Felger & Mazz Rip Writers Who Wouldn’t Trade Jackie Bradley Jr. For Jose Abreu
It seems like it would be a solid move for the power-starved Red Sox to trade defensive wizard Jackie Bradley Jr. straight-up for White Sox slugger Jose Abreu, right? Not if you ask certain baseball writers.
On Thursday, 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Felger & Mazz took issue (that’s putting it lightly) with the latest column by the Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham. He argues that Bradley is a more valuable player than Abreu – whose career 162-game averages are a .300 batting average, 33 home runs, and 108 RBIs – due to his “defense and baserunning.” Michael Felger did not hesitate to jump all over Abraham’s take.
“Unless you’re Ozzie Smith – and even then – or Omar Vizquel, when are you ever taking someone for defense and base running over 30-100? Ever?” asked Felger. “He can’t be serious about that. [The Red Sox] can’t be serious about that. Jackie Bradley is more valuable given his defense and baserunning? Than a guy who hits 30-100 every year?”
Tony Massarotti also vehemently disagreed with the very idea of the White Sox even thinking about trading Abreu for Bradley.
“It’s one of two things: either Pete believes it, or the Red Sox are feeding that out there,” said Massarotti. “I said to you yesterday: If the White Sox take Jackie Bradley in a deal for Jose Abreu, the GM should be fired on the spot. Fired. That’s an automatic firing.”
Abraham’s argument may have stemmed from a recent article on FanGraphs, which showed that Bradley has a slightly higher career WAR (9.7) than Abreu (9.1) and posited that his elite defense does really make him more valuable than Abreu. But in terms of the Red Sox’ needs right now, they could possibly stand to take a hit in the field in order to add a legitimate power hitter to the lineup.
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