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Adrian Beltre in Boston

I figure y'all would like a place to go nuts. So have it.

Adrian Beltre is all but signed with Boston, for one year between $9-10 million with apparently some absurdly comical player option for 2011 which he'll never exercise unless something insane happens.

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Game Thread Emotion is allowed.

I wonder if the option is designed solely to lower Beltre’s luxury tax number. I have no idea how options gets figured into that.

We'll miss you Beltre

I know this has all been done before, but here is my final goodbye to Adrian Beltre. May the Boston fans have as much fun watching Beltre make jaw dropping defensive spectacles as we did the last few years.

Fuck. Fuck fuckity fuck fuck.

):

Gammons says the option is for $5 mil.
Beltre noooooooooooooooooooooooooo :(

The thought of those happy feet in that uniform…. GOD

I hope they love him though. He deserves that.
I hope he bangs 50 doubles off the monster.

Good luck, Adrian. Loved you while you were here.

Two of your sentences are bad.
So is my hair,

but it’s all good.

Better Boston than LALALALALALALALLAALALALALALALALALALALA!!!!!!!!!
Agreed but not by much.
So is Figgins going to play third?
It would seem that putting him anywhere else now would be madness.
Yeah I guess I was pretty much stating the obvious.

Just trying to promote a little speculation and conversation.

Since my problem with Boston is with a large chunk of their fanbase and not the team itself I have no problem with this

except that it’s hard to see him go at all.

Almost every team I have a problem with, it's because of their fanbase rather than the team itself.

I’m going to see a pink Beltre or Cameron jersey this summer and it will make me cry.

Ditto.

Way more for Cammy though.

I think I just heard Red's heart breaking
One of my favorite TV moments (before I even knew who Red was)

The expression on his face when he got Beltre’s bat…priceless.

Please don't buy a Red Sox jersey Red.
How long into the season will it be until ESPN or SI produces an article declaring Beltre back after his "terrible" years in Seattle?

And Mike Cameron is a Sock, too.

Dammit dammit dammit. Hate hate hate. Hell!

That is going to really stick in my craw.
Okay so..

When we move Lopez to first, and Chone to 2nd.. do we bring Tui to play 3b?

Goddamn it.

I hope you’re kidding.

I'm ready to declare Lopez to first as being a dead meme.
That didn't last long
It didn't start with you.
Oh I know..

Why else would I bring it up?

Fuck you boston.
But it is better than disneyland
Has Figgins ever played any other positions?
Besides IF and OF?
That speedy little stinker
Sorry, meant besides 2B.
Third base, left field
Is he better defensively than Lopez?
Cause we could move Lopez to third?
He may not have the arm and Chone is better.
It seems that 2B is more important, and having a better fielder there would be more important.

Thoughts?

Neither move happens in a vacuum.

Lopez is an averageish 2b, Figgins is a 5<x<10 3b. Switching the two would likely have an adverse effect on both players, defensively.

Figgins is good at 3B, Lopez is fine at 2B, the two positions are roughly equal

Nobody is getting moved. The infield is set.

So the M's are forgoing signing a 1B and going with Carp?
I meant positional wise.
OK, yeah.

Loafie going to 1B is just kinda… uh…no.

And 3B is pretty much the same. No.
Yes he is but that's not important right now.

Also, bye Beltre. I’ll miss you, you retarded man.

I LOVE YOU ADRIAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please don’t stay in Boston long, I don’t want to be forced to like the Red Sox for more than a year.

I have a red sock shirt I am willing to burn in effigy.
Do it!
And post a video or .gif or something so we can all live vicariously through you!
Clearly this deal couldn't possibly make more sense

Which is why I fucking hate it

Go Boston. Win one for Beltre.
Yes, fuck the Mariners winning one. Those chowderheads should get another championship

because they signed Beltre.

All I'm saying is if th mariners are out and
Holy shit...

All I’m saying is if the Mariners are out of the playoffs, and Boston is in, I’ll have something to root for still. Beltre is one of my favorite players ever.

To be clear, I don’t hate the Red Sox at all… Just some of their fans.

Well, now that you said, it, OK...

but really, I don’t want ANYONE winning one in any particular year more than the Mariners. My rooting for laundry is pristine.

No no no no.

Sorry Beltre. I hope your team sits in last place all year.

So the Red Sox are beefing up their defense.

Well, that’s kind of annoying.

The only conclusion I can draw is that he really must have hated Seattle

I have a hard time believing he couldn’t have gotten that contract from the Mariners.

Also

This totally blows.

