Crisp/Gonzalez to Boston?

According to Tony Massarotti in this morning's Herald, "the Red Sox and Cleveland Indians have agreed in principle on a deal that will bring outfielder Crisp to the Sox in a multi-player trade" and "the Sox also are about to sign free agent Gonzalez."

I'm not certain how I feel about the Crisp trade. They certainly needed a center fielder, and Crisp has a chance to actually be an upgrade, though he certainly might not be. I hate giving up Andy Marte, but recognize the possibility that it was necessary.

The other part of that report, I will comment on. There is no justifiable reason to sign Alex Gonzalez. None. I'd rather have Pokey Reese back - at least he's likely to get hurt and replaced by someone who can play. Gonzalez is awful. This a player with a career .291 (yes, that's not a typo - point two nine one) OBP. (I'm trying to figure out how to characterize that without using profanity. Let's just say, it's not good. In fact, it's not good enough to call "bad...") I don't want him, at any price. I'd rather, much, much rather, have Alex Cora or Alejandro Machado or Dustin Pedroia or Tony Graffanino at SS than Alex Gonzalez, and they've already got all of those guys. I strongly, fervently hope that Massarotti's got that part wrong. I don't want Alex Gonzalez at any price. I don't want Alex Gonzalez at a low salary, I don't want Alex Gonzalez for free, I don't want Alex Gonzalez if he's paying to play here.

Alex Gonzalez - feh.

(And his OBP is actually likely to go down slightly - or at least not go up. This is a player who's drawn only 91 walks in the last 3 season combined, and over a third of those, 32, have been intentional, due to hitting in front of the pitcher. He ain't going to be drawing intentional walks in Boston...)

I hate the idea of signing Alex Gonzalez. Hate it, hate it, hate it...


One more point. Maz says that "while Crisp batted second (behind Sizemore) for the majority of time last season, he will replace Damon atop the Red Sox batting order." I hope that he's guessing, and guessing wrong. It would be a mistake to put Crisp in the lead-off spot when they've got a Kevin Youkilis in the lineup. They'd likely be better off with Youkilis leading off and Crisp batting 8th than the other way around. Youkilis is going to derive more of his value from walks, walks that would be wasted in front of an Alex Gonzalez (who I don't want - really, really, fervently, sincerely, passionately don't want)...