Who was the most disliked Red Sox player acquisition ever? AT THE TIME OF ACQUISITION

[Bernie Carbohydrate]

Stan Papi, because even as a callow youth, I knew that Bill Lee was a much better ballplayer. I really didn't hate him as much as the front office that decided he was worth starting 27 games for the Red Sox.

But as for Marc Sullivan, I could dislike him and management at the same time because ordinarily poor management would have kept his 33 OPS+ at AAA, but only management overseen by his father would pay him a major league salary.

A-men on Sullivan. I mean, he was probably a nice kid, but the sins kept compounding:

1. Waste a draft pick on the GM's son. Ok, minor sin, but hey, spend a 39th round pick as a empty gesture, sure.

2. Wha? A SECOND ROUND PICK? Ok...that's bad, but send him A-ball and learn your lesson.

3. Wait, he's been moved up from Single -A to Boston after posting a .531 OPS in AA and AAA? Okay....but it's just a two game cup of coffee at the end of a lost season. Now this is over, right?

4. What the hell? He's the backup catcher on the 1986 squad, a real team with playoff hopes? And his .512 OPS means banged-up Rich Gedman has to catch 135 games? Thanks, Haywood.

 

[Detts]

True story:

Was sitting behind home plate at Riverfront when all 400 lbs of Mitchell came to the plate.

A 10 year old stood up behind me and yelled HEY SHAMU! IF YOU GET A HIT I’LL BUY YOU A HOT DOG!

 

[jose melendez]

David Wells.

This is my answer. He's my most hated Red Sox of all time, non criminal division.

 

[jose melendez]

Actually, for me, it might be Jose Melendez-- I thought Phil Plantier was going to be a perennial 30/100 guy

 

[reggiecleveland]

SOme people missed the point. At the time they were acquired.

For me
David Price was such a dick with the Rays. Still don't like him.

Also I hated the Sox always going after over the hill RH sluggers since Bill James et al had been preaching the "FEnway is a LH hitter park" for years, and the new seats behind homeplate made Fenway not such an easy HR park for RHH hitters. So some of these were okay but I hated each acquisition.
Dante Bichette
Kevin Mitchell
Tony Perez
Andre Dawson
Jack Clark
even Canseco I didn't like

 

[shaggydog2000]

It was definitely Lackey for me. I hated the signing, but I think the fact that he had a voice like Sloth from the Goonies had an effect on me.

 

[jose melendez]

Matt Young's got to be up there.

 

[DourDoerr]

Sandoval. All that money for an overweight 3rd baseman who had shown zero discipline for a great organization in SF. As a bonus had a strike zone the equal of Vlad with almost none of the power and on top of that rarely walked. He was a five-tool player, but they were all the wrong tools.

 

[Harry Hooper]

I disliked Jack Clark upon arrival given his babbling criticisms of Tony Gwynn. Then he put up putrid numbers and almost boasted about declaring bankruptcy (seemingly oblivious to people never getting money from him that he legitimately owed them).

 

[joe dokes]

AJP was generally described as an asshole before coming here.
Leyritz, due to his NYY visibility, acted like one before he got here.
Matt Young even though he pitched a game in which he gave up no hits in 9 innings in his 2nd start. I dont think he was ever described in bad terms, but he was that rare guy who couldn't throw accurately to any of the four bases**, and was acquired seemingly only because he could get Wade Boggs out consistently.

**along with a 6.5/4.3 K/BB ratio, Matt Young had a career .878 FP. That's pretty hard to do. He had seasons of 4 errors in 17 chances, 9 in 52 and 6 in 16.

 

[Martin and Woods]

He was a five-tool player, but they were all the wrong tools.

Soup spoon, salad fork, regular spoon, regular fork, knife...

 

[curly2]

Guy I couldn't stand: David Wells

Signing I couldn't stand (pre-signing): Pablo Sanodval. I knew that deal was going to be a disaster even when it was still at the rumor stage, and was hoping wildly he would pick the Padres or Giants.

 

[chawson]

A-job Pierzynski is the clear answer. I’ll also throw in Brad Penny as someone I never liked and thought was a dumb sign.

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

Sandoval. All that money for an overweight 3rd baseman who had shown zero discipline for a great organization in SF. As a bonus had a strike zone the equal of Vlad with almost none of the power and on top of that rarely walked. He was a five-tool player, but they were all the wrong tools.

AJ is the actual answer, but yeah, Sandoval is up therefor me. I'm sure he's an okay guy, but this was a disaster everyone could see coming. And this is coming from someone who defends Carl Crawford.

 

[chrisfont9]

Jose Offerman...mainly because he wasn't Mo Vaughn.

Right, that was the real-time objection, that he was coming off a classic contract year but secretly sucked, and he proceeded to put up OPS+ numbers of 108, 80 and 89. If he'd been billed as John Valentin's replacement, it might have been tolerable. But replacing Vaughn, who lived in the 140-150 range for every year of his Sox tenure? GTFO.