What were the Mariners offering?
He would have gotten something like $12 million for accepting arbitration.
Probably

But if Safeco screwed me out of a multiyear contract, well…

Are general managers really that stupid?

I mean, if we all can figure out he’s a much better hitter on the road … can’t they?

Well, the Red Sox aren't stupid, obviously.
Yeah, and their fans are REALLY smart.
Literally, half of sports fans are 85% retarded all their lives
Yes, its hard for me to say this, but I too am a recovering retarded sports fan.
DMZ summed it up nicely over at USSM:
The gamble he (and Boras) are making is that Beltre plays a good season in the limelight, everyone suddenly notices how great he is now that he’s on nationally broadcast games every day and turns up on SportsCenter every night, and he heads into 2011 with:
- teams with more money
- doubts about his offense erased or eased (this will be heralded as a resurgence and credited to his hitting coach or the Red Sox offense’s protection)
- buzz and probably some hardware and maybe MVP placement

He might have made $2-3m more here, but the next deal he gets should make that look paltry. It’s a savvy move.
Oh, I don't disagree with that at all

It’s just that I guess I underestimate the stupidity of some of the people running other organizations. Why would someone be fooled into giving him a ridiculous contract next year with information that’s freely available now?

But then again, we did watch Bavasi for however many years. And the Royals are still out there.

And the Phillies, where they have Gillick Jr.
Paying him what he's worth wouldn't be a ridiculous contract.
AB go out there and hit a 100 doubles off that Green Monster!

Good luck Beltre. May the pink hats love you for what you bring to the team as much as we did and never hate you for what you never were as so many in Seattle did.

Also, Beltre, if you can be a Yankee Killer* that would be wonderful as well. And by Yankee Killer I mean, metaphorically on the field, and not literally in the parking lot.

Does Lowell go the bench?
Well, he's not being traded...
Lowell will be able to pass a physical by Spring Training. And then he will be traded before the season starts.
He will?
The deal between Boston and Texas was almost done but Lowell couldn't pass the physical, due to a finger or thumb or something.

But that was a few weeks ago and the word in the blogsphere is that Lowell will be fine by Spring Training. Boston is a smart enough team to make a trade happen as soon as Lowell will be able to pass the physical.

Who didn't see this coming?

We’ve been speculating about Beltre and Boston since he became a free agent.

Yes Boston unequivocally sucks sweaty stale monkey balls.

Yes Beltre does not.

Yes it’s going to be difficult to sort out some mixed emotions.

I hope he has his best offensive year since 2004, and lands himself a fabulous contract in 2011, and I hope he strikes out against a helmet-high David Aardsma fastball as the final out in the final game of the ALCS in 2010.

If you truly love something, you have to let it go, even if it means it flies right into a pile of fecal matter.

Best of luck Adrian.

Until I stumbled upon this site in early 2009 I didn’t appreciate you as much as I should have. I always thought you were an amazing defensive player, but now I know.

BALLS
Don't make us remember the good times quite yet.
Beltre and Cameron in Red Sox uniforms is just the worst

Pinstripes would feel better.

I can't believe anyone would ever say that.
Flagged for being inappropriate.
The opposite of yes
What don't people like about the Yankees that the don't dislike about the Red Sox?
The Red Sox haven't mercilessly crushed our hopes in the playoffs many many times
Or stand to potentially do so again this year
But the Red Sox can also go to hell, just a slightly less fiery one
True

I don’t know, it’s become such an absolute requirement for people to hate the Yankees that it’s become a cliche and not true hate. I hate everything about the Red Sox, their fans, their team, their city, everything. Adrian Beltre, Mike Cameron and Ray Allen are the only things I can stand about that city.

the yankees are a better team.

Their fans are also less obnoxious, somehow.

Boston's fans, I mean.

Yankee fans can all go to hell. I’ll take a girl in a pink jersey who doesn’t actually follow sports over Vinny from Queens any day.

Neither one would feel all that terrific to me, I guess
I'm only happy when a player I love goes to an NL team...

Then it’s more like my childhood pets that “went to a farm up north.”

Well I agree with you
And that's why you'll never fit in here.
I agree
Either way it's going to suck if we have to play against the two of them in the postseason
Don't be so rash.

You should always check with Fogel before forming any opinions.

They are equally bad
I actually hate the Red Sox more, but still no.
Not sure why.
Because you probably hate the Red Sox only a tiny bit more.

And if New York buys yet another fantastic player, especially one that you like, the Yankees get the hate scale tilted in their direction.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot are you smoking?
It makes me feel a little better knowing the Beltre is basically just using the Red Sox.
Like a rebound team.
Of course, this could mean he ends up with the Angels...
If theres one thing I know about exes and rebounds

it’s that after they date that guy you know is a jerk, they move on to someone you couldn’t care less for. Think, Tampa Bay.

