Red Sox Rant: Lester, Matt Kemp, and Failed Prospects

     Many Red Sox fans are still contemplating owner John Henry’s words on players of 30 (He doesn’t want big contracts to players over 30). His reasoning is that the player performance is never up to par with the contract. This is often used in referral to the contracts of Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, and Carl Crawford.

     I counter that argument. Beckett led the Red Sox to a World Series win back in 2007. That same year he competed for the CY Young award, coming in second. In six full years with the Red Sox, he had 15 or more wins three times and 10 or more five times. In the back-end of his contract, now with the Dodgers, Beckett has thrown a no-hitter and a sub-3 Earned Run Average twice in three years. In one and a half years with the Red Sox, Gonzalez hit .338 one year and .300 the half year. During the full year in Boston, Gonzalez hit 27 Home Runs and 117 RBI, along with 45 doubles. Gonzalez was a major offensive threat the Red Sox need and continues to be for the Dodgers. Yes, Crawford was a botched signing. But to call all three signing botched because of Crawford?

     And yet, the Red Sox completely throw away their philosophy when it comes to David Ortiz. For a 38 year old man (40 in the Dominican), the Red Sox have been giving him above market money for the past three years. I do not understand how ownership can make these statements upon evaluating player performance when they continuously resign David Ortiz to above market contracts.

     My secondary point is that I am completely in favor of trading Jon Lester for center fielder Matt Kemp. Let’s face it: the Red Sox have no intention of resigning Jon Lester. They keep sugarcoating it so they can seem like the victim when he takes a bigger contract elsewhere. But now, you are telling me they have a chance to get some real value in return? Regardless of injuries, Matt Kemp still is a good player and has the MVP-caliber talent in him. Giving up two months of Jon Lester for that kind of player-who is only 29 and has five years remaining on a contract-is a no brainer to me.

     Lastly, I would like to showcase the Red Sox failures when dealing with prospects since 2005. Assuming all trades were made believing that the guys they kept are the real deal and every traded prospect is/was not, they have completely misjudged all of their talent. I present the prospects they kept and the prospects they have traded. The prospects they kept are nowhere near the same caliber as those traded.

Kept:

OF Jason Place, P Daniel Bard, OF Ryan Kalish, 1B Lars Anderson, 3B Wil Middlebrooks. OF Ryan Westmoreland, C Ryan Lavarnway, C Christian Vazquez, 2B Kolbrin Vitek, P Brandon Workman, P Anthony Ranaudo, OF Jackie Bradley Jr.

Traded:

P Justin Masterson, P Nick Hagadone, 1B Anthony Rizzo, P Casey Kelly, 2B Jed Lowrie, OF David Murphy

I would take the traded list over the kept list any day.