  An era of Red Sox baseball ended this past weekend with the trade of Nomar Garciaparra to the Cubs. Many people feel that the Sox gave up too much to get rid of him, while others think that this is just a reflection of what a poor trade market there was for a disgruntled and injured shortstop. Plenty of other opinions and insults have been flying since this bold move, but the fact of the matter is that the trade has been made and we can only move forward from here.
When it comes to the Red Sox I’m a “glass is half full” kind of guy. I trust that this ownership group, and especially our GM, is only trying to make the best moves for this team in the short and long term. With that in mind, we here at Down By One figured we should take a look at the two players the Sox ended up with after trading away Nomar and a top OF prospect, Matt Murton. A heated round of rock/paper/scissors took place between Tim and I, and sadly I was the loser…which obviously means I have to analyze everyone’s spelling bee nightmare, Doug Mientkiewicz. Doug MeatSandwich (as he will be known from now on here at Down By One) came to the Sox from the Minnesota Twins. He seemed to be the odd man out with the Twins wanting to get some playing time for Justin Morneau. MeatSandwich is 30 years old with decent numbers, but Morneau is considered to be one of the best prospects in their system and he has already maxed out his potential at AAA.
As we hear so much lately, “baseball is a business” so it made sense for the Twins to try to move MeatSandwich by the trading deadline. There were lots of rumors as to where his destination was going to be, and as luck would have it he has ended up on the Red Sox.
After this trade was announced, GM Theo Epstein let the Nation know that this move was made to improve the atrocious Red Sox defense for the stretch run. If defense is what they were looking for, then MeatSandwich seems to be the perfect fit. I don’t know about you, but the trio of Ortiz/Millar/McCarty doesn’t really instill a ton of confidence when they put on a first baseman’s mitt. McCarty is the best of the bunch, but his bat prevents him from being in the lineup on an extended basis. MeatSandwich is considered by many scouts to be one of the best defensive first baseman in the league. He won the AL Gold Glove in 2001 and should have probably won a few more along the way. In terms of pure defense, he is a huge upgrade over the current players manning first.
We won’t get into all the fancy defensive stats that they’ve got nowadays, but believe me: he’s good. Defense is nice, but people like the long ball so it’s time to look at his offensive contributions. MeatSandwich’s stats before this season (around 4 full seasons of games) shows that he is averaging: 69 runs, 11 HRs, 69 RBI with a .279 avg, .371 obp, .415 slg Historically he has been a mediocre offensive player. His HRs and RBIs are low for the average AL first baseman, but he hits for a decent average and with above average on-base and slugging percentages. I’m not sure where he normally hit in the Twins lineup, but this could explain his low RBI total. This year MeatSandwich is down from his career averages (.250/.342/.365) but his doubles, HRs, walks, and strikeouts look to be on track.
The problem seems to be that he’s posting these numbers in more at-bats than in the past. To put it into perspective, he only needed to get one more hit per ten games he’s played to put him up around his career numbers. What we’re getting is a guy who gets on base at a good rate and is hitting a lot of doubles. For a team like the Sox who sit and wait for the long ball, a guy who regularly drives a shot down the line or into the gaps would seem to be a welcome addition.
So far we see a player with fantastic defense and decent offense. The last angle to look at is MeatSandwich’s contract. One of the most important factors is that the amount of money he’s paid hopefully matches up well with the type of player he is. Here’s how it looks: 2004 - $2.8 million 2005 - $3.75 million 2006 - $3.75 million option ($450,000 buyout) For the pro-rated portion of $2.8 million that the Red Sox have to pay this year for MeatSandwich, they’ve got themselves a fairly good deal. He can play first base regularly, turn in the stellar defense expected of him, and help out with the bat every now and then. This will keep David Ortiz off of first base and in the DH spot where he belongs. This also has the added benefit of keeping one-dimensional guys like McCarty and Millar on the bench.
In the short term, this is a smart move with the immediate goal being to shore up the team’s biggest weakness, defense, in an attempt to win the World Series. For the future, I feel that this was a pretty good move as well. $3.75 million is a pretty reasonable number for a player with MeatSandwich’s skills. This is especially true when you think about the fact that he plays first base, which is notoriously a position where one-dimensional players get monster contracts (see Giambi, Jason).
It also gives us the luxury of knowing that the Sox are already guaranteed to have a solid defender at first for next season. Finally, even if he turns out to be a complete dud he’s only on the books for a total of $4.2 million, and that’s much less money than what the Sox wasted on pieces of crap like Blowse Offerman and Darren Oliver. From what I see, this looks like the Sox are finally breaking their trend of getting guys to play first who are all bat and no glove! Was it worth it to get him as half of the Sox return on the Nomar trade? I’m not sure, but I’ve got 86 reasons that makes me hope it was… If anyone is out there reading this, send me an email at urlLink cp_tdi@yahoo.com to let me know what you think! Even if your thoughts are unrelated to this post, send them along anyway so we know that someone out there is paying attention to what we write! 
