J.D. Drew - Ballplayer, Not Mathematician

J.D. Drew is just your slightly above average outfielder for the Boston Red Sox.  Perhaps my view of Drew is maligned because of the things said about him in Three Nights in August, but I'm not a huge fan.  He has all the talent in the world, but doesn't really work all that hard to play the game.  He relies on talent, makes his money, and that's about it.  However, because of his great talent, he can do things that other players can't necessarily do... like make a really difficult catch in foul territory look easy, even when he doesn't mean to do it.  Let me explain.

In Saturday's game against the Rays, a runner was on third with one out and the batter hit a towering fly ball into foul territory where the visitor's bullpen is located.  In most instances, a fielder might let a difficult foul ball go because the runner on third can tag up and score.  Drew ran over to size up the situation, and ended up catching the ball while falling into the chairs.  The runner tagged from third and scored on the play, tying the game up at 1-1.

It's baseball, so you don't know what would have happened had Drew not caught the ball, but Boston's pitcher was kind of upset because the run ended up scoring, and here's where we get to the relevant part.  Here is an actual quote from Drew following the game:

"It's a question mark," said Drew. "If you let the ball drop and he walks, there's two guys on and the next pitch he hits a two-run homer, it's a difficult situation. But in that part of the game, Clay [Buchholz] is throwing the ball pretty well, he's got a good chance on [a] 3-2 [pitch], but you never know what's going to happen."

You see that part that's in bold and underlined.  Read it again.  That's right, Drew suggested that Buchholz would somehow walk the batter, putting runners on 1st and 3rd, and then allow a two-run homer.  I know that there is a lot of talk of Buchholz for the AL Cy Young this season, but if he can allow a two-run homer with two runners already on base, then he deserves the next three Cy Young awards.

I know that J.D. Drew is a baseball player, not Danica McKellar, but give me a break.