This Year’s Cabrera
Last year Orlando Cabrera brought something special to Boston. It took maybe a week and he became a fan favorite. With his outstanding defense and electric personality, he helped deliver the Red Sox to the promise land. The same is now holding true now with Tony Graffanino. While not as dramatic as Cabrera, Graffanino is a hard working veteran, who has played in the bottom of the barrel his whole career. Now he has a chance to play in October, and to play in meaningful games in September. Since being acquired by Boston, Graffanino is hitting .333 and has been in a mix of great defensive plays. And as we all saw last night, Graffanino has no problem running the bases. I think we’ll see more and perhaps even better play from Graffanino in the next few weeks. With Mark Bellhorn playing poorly in Pawtucket, this will be a chance for Graffy to secure the starting 2B role. Already in my mind and maybe most of Red Sox Nation he has done that. But in the event that Bellhorn does come back to Boston, Graffanino will not want to leave any doubt in Terry Francona’s mind.
S.
August 10th, 2005 at 9:00 am
Couldn’t agree more. T-Graf (I refuse to call him Tony G as it sounds way too close to Kenny G) has not just been productive, but exceptional. One can only begin to mention differences between Kansas City and Boston, and T- Graf has entered center stage with the performance of someone who should be there. Bellhorn had a great year for us, last year. He produced some quality at-bats in the post season. We gave him a wonderful reward to the tune of almost $3million this year. This has not been Bellhorn’s year in the slightest. While he struggles at AAA, T-Graf is tearing up and cementing his position in the lineup. It would be infuriating to see Bellhorn (sub .250 batting average) come back and take the spot he had earlier in the year. Remember, I think this is how Bellhorn replaced Pokey.
August 11th, 2005 at 9:12 am
GIVE ME A BREAK! O-Cab was a unique and original ballplayer. Graffanino is a far cry from being anything close to what Cabrera was. Ya, he has a better batting average, but no where near the ‘clutchitity’!