 

[Mueller's Twin Grannies]

Fat Bart is a great call, but I didn't hate that signing until he quit on the team and left them high and dry. If he had stuck it out, maybe they beat the Rays and repeat and poor Matt Clement at least has a ring to go with his ruined psyche from that comebacker to his head, not to mention Jason Bay. Fuck that fat fuck.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Fat Bart is a great call, but I didn't hate that signing until he quit on the team and left them high and dry. If he had stuck it out, maybe they beat the Rays and repeat and poor Matt Clement at least has a ring to go with his ruined psyche from that comebacker to his head, not to mention Jason Bay. Fuck that fat fuck.

Matt Clement got a ring with the 2007 squad (spent the year on the 60-day DL). He was not with the team in 2008 with Colon and Bay.

 

[cornwalls@6]

AJP, for being one of the biggest, most unlikable assholes in the league.

The Panda, not for anything to do with his personality, but because he had overweight, overrated disaster written all over him.

 

[koufax32]

I had successfully moved on from my anger over Jim Leyritz until someone brought him up here.
Such a tool. Every. Single. Thing. About him made me angry. Here was a literal, walking caricature of a MFY fan who still proclaimed his love for them, and now I’m supposed to want him to succeed??? I literally cheered his failures in a Sox uniform. Just talking this through is pissing me off. Man, I hated that guy.

Who wears a leather jacket with a leather cabbie hat worn in reverse? Screw you, moron. Go twirl your bat on the Mass Pike.

This isn’t even cathartic. Who starts a thread just for the purpose of pissing people off? Screw you, OP’er.

 

[Mueller's Twin Grannies]

Matt Clement got a ring with the 2007 squad (spent the year on the 60-day DL). He was not with the team in 2008 with Colon and Bay.

Ah, okay. I was off by a year on the start and and of the deal.

Other than that, I stand by what I said.

 

[Earthbound64]

At least in recent years - Jose Offerman, David Wells, and (EDIT) Ramiro Mendoza
Yeah, and Jim Leyritz.

 

[Marbleheader]

Price, Crawford , Lackey, Sandoval. I hated the signings the minute I heard about them.

 

[luckysox]

David Wells and Dante Bichette. Hated both of those guys before they got here and could not come around to them.

 

[Captaincoop]

Sandoval. Everything about that was a predictable disaster.

 

[DourDoerr]

Soup spoon, salad fork, regular spoon, regular fork, knife...

That's one you won't find in his toolkit. Spork, maybe?

 

[YTF]

Sandoval. All that money for an overweight 3rd baseman who had shown zero discipline for a great organization in SF. As a bonus had a strike zone the equal of Vlad with almost none of the power and on top of that rarely walked. He was a five-tool player, but they were all the wrong tools.

Speaking of five tool players, I'll cast another vote for Pierzynski. The ultimate tool x 5.

 

[ngruz25]

There seems to be some sort of alternate reality where El Duque and Magglio Ordonez played for the Sox.

Although I do vaguely remember a proposed trade that involved Ordonez. Did that go through in your universe?!

 

[Earthbound64]

There seems to be some sort of alternate reality where El Duque and Magglio Ordonez played for the Sox.

Sorry - Ramiro Mendoza.

 

[MuppetAsteriskTalk]

Price

 

[Yelling At Clouds]

I don’t think this is what this thread is going for, but I was irrationally pissed that the return for John Lackey was Joe Kelly and Allen Craig.

 

[Coachster]

Carl Crawford. Stupid to sign him with Ellsbury around. His neck tattoo made me sick, but not as sick as his swinging at breaking balls two feet in front of the plate.

 

[Rough Carrigan]

Skip Lockwood. First there was the "Who the hell is that?!" reaction. Then, either through the newspaper or baseball cards I saw the guy had pitched very little. In those days before creeping LaRussaism brought us 1 inning per game relievers, good relievers pitched in 60 games and threw 100 innings. Lockwood didn't. The Mets let him go and they seemed to know about pitching. Why would they let him go? They're effing New York. They've got more money than us. Plus, this was after their big free agent pickup of two years before, Mike Torrez, had lost the '78 playoff game. So we were primed to believe that they'd screw up. And they did. The guy couldn't break a pane of glass.

 

[kobayashis bail bonds]

Nobody for John Smoltz then?

 

[Muppet]

I don’t think this is what this thread is going for, but I was irrationally pissed that the return for John Lackey was Joe Kelly and Allen Craig.

If it does then I would like to nominate Brett Lillibridge and Zach Stewart for being the replacements for Youk.

OP never mentioned anything about holding a reasonable position.

 

[OCST]

AJ Pierzinsky.

This and it's not even close.

 

[Bob Montgomerys Helmet Hat]

Lugo is about the only one I can think of.

