony, that’s the joke) It beats the hell out of “R-Gar” and other stupid-ass name-derived nicknames …
So is calling Maddux “Mad Dog” irony, too? I think “F-bomb” would be a better name for Maddux as the on the field mics pick them up quite often after he allows a base hit.
Oh yeah, you gotta love a guy weighing in at a buck-70 and looks like a librarian throwing around words that would make your kids cry more than Carl Everett. God bless America, guys. By the way, the Yankees are playing the Braves in a split-squad next Saturday. What exactly is a split-squad game? Who are we going to miss?
looks like a librarian
Meanwhile, I’m a librarian and I look more like John Kruk. Or is that too much information?