Sox Acquire Alex Gonzelez (Again)
Believe it or not, the Red Sox have just acquired a shortstop who doesn’t suck.
The Boston Globe is reporting the the Red Sox have traded for Alex Gonzalez, the defensive wizard who played SS for the Sox in back in 2006.
We haven’t heard what the Sox are sending Cincinnati in return for Gonzalez, but my initial reaction to this move is loud, frantic applause. Jed Lowrie is nowhere near the player he was in 2008, and Nick Green’s defensive abilities appear to have been honed at events sponsored by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, so this move fills a gaping hole in the middle of the infield, hopefully at minimal cost.
Offensively, Gonzalez in about on par with Nick Green. He’s a #9 hitter, plain and simple. However, the comparison ends there. While playing for the Red Sox, Gonalez boasted an amazing 16.9 UZR/150, and has a solid 4.0 thus far this year.
He is only 32-years-old, and comes with a $6 million team option for 2010.
“the Red Sox have just acquired a shortstop who doesn’t suck.”
Who? The only one that I’ve heard about was Alex Gonzalez, who does.
Defensively speaking, he’s actually pretty good. Offensively, he and Nick Green are a wash. “Suck” is a relative term, and maybe I overstated it when I claimed that AG does not, but it will be nice to watch a guy who actually knows how to field the position.
I know some people think that he’s still pretty good. And I guess some of the stats show it, but others don’t. I think he’s tremendously overrated defensively, and a sucking chest wound for your lineup. And the big reason that I hate the move is that I think they look at the position as fixed instead of fixing it. I’ll put my “Nick Green isn’t a Major League SS” credentials up against anyone’s, but I’d rather they leave Green and continue thinking they’ve got a problem rather than insert Gonzalez and think they don’t…