Are you kidding?

Tampa Bay is totally the hot boyfriend that they come back to rub in your face. And they used to be a total loser so they’re still super sweet. Beltre needs to go to someone who is clearly below our level and who we don’t have to see him with very often. Like the NL.

Yeah. Tampa Bay has an enormous hole at third.

Pretty much an endless vortex of suck.

Hmm. Logic. My mortal enemy.
I like this comparison.
THEY AREN'T THAT PRETTY, ADRIAN. YOU'RE JUST HURTING INSIDE.

Come back to Seattle and we’ll show you love.

They may not be pretty, but they put out. And he'll be able to show everyone he knows how to use wood.
Like the lot of us wouldn't have at LEAST gotten him a few hookers.
They're probably just going to re-sign him next year though for a bigger contract if he does better.
He's such a fucking player
Hey, at least we get to see him succeed a few days a week on ESPN, right?

I think he’ll be great in Boston. This will make watching the Yanks/Sox games on ESPN much easier to watch.

Will not.

I love my wife, and I do not want to watch her bang someone from New England.

Eh, you make a good point.

But I’ll still enjoy seeing Adrian play. Do I wish he was still here? Yeah, but what’s done is done.

I like the redundancy there.
GOD
This post shows otherwise
YAY DRAFT PICK
Gah...

I’m gonna get really tired of hearing about he “sucks” from Boston if his bat doesn’t fully rebound but his D stays stellar.

Now I may unequivocally root for the Red Sox whenever I see one of many Red Sox vs. Yankees games airing on FOX.
I still can't see how we live in a world where the average fan thinks Jose Lopez is a better hitter than Beltre.

Beltre is a hacker but Lopez is a fighter…

Yep, Lopez is a fighter all right.

He certainly goes up there fighting against taking those damn walks, that’s for sure.

Baseballs killed his siblings now it's Lopez's mission to make sure none are spared.
I am ready to move on.
With Cammy and now Adrian,

I think I’m going to have to actually kind of like the Red Sox this coming season.

I hate them %20 less now

It really will make hearing about the Sox every stinking day of the season more tolerable.

I am going to hate it so much

when the red sox “fans” come out to Safeco Field with their newly minted Beltre Red Sox T-shirts. It would probably make for a good survey to ask how many of them were aware that he used to play for Seattle.

"Wow! Whose that new thirdbaseman?! WHere'd they get him?!?"
Who is.

not whose.

"He sucked as a Marinah, but he's motivated now that he's a Sawk!"
"NOW THAT HE HAS SOMETHING TO PLAY FOWAH!"
I can't help but read this in Cartman's preacher voice.
Wir mussen di Juden ausrotten?
Sad, but inevitable.

He deserves to play for a winner. I lack the Red Sox hatred that a lot of LLers have, so I’m just kinda . . . blah. At least it wasn’t Anaheim.

My philosophy is that player names that roll well of Jon Miller's tongue are doomed to be Red Sox

Nobody says “Jason Varitek” quite like Jon Miller (I could listen to him say Jason Varitek all day), and “Adrian Beltre” rolls off similarly well.

Some names that wouldn’t/don’t roll off well, for counterpoint: “Quinton McCracken” “Coco Crisp” “Ken Griffey Jr.”

So, whatever

He was a slob. He was disgusting. He swung at shit pitches.

He will_not_ be missed.

So are you saying he won't sign with St. Louis?
He signed with Boston so probably not this year.
Let's ask Fogel
There's hope on the horizon. Don't give up.
You'd make a good magic 8-ball.
I hate it when the freaking BoSox and Yanks get a good deal

The Yanks shouldn’t have been able to grab Granderson for so little and the BoSox should have had to shell out 3 years 30 mill. Fuck.

With that said, if Beltre hits anything like he did with the Mariners, those rabid BoSox fans will eat him alive.
No way the sweet (for us bitter) T shirt scenario described above happens in that case.

If Beltre hits the same in Boston as he did for us he'll be a superstar again
As much as I hate Beltre to Boston, it wasn't a particularly good deal.

The Red Sox paid roughly market value.

I didn't expect them to only have to give him one year, though.
Yes, I guess you're right.

With Beltre’s not so good offense, this is about the size of contract he could expect in the present market, I guess.

Beltre is not a bad offensive player.
Don 't read the comment thread over at the Red Sox board. It'll just piss you off.
/Surprised face.
And heeeeere I go.

First of all, Over the Monster’s format is awful. Please don’t change, LL.