 

[OCST]

This thread is really depressing. I forgot of some of this dreck, especially the guys who came here at the tail end of their careers and sucked. Oof.

 

[LostinNJ]

I don't care about them as people. I hated two signings because I knew they were going to cost a lot to make the team worse: Jose Offerman and Pablo Sandoval.

I remember I was driving when I heard about the Offerman signing (4 years, $26 million, I think), and I started pounding the steering wheel, but not for joy.

 

[Mueller's Twin Grannies]

Nobody for John Smoltz then?

Who hated Smoltz? He just didn't have anything left.

 

[BuellMiller]

Other than the previously mentioned ones (AJP, Lugo), I'd have to go with Wes Chamberlain. But mainly because they traded Billy Hatcher and a young pitching prospect* for him. Billy Hatcher wasn't very good (hitting .244, with an unknown 58 OPS+ at the time of the trade in 1994), but he had hit .287 in 93, and did steal home that year, and there really wasn't much going on that year offensively other than Mo and John Valentin's emergence.

*didn't help after the fact that that pitching prospect turned into a useful major leaguer, even if he gave up an important homerun while pitching for the MFY.

 

[tims4wins]

Other than the previously mentioned ones (AJP, Lugo), I'd have to go with Wes Chamberlain. But mainly because they traded Billy Hatcher and a young pitching prospect* for him. Billy Hatcher wasn't very good (hitting .244, with an unknown 58 OPS+ at the time of the trade in 1994), but he had hit .287 in 93, and did steal home that year, and there really wasn't much going on that year offensively other than Mo and John Valentin's emergence.

*didn't help after the fact that that pitching prospect turned into a useful major leaguer, even if he gave up an important homerun while pitching for the MFY.

Fun story, I was at that game, and my dad called it - "Hatcher's gonna steal home" - high fives all around when he did it

edit: video cuz why not

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgOK_h2OEcE

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

Fun story, I was at that game, and my dad called it - "Hatcher's gonna steal home" - high fives all around when he did it

That play was great, but man, people talked about that like the Sox had just won the World Series. I guess that's what happens when your team isn't very good and when your team is traditionally very slow on the base paths.

 

[tims4wins]

That play was great, but man, people talked about that like the Sox had just won the World Series. I guess that's what happens when your team isn't very good and when your team is traditionally very slow on the base paths.

1991-1994 was dark times man

 

[jmcc5400]

The acquisition of Ed Sprague in the summer of 2000 prompted one of the first SOSH meltdowns at the time it happened and it deepened as Tankersley rocketed up the Padres system. I also hated the Dante Bichette acquisition that year. Such an incredibly frustrating team in 2000.

But the answer to this question has to be David Wells.

 

[DeweyWins]

Mostly in order:

• Pretty much every former Yankee who ever joined the Sox.
• Carl Crawford and Pablo Sandoval - I had a strong feeling we overpaid for both these guys.
• Marc Sullivan - should never have donned a major league uniform irrespective of his relationship to management.
• Nick Esasky and Rob Murphy - actually did well in Boston while they were there. I was high on Todd Benzinger and Jeff Sellers at the time (maybe literally, in hindsight).
• A.J. Pierzynski - I just never liked this guy.
• Jose Melendez - I penciled Phil Plantier down for 30 homers every year for at least 3-4 years.
• Rob Deer (he was a "three true outcomes" guy before I knew what that was) - I didn't think he belonged on the team.
• Jose Canseco - he was a flashier version of Rob Deer who didn't walk as much, played worse defense, and was generally a jerk of a human being, even then.

 

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

Curt Schilling. Seriously! I hated him way back when he was in Philly. I'm glad he beat the MFY's in AZ and then helped win the Big One in '04... but I hated him and he's gotten even more loathsome. More than Panda... more than Lackey.... more than Crawford.... AJ..... and those guys did shit.

 

[mauf]

The question posed by this thread forced me to confront a hard fact: I’m a shameless laundry rooter. The only signings I didn’t like were the ones I thought were bad for the team.

 

[Earthbound64]

The Marc Sullivan discussion brings to mind the time that John Henry Williams spent with the Red Sox.
Obviously he didn't cost a draft pick, much money, or make the majors - but what a horrible person, with having Ted wear a hat to advertise his website, and then (almost certainly) forging a document while Ted was dying to get him cryogenically frozen.

 

[E5 Yaz]

The Marc Sullivan discussion brings to mind the time that John Henry Williams spent with the Red Sox.
Obviously he didn't cost a draft pick, much money, or make the majors - but what a horrible person, with having Ted wear a hat to advertise his website, and then (almost certainly) forging a document while Ted was dying to get him cryogenically frozen.

 

[WestMassExpat]

Second for me after AJP is Ramiro Mendoza. Got paid here more than as a Yankee, putting up -0.5 and 0.7 bWAR seasons.