the coco show - starring willie harris as coco...

it dawned on me recently about coco, maybe even before this little hitting show he just put on down in atlanta... it actually sort of hit me like a bolt of lightning in the form of a ridiculous, morning-after-too-many-beers headache... and when i realized it, i even felt a little bit sad, not because i wish any ill will on the guy, but because when you think you're sure of something for so long, you feel a slight sense of loss just for a moment, like that much of your general intelligence quotient on the topic has just been yanked right out from underneath you...

it dawned on me recently that coco isn't that bad...

sure, he's made grounding out to second seem not just routine but damn near artistic... and yes, his throwing arm isn't just worse than johnny damon's, it's worse than my grandmother's - and she passed on a couple years ago, god bless her... and furthermore, he's not remotely the dynamic, offensive sparkplug, lead-off guy the sox thought they were getting when they traded for him last offseason, then signed him to a three-year extension the day after he broke his finger, an injury that should have healed in four weeks but instead derailed his entire 2006 season (and at times has appeared to even hinder his game this year too)...

in actuality, coco is a defensive wizard - the guy makes obscenely difficult catches on at least a weekly basis - who can kind of hit sometimes while even sprinkling 5-9 homers a year... he's a late inning sub, a pinch runner, a defensive replacement anywhere in the outfield... and that's ok, goddammit, it is...

the thing is, we were sold a bill of goods on coco... nobody in the red sox organization came out and said it, but he was seen as the ideal replacement for damon when he signed with the yankees... such hype was written and discussed in the papers and on radio, and no one came out and tried to defuse any of it...

he also got a $3 million raise and the starting centerfielder/lead-off guy spot handed to him, even though in four previous years with cleveland - just two as a full-time player - he was the No. 2 guy and he played left... needless to say, when he went from .300 with 16 homers and 69 rbi in his last year with the indians to .264 with eight homers and 36 rbi in his first year with the sox, the locals started frothing at the mouth...

things had been equally hideous this year (despite the woman who always comes to the bar on saturday late afternoons when i have the game on the radio and says regularly, "oh coco is doing so well this year," even though i correct her, telling her that he actually sucks every time) until recently, as he's gone on a seven-game hitting streak with three homers and five rbi, raising his average 26 points in the process... whether this hotness will last is not the point - the point is he's not just another guy who shriveled under the pressure of playing in boston (i'd be more apt to believe that if he'd ever been more than just decent in his previous career stops before his subsequent dropoff, a la renteria), it's that he's just not very good... some guys put up nice numbers as part-timers then wilt when asked to play every day before reinventing themselves as serviceable, utility guys later on... coco would be a perfect fourth outfielder on this team - he could be to the outfield what alex cora is to the infield - which is why unless he's part of a package for a much better guy or swapped for an even better utility man, i've changed my mind regarding his trade status - it says here the sox should keep him around... sure, go out and get another outfielder by the trade deadline - preferably one who can play pretty much every day - to go along with the bullpen help they so direly need... but keep coco - give the guy a chance to do what he does best at least for the rest of the year...

and besides that, having coco get hot and stay hot makes the getting-worse-by-the-day julio lugo look even more horrifying, which in turn makes the prospect of getting rid of him so he can concentrate solely on his other job as a counter man at the porter square dunkin donuts look more realistic... plus, having a guy on your favorite team impervious to ridiculous - yet creative - sports nicknames like oscar villarreal "disease", john "the tongue" coutilangus and clinton "rigor" portis because his own name is in itself ridiculous - yet creative - is sort of fun...

anyway, bear with me folks, as i work on building this back up... it's been awhile, so i need to mess around with some things, reteach myself all the tricks on how to spruce this shit up, and get back sharp with everything else... but thanks for reading, nonetheless - this should be the first of many, so keep up the good work...