Shortstops in Short Supply

I've got a problem. I've been holding Stephen Drew -- Arizona's #1 draft pick and J.D. Drew's little brother -- as my shortstop pretty much all year. He's highly touted, but he's not producing. Like, at all. But he's looked good to scouts, and he looked good to me when the Sox played the Diamondbacks. The prevailing wisdom on him is that he's due to break out any minute. He's swinging well; the hits just aren't falling. That sort of thing.

But now I see another highly touted prospect on the FA waiver wire: Atlanta's Yunel Escobar. He's a Cuban defector -- came over on a little boat in the middle of the night -- so he's got the testicular fortitude. He's already produced, hitting .310 with a homer, 16 runs scored and 8 RBI in only 87 ABs.

By contrast, Drew: 4 hrs. 3 steals. .238 BA. In 280 ABs! In a word, that's "ewwww."

But if I give up on Drew now, you know he will go on an unholy tear. >:-|

So unable to pull the trigger on that FA deal, I distracted myself by adding Dan Johnson, who hit 3 homers last week AFTER I considered adding him. D'oh! I dropped Brandon Inge, who has lost playing time due to a minor injury. I dropped Justin Germano and added Manny Corpas, who should be in line for some saves now in Colorado.

The Trade

In 17 games since I acquired him, Lance Berkman is 22 for 67, with 6 homers, 17 RBI, and a steal. He's hitting .328. (By contrast, Berkman hit 8 homers the whole rest of the season for his previous team.) Meanwhile, Mike Lowell has only played 11 games (thumb is bothering him) with a homer and is only hitting .244. Hasn't helped the bottom line yet though -- he's still in 3rd and I'm in 6th.

Something to Wine About
Went to Pic-n-Pay yesterday for a quick shop, and happened to spot this in the wine section!


I bought a bottle of Manny Being Merlot, onaccounta my girlfriend loves Manny and she loves red wine. I brought it home and got the expected reaction -- best described as a smiling gasp --
and I popped the question: Keep or Drink? ("Keep, duh!") Although, these are from Chile and they're supposedly quite good, especially for the price ($11.99!)

I don't know how I missed this until now. My dad runs a wine store and this story made the Globe and ABCNews.

I might have to get a few more bottles for posterity -- in and around Boston, they're already selling out. The 3 of them are on eBay together at a bid of $72. The company produced 23,000 cases -- that's only about 275,000 bottles. This has "good investment" written all over it. And its for a good cause, too!