MARCO! (Photo lifted from Kelly O'Connor/sittingstill.net and used with permission)
Sometimes moves are made on the team that make you (or me!) happier than they probably should. The signing of Marco Scutaro is one of those moves. I think he’s a good player who will fit in well with the Red Sox…but I’m also just looking forward to his playing in Fenway and the Sox fans greeting him with “Marco!” “Scutaro!”…I’m easily entertained.
Before I go on about Marco, I just have to say this…someday I’m going to buy a hard copy of the Boston Globe just so I can set it on fire. After rumors spread that the Sox were thinking about moving Dustin Pedroia to short (based on Pedroia saying it had been brought up) folks at the Globe are writing things like “The Sox have come to their senses” in regard to keeping Pedie at second (in the same article that he wrote the sense line, in the paragraph BEFORE it, Nick Cafardo admits a “Sox source” told him it was a “last resort”.
This stuff frustrates the hell out of me. You don’t come to your senses from a last resort. You make a decision that you wanted to make that would ensure you didn’t have to USE your last resort. But, no, Cafardo has to make it out that the Red Sox lost their minds collectively and were shaken into sense by the realization that Marco Scutaro was a free agent. It always has to be about how bad the decision making is in the front office, right Nicky? (In the same piece he gets his dig in that the Red Sox “botched” things with Alex Gonzalez. Yeah, that’s what they did. Gonzalez is two years younger than Scutaro, but Scutaro’s season last year was a bit more impressive than AGon’s so I can see the Sox wanting to go by the most recent past performance of a player to fill a position they only expect the player to hold for a short time (2 years with an option for a third is what Marco got). Sure folks are arguing that last year’s season for Scutaro was an anomaly but it isn’t like Scutaro OR Gonzalez was ever known as a player headed to the HoF (nor are either player considered terrible). I can’t think of a shortstop I like watching more than Alex Gonzalez, but that doesn’t mean letting him go because you don’t think he was worth the money he’d be getting and were hoping to get him for less means that anything was “botched”. I dig me Alex Gonzalez but I don’t feel like the Sox are settling by taking on Marco Scutaro.
Anyway, I’m happy about the signing and I’m not getting the negativity from some folks who think every signing needs to be a blockbuster. Signing a veteran shortstop makes me happy. The infield is, once again, set and it’s now something that doesn’t need to be focused on. Is he going to repeat the season he had last year? I sure hope so but I’m not holding my breath. That doesn’t mean he won’t be effective and a solid presence in the infield. And, really, folks, just because the Sox signed Scutaro doesn’t mean they aren’t going to get Bay back or sign Holliday or trade for Roy Halladay (three complaints I’ve seen around). True blockbuster deals don’t get made in a vacuum. It’s nice to have the little pieces fit together before you take on the big ones.
Who am I kidding? I’m just excited because I think I finally have my first binky since Kyle Snyder and Mike Timlin left Boston (and he’s not a pitcher – go figure!).
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