The Outlandish Confidence of Scott Boras

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We're just about a month away from Spring training, and World Champion shortstop Stephen Drew is still without a home for the 2014 season. Superagent (and possible devil incarnate) Scott Boras is still confident about Drew's prospects, claiming he's spoken to four or five teams about contract possibilities.

Of course, one of those teams is the Red Sox - after extending Drew a one-year, $14.1 million qualifying offer, the Sox have been standing firm. They don't think Drew is a multi-year investment at this point in his career. His defense is solid, but that value is somewhat tempered by how easily his bat was silenced during the playoffs.

I don't know which teams need a soon-to-be 31-year-old shortstop for multiple years, but if (as I suspect) Boras is bluffing about the level of interest from other teams, the Red Sox clearly hold all the cards.

If they can get Drew back for a single year, it would be a great way to ease Xander Bogaerts into the full time starting role. If Drew signs elsewhere, the Red Sox seem pretty comfortable with giving Bogaerts the starting job outright, and they get a draft pick.

Personally, as a proud member of the #DrewCrew, I'd like to see Drew back - but I won't shed any tears for him if that doesn't happen.

#DrewCrew comes through

Stephen Drew has had a rough start to the season, as he suffered a concussion in spring training, and was able to get just a fraction of the at-bats a player typically relies upon before starting the season.  Because of this stumbling block, he's struggled pretty seriously at the plate so far in 2013.

In addition to the actual problems Drew's been having, fan perception of him was already clouded because of the fact that Stephen Drew is JD Drew's younger brother. JD, of course, was one of the least popular everyday players of the last few years, as fans considered him overpaid, overrated, and fragile. I'll always stick up for JD - after all, it's not his fault Theo wanted to throw so much money his way - and I'll certainly always judge Stephen by his own merits, not those of his brother.

Last night, Stephen Drew was an offensive hero, going 4-for-5 while hitting a game-tying homerun in the seventh inning, and hitting a walkoff RBI double off the Green Monster in the bottom of the eleventh inning. Drew has finally gotten his batting average over .200 (currently at .225), and his defense has been solid throughout the young season.

So if anyone wasn't convinced before, I hope last night's performance has made you eager to jump on the #DrewCrew bandwagon, because there's plenty of room for everyone. But be warned - if you do decide to jump on the Stephen Drew bandwagon, you might find yourself sitting next to JD.

Bringing back the #DrewCrew

Though JD Drew was never an extremely popular player during his time with the Red Sox, he did have a band of loyal fans on Twitter, and we called ourselves the #DrewCrew. Poor JD never stood a chance with fans. The front office knew they were getting a relatively fragile guy with good OBP and excellent defensive positioning, but many fans just saw a constantly injured player who was unexciting at the plate and wouldn't dive for a ball like Trot Nixon did (though that was mostly due to the fact that JD made it look too easy).

But I always liked him. JD Drew was sometimes bland, to be sure (I once wrote a post entitled "JD Drew has no feelings"), but he was a solid player, if somewhat overpaid.  As I'm sure you're aware, JD's brother Stephen has joined the Red Sox this year as a shortstop, and I'm predicting a huge season for him.

As such, I would like to take this opportunity to announce the revival of the #DrewCrew, this time in support of the Drew brother still playing professional baseball. You can even recycle your old JD Drew jersey (I know SOME of you have to have one of those), because Stephen is wearing #7, just like his brother did.