Friday, May 31, 2013

Day 61: Holy Hell, It's Hot! Oh and Ellsbury Stole Some Bases and Now He's Hurt. Surprise.

Jacoby Ellsbury had quite the game last night against the Phillies. He went 3-for-4 in the win, and set a new Red Sox club record by stealing FIVE bases. In a pretty cool move by the Phillies, they presented Ellsbury with the second base bag as a souvenir. He broke his own team record of four steals, which he shared with former second baseman, Jerry Remy. The only other Major Leaguer to steal five bases in a game is Carl Crawford who did it in 2009 against the Red Sox.

It was quite a performance by the 29-year-old who will be most likely hitting the free agent market at the end of this season. And you know, with Scott Boras (the king of douchebags) as his manager, he isn't going anywhere for cheap—even if he does have only had a couple good seasons under his belt. He definitely won't be pulling a Tom Brady and taking less money to stay with a team he loves. Ellsbury obviously has no deep feelings for the Red Sox.

I often wonder how someone goes about scoring a killer contract when, over your seven year major league career, you've only had a handful of highlights. In 2008 and 2009, he led the American League in steals with 50 and 70 respectively. He also led the AL in triples with 10 in 2009. He had his best year in 2011 and here's where you may have thought that he had finally come into his own. He led the AL in plate appearances with 732, and in total bases with 364, AND he had 32 home runs. (He had a combined total of 20 home runs in his first three seasons. Hmmm...) Ellsbury also won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award that season. But sadly, 2011 was flanked by injury-riddled seasons in 2010 and 2012 and then you just wonder if he's just a pansy.

So I had to laugh when I was perusing the recap of last night's performance. They're calling him the Man of Steal. Get it... Steal? I laughed out loud because he is SO not the man of steel. Because guess what? He was scratched from tonight's game against the Yankees with a "tight groin." Seriously?
Ellsbury told reporters, "But, yeah, I got here early and got all the treatment I could get, and it continued to stay tight, and I want to do the right thing so it doesn't get worse."
I read that as, "I don't want to risk making it worse and ruining my chances of a big, fat, new contract." He's currently listed as day-to-day but you know how it goes with this guy—he'll most likely be out until the All-Star break. I've renamed him Miss Little Flower Sissy Pants.

No comments:

Post a Comment