The Fascination with J.D. Drew.

Somebody spot me here, because I'm going out on a limb.

I have a funny feeling that David Jonathan Drew is going to carry the Red Sox into the playoffs.

Everyone has been complaining about Theo's "great mistake," wondering how the Boy Wonder manages to hold on to a job when he signs stiffs like Drew instead of...instead of...well, it doesn't matter that no one else was available, Theo sucks!

And sure, Drew has underperformed, to say the least. Even with expectations tempered for the distant right fielder, no one could have predicted this degree of futility to last as long as it has. And anyone who says they did is right for the same reason as a broken clock - even the blind squirrel finds a nut, as they say.

But I have no doubt in my mind that Drew is going to turn this around, and my hope is for the revelation to happen sooner rather than later. Don't forget, friends, that this time last year Josh Beckett was slotted behind David Wells in the Sox rotation and was serving up so many homers that opponents regularly tipped him on their way around the bases. And for those of you that haven't noticed, he is in the lead pack for the Cy Young race and is clearly the stud of the staff at the moment.

Could Drew turn it around just as dramatically? I certainly think so. Let's just look at some stats over the course of the year and see if we can pick up any trends:

DURATION ________AVG____OBP____SLG____OPS.
Whole season____.261___.364___.390___.754
Last month______.282___.358___.408___.766
Last two weeks__.382___.462___.529___.991
Last week_______.444___.524___.611__1.135

Call me a stathead all you want, but I find these numbers to be quite encouraging.

And another thing: I am sick of all the rubbish I hear about Drew "not caring" about winning or losing. No one makes it this far playing a children's game professionally without carrying a level of competitiveness higher than any many of us have ever seen. Drew is animated - the dugout camera often catches him chatting up the guys up and down the bench. But he doesn't curse and throw bats and water coolers when he grounds out, so he doesn't care.

But in a pressure cooker like Boston, isn't that level-headedness even more important?

Hitting a baseball is not like sacking a quarterback, dunking a basketball in traffic, or even being a flamethrowing pitcher. I don't think anybody has ever hit better when they were angry. Riled or offended, of course - but that's just competition. Unchecked anger really has no place on a baseball field, and I don't think we should hold it against Drew that he keeps an even keel even in stormy seas.

Because guess what, sports fans: in September and October, the seas get quite stormy around these parts. And, in my estimation, J.D. Drew could be the navigator this team will so desperately need.