Second, the blog’s author says that they signed Beltre to a good deal because it’s for less money than what Boras was publicly asking for.

Third, if you can believe it, Boston fans are retarded. This is where I would link to individual comments from their thread, but I can’t seem to figure out how to do it.

Right click on the date link in the post, copy link location

I only figured it out the other day.

Huh! I never realized you could even click on the date to begin with.

Cool. Thanks.

The 2010 Red Sox are similar to the 2007 team

in terms of “makeup”

I liked the comment that said Beltre was known as a bad clubhouse guy.
Is reccing the really really bad comment anonymously considered trolling?

It kind of amuses me to think of them all highlighted.

Comments, plural.
People probably got tired of seeing his ruptured testicle in the shower, though.
It really ruins the post game spread.
Yeah the comments about Beltre having issues with Ichiro and the "but Ichiro has a reputation, so he probably instigated it"

where what made me close the tab.

Meh, I don't think it was that bad.

A couple of people don’t believe in defense mattering, which is not that unusual. And in most cases they were struck down. In addition, if you know nothing about Beltre and you see his 2004 year, I don’t think asking the community if he was on roids is that bad, especially because most of them responded with “No, probably not.”

Overall that was one of the least annoying threads on one of our controversial players I’ve seen in a while.

What a let down, I was hoping for a 20 car pile-up.

Boooo-ring.

Yeah, it was more like the engine overheated and a group of sort of attractive in a bookish kind of way women were helping him get it back on.
This isn't even close to funny, please hide this.
I can't flag me.
Whatever, desire for a 20 car pile up has been sated.

I was with it, I really was. Overheated engine, yeah man, I dig it. Attractive librarian types, glasses and shit, yeah yeah liking that, and then… they’re changing a flat tire?

I have flagged this since I can't flag myself in order to get this subthread hidden.
Left open for shame
You'll be hearing about this in the LL QC.
Yeah, not really as awful as many other threads.

Hell, a few of our recent threads were worse.

King Awesome nooooooooooooooooo

Why can’t the Red Sox collect bad ex-Mariners like the Royals?

Speaking of, the Royals signed John Parrish to a minor league deal today.
I just feel sorry for them now

much in the way our extended Bavasi nightmare began to evoke sympathetic headshakes and sighs from fans of other teams.

Because the Royals have them all.
The Over the Monster thread is awful.

All roid talk and batting average.

Take a lap.

Again, to be fair, this was like 2 people out of 50.

There are a lot of reasons to legitimately hate a lot of these blogs, but I’m inclined to only attack them for blatantly incorrect threads. This was just a couple of people, and the majority of the website openly disagreed with them.

So what pick do we get as compensation?
Something in the 40s
I completely forgot that we get a pick.

That’s a nice parting gift, I suppose.

Definitely nice after we lost one by signing Figgins.

Hopefully Jack can work his draft magic after the first round is over.

So did the Phillies do the right thing?

Polanco at 3 yr/18 mil vs. Beltre at 1 yr/10 mil. Granted they’re not starved for good hitters but I think I’d much rather have Beltre.

Polanco was a terrible signing.

Beltre would have been a better deal. So would not signing Polanco and Baez and keeping Cliff Lee instead. Absolutely ludicrous.

I feel like I got punched in the balls!!!

Best of luck to you Sir. Even though I hate your new team, I still <3 (heart, not penis) you!

Oh please, like you wouldn't penis Adrian Beltre if he gave you half a chance.
Beltre is going to slay The Monster.

That gif cuts a little deeper today. Damn.
This really bums me out.

Sigh.

Here is an email I received from a coworker who's from Boston.

Sox signed Beltre. Please make me feel better about this. He hit .265 with 8 HR last year.

I wanted to go into some long rant about better ways to look at players, but I figured it would be a waste.

You could at least inform him that he didn't play a full season, and he was hurt a lot when he did play.

Simple enough, without getting into defense, sample size and other things that might make a typical fan yawn.

And point him to

this

Who the hell is Adrian Bertle?
This made me incredibly sad
I really shouldn't have watched this

God Beltre is ridiculously good at defense.

My favorite ones are the off-balance-from-one-knee-throws across the diamond.

How the fuck?

This is what I wrote back:

He’s by far the best defensive third baseman in the majors with a UZR of 14.3. He has a solid bat that was never suited for Safeco. Last season was a fluke. He only had 449 at bats. He had a messed shoulder, problem in his thumb and he took a ground ball off his boys.

sorry reply fail
Be prepared

to either be asked “what the hell is UZR” or be told that stats don’t matter.

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