Brandon Arroyo is now a Red. The Sox has been removed from his team's name and I can't be any happier. Bronson "AKA Brandon" Arroyo was one of a million mediocre players that get elevated to cult hero status in this town and are valued much more than they actually are worth. This is great if you're a GM and can finagle another team to provide you with a more valuable player in the process. In the case of Bronson Arroyo for Willy Mo Pena I would say this is the case.
Arroyo was a consistent 12-13 game winner at best. 15 wins is considered a good pitcher. 18 and up is a top of the rotation kind of guy. So where does 12-13 wins put Bronson? In the 4th or 5th slot in a rotation. Well when you have the chance to grab a budding young right fielder, knowing your right fielder is in his last year, you make this trade. The Reds desperately need pitching and the Sox are doing their best to get younger.
There are a few reasons why I like WiMo. Yeah, I just made that nickname up. If it takes off I'll be collecting royalty fees. He's young and he's cheap. Theo is sticking to his guns and building a team for future dominance. This is such a new concept for the Red Sox that it has to excite you. WiMo just turned 24 this past January 23. He's got 3 years before he reaches his prime. Check out Baseball Reference's
comparable player stats for past players at his age. The company he's keeping is not too shabby, but I'm not going to blow my wad over this. Here's what gets my juices flowing. He's Dominican. As many of my friends know I tend to value the Dominicans higher than any other nationality that plays this game. Passion plus natural talent goes a long way in my book. You just can't have enough Dominicans on your team. Combine that with tutelage from Manny Ramirez and "Big Papi" Ortiz and WiMo has a lot of positives working in his favor. Right now he certainly needs the right teachers to help him out, but you can look at Big Papi's career and
pinpoint at what age (Let's guess it's 27) his career broke out. If it all pans out he's going to get the average, power numbers and the blessed OBP up and Fenway will soon be rocking to chants of WiMo, WiMo, WiMo.
Now Bronson on the other hand is a different story altogether. He suffers from what I like to call DerekLoweitis. It's a condition that forces you to lose control of you penis by allowing it to pay numerous visits to groupies after you achieve the proverbial Boston Cult Hero status. Bronson happened to hook up with the
wrong girl from Northeastern University who, like every other 18 year old girl with access to the Internet, posted a photo documentary of their relationship on The Facebook. I'm not going to post a url to it, because you need to register with an .edu address but I'm sure you get my point. It obviously dogged him all of last year and he's been too shaky this Spring. I'm sure that's related to the fact that the new contract plus jaded wife equals balls in a sling. Never underestimate a wife who sticks around just to make your life miserable. The media has always had a gentleman's agreement not to broach this topic, but it's obvious when players suffer on the field due to their off the field infidelities.
See Derek Lowe's stats in LA last year after his affair went public and got nasty. Heck, even the blog
On The DL is rallying support for Trinka Lowe by helping her build a case against him. That cannot be good. I'm convinced that management doesn't want to deal with these kinds of headaches anymore. I'm sure it's why they said sayonara to Derek Lowe after 2004 and Johnny Damon this past season (aside from the obvious physical issues he is "suffering" through).
I'm sure there are a lot of people who are whining on the talk shows as I type this, but anybody with any insight into this deal will tell you it's a good thing. Plus, I need to make room on my shelf for the next Cult Hero, Manny Delcarmen. He's got space reserved next to Jonathan Papelbon and Josh Beckett.
