Shaughnessy’s Faux Rage: I’m Not Buying It

Firebrand Joe Morgan-like.

If you heard a loud thumping noise a few minutes ago, that wasn’t your imagination.  It was me bashing my head against the desk as I was reading Dan Shaughnessy’s latest opus.  Like all Shaughnessy articles, he channels his most emotional nerves to convince us that the Red Sox ownership (or whomever his target du jour might be) is wronging us. That their “cheap” ways are depriving us of a championship that we’re entitled to experiencing.  Clearly, he does it for attention and notoriety, and perhaps we should all be immune to his shtick by now.  For some reason, I can’t let go.

...Terry Francona, Theo Epstein, Jonathan Papelbon, and Heidi Watney are all gone, and we just learned that Carl Crawford had surgery on his wrist, which isn’t going to make things easier for his big bounce-back season.

I can live with all of the above – even if we won’t have J.D. Drew to kick around anymore – but I can’t stand talk about payroll limits and luxury tax obligations.

While Heidi Watney’s presence will be missed, I’m not sure how this will impact the team’s on field performance.  If anything, I think the horny old baseball writers, like Shaughnessy, will be the ones missing her most of all.

Crawford’s wrist injury probably won’t make his bounce back season any easier, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be successful.  The good news is that only the cartilege was torn in the wrist.  Had he broken a bone, the outlook on his season would’ve been much less rosy.  Recovery from such a procedure typically lasts 6-8 weeks, which would put him about 2-4 weeks behind in terms of Spring Training readiness.  He seems to be a pretty quick healer, so he could be back even sooner.  I don’t see any reason to panic until we’re given an actually reason to do so.