Thank god. I'd rather not deal with the arm of a 7 year old child in the outfield, combined with severely declining offensive and baserunning skills. McDonald, Nava, and Hall are outperforming him anyway.
1) His arm is perfectly suitable for left field in Fenway Park. 2) His numbers would improve if he didn't have to play in Comerica Park. 3) If McDonald, Nava and Hall are so good that you wouldn't take Damon essentially for free, then why do Red Sox fans cry non-stop about the injuries that forced them into the lineup?
1. No it isn't. His arm isn't suited for second base. 2. Maybe, but other guys haven't had a problem hitting there. 3. It doesn't mean they are great, just that Damon has declined. The injuries hurt because the Sox had superior players at the position. Damon has performed just under what those replacements have done, but a healthy Ellsbury would have been far more valuable than any of them.
Haha eat sh*t Red Sox. Thats what you get for booing a player that gave you several great seasons upon his return in another uniform.
Typical Sox fan, if he had approved the claim you would be bragging how you're gonna catch up to the Rays and Yankees... and Wakefield sucks.
1. If Manny Ramirez could hold down LF in front of the Monster, than Damon can. 2. A ballpark that big is going to have a negative effect on your stats no matter who you are. Even Miguel Cabrera would have 11 (!) more homers if he played in Yankee Stadium as opposed to Comerica. 3. Damon's declined, but to say that he's a downgrade from Darnell McDonald or Daniel Nava is ridiculous. Ignoring the fact that he's got better stats, veteran experience counts big time down the stretch. The Sox would've welcomed Damon into the starting lineup with open arms if he'd agree to it.
not exactly what happened. Damon simply chose to stay in his current situation rather than leave. What's the incentive to go to Boston? To go from one non-playoff team to another? I'm sure he isn't happy with how Boston fans treated him, but I think he would've gone back if Boston were leading the AL East instead of being 6 games out. Detroit is 9 games out and has an easier remaining schedule, I believe.
1. Manny has/had a pretty good arm. Very quick release and accurate. Overall Damon in his prime was better defensively, but Manny's arm was always far better than Damon's. 2. A ballbark that big has a negative impact on power hitters, but not so much on slap hitters like Damon. The bigger the park, the more room the outfielders have to cover, the more chance balls can drop in for hits. 3. He absolutely does not have better stats. Damon and Nava/McDonald have virtually identical stats, with Damon having a slightly higher OBP and the combo having a better avg, more HR, higher SLG, and higher OPS. Damon's OPS+ is 106, McDonald's is 103, and Nava's is 112. At best it would have been a lateral move.
Too bad. I would have been pretty cool to see him back in a Sox uniform and ended his career the right way. I never got the booing of him- any Sox fan who remembers the 2004 playoffs has no business boing that guy. Did the way he left leave a sour taste in my mouth? Yeah. I still cheered for him in his first plate appearance at the 2 or 3 Sox-Yankees game that I made it to between '06-'09. Seriously, he hit a fucking grandslam and then a two run homer to blow out the team's biggest rival to complete the biggest comeback of the last 50 years, arguably in any sport's playoff history. Then as the first hitter in game 4 of the world series he led off with a homerun. Seriously fuck any Sox fan that boos this guy, he delivered too much to ever deserve that. From everything that's been said, it seems like there's three reasons he came back: 1) bitterness towards the Sox management for the way negotiations ended when he left, which none of us here really understand at all since everything that has since been leaked needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt. 2nd, there's the shit fans have given him upon return, and 3rd is the pretty questionable notion that he really is in love with Detroit as a city and loves his teammates too much to leave. I can't really blame him for not coming back, but it would have been nice. Unfortunately now he's going to have to come back an throw out the first pitch on opening day in 2016 for all the bad feelings to go away- one day after all this passes I think his true legacy in boston sports will be remembered.
