He played for the Braves before that and went to the postseason twice. So he's been in at least 2 pennant races.
I wonder what it is going to take to get Matt Holiday from Oakland? I'm not sure he'd fit in Boston, but he is obviously available.
He went 0-4 in the last game against the Yankees. So without that game he's batting .300 in limited at bats. If your going to sit there and tell me Johnson wouldn't have been a better fit instead of LaRoche then you're (we don't want to offend Alio) blatantly wrong. Better hitter. Better defender. Fragility has been his problem. In a limited role that becomes less of a problem.
I'll take him in Coors Field East next year and I'm dead serious. You guys can hang onto Bay. I'll take Holliday behind Tex and A-rod and in Yankee stadium.
If we take away specific games and at-bats to better fit numbers to our argument, LaRoche is 12 for 12 with 12HR and 20RBI!
What the hell is that supposed to mean? He's killed us in the games where he's done well, except for that one that he sucked. Laroche can stay healthy, has better power, and still plays good defense. AND he only cost organizational filler rather than someone with an ERA+ of 142 in 215 career innings at the major league level.
...I took away 1 game. 1. 1 single game. I can't believe I'm having this discussion that people would rather have Adam LaRoche then Nick Johnson. ITS NOT EVEN CLOSE. Johnson in a limited role at first would've been a perfect fit.
LaRoche is a below average defender. So no. The difference between Johnson and LaRoche defensively is big.
Nobody said Nick Johnson wasn't better. Just that LaRoche is a good pick up, and a value pick up. Stop making things up. You're simply being taken to task on the brazenly incorrect bullshit you've spouted. Nick Johnson has played 5 career games against the Yankees. You threw out 20%. That's idiotic. And that's getting way beside that point, which is that you're lauding Johnson as a big time hitter because of a microscopic five game sample size in interleague games against the Yankees that he didn't even play that well in, while negating LaRoche's fantastic second halves as being "meaningless." Even though some of them were with playoff contending teams! Incredible! Nick Johnson is a better defender. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. The Red Sox don't fucking need a late innings defender at first base though, because Youkilis laps both of them in UZR. So what's your point?
Whatever. You're right, I misread somewhere that he was well above average at first. When you factor in how much it costs, or allegedly would have cost, to get either player, it's not close.
Don't worry, you don't offend me at all. You do, however, support my reasoning for using spelling as a good gauge for whether to value someone's ability to construct an opinion.
Brazenly wrong? In 2005 in the second half of the season in A PENNANT RACE LaRoche batted .240 with 9 home runs. Real fantastic. No sir YOU'RE the one that's wrong on that one. Two years ago power-wise his second half wasn't as good as his first. So again...your wrong. I never lauded Johnson. I said he seemed like a yankee killer. So don't put words in my mouth. And the fact remains he would've been a better fit then LaRoche. You can't argue the point.
His career ops in the post-season is 1.073 and he has 2 home runs in 8 games including a grand slam in the '05 nlds. Normally I wouldn't care about 8 games, but since 5 makes Nick Johnson a vaunted Yankees killer, I thought I'd throw that in .So now I guess he sucks down the stretch for good teams, but once you make the playoffs he's able to hit again!
And in the NLDS that season, he went 4-for-8 with a grand slam. I guess that makes him awesome again, in the mj2sexay World of Sample Sizes. You're cherry picking again. I don't care what he did 2 years ago. For his career, he's a demonstrably better hitting after the ASB. Especially since he started taking ADD medication after the 2005. You lauded Johnson by saying he seemed like a Yankee killer, numbskull. And it doesn't matter what he seemed like, because a) it's a worthless sample and b) you were wrong. And, sigh, one more time. Sure, Nick Johnson would have been a better fit if the price was the same. Clearly, and logically, it wasn't. Boston still got a good player who fit their needs for a fair price. It was a good trade. Christ.
the globe called him an above average fielder. the point is, he has a .901 OPS after the all star game, and is a 20 HR hitter. let's see what happens when we sporadically insert him into an AL lineup, finally with some LH bats off the bench. (please don't say kotsay)
When the hell did I say Johnson was a certified Yankee killer. I said he SEEMS like it without looking at the numbers. You know who's a yankee killer? Mike Lowell. And I'm definitely more scared about seeing him in the lineup then Adam LaRoche.
GOOD THING YOU WONT BE SEEING LAROCHE, BECAUSE AS WAS EXPLAINED, HE IS JUST GOING TO BE SPELLING FOR YOUK AND LOWELL IN GAMES AGAINST WEAKER COMPETITION. You're constantly digging your hole deeper and deeper.
Here's a hint: Don't base your arguments off of what things "seem" like to you, and maybe people won't criticize you for being miles off the mark.
