congratulations jd ... you are an all-star mvp

when the boston red sox signed the oft-injured, free agent jd drew to a 5 year, $70 contract (with club opt-outs after year 3 and 4 due to injury history) in january of 2007 ... it was a signing met with much skepticism ... bob ryan of the boston globe asked theo epstein the now infamous question during a media availability ... "what's the fascination with jd drew" ... and that was 2 months before jd was signed

for most of his first year as red sox right fielder ... red sox nation repeated ryan's question more than once ... first, jd replaced the original dirt dog and ever popular trot nixon ... early on, drew made his first boston trip to the disabled list with a bad hammie ... for 5 months, jd's offensive production was sub-par to say the least ... to some degree, jd's struggles can be attributed to a lack of focus ... or put another way, jd's focus for most of 2007 was on his 17 month old son jack and a serious medical problem involving hip surgery and months in a full body cast ... but when you're chasing a place in postseason play ... sub-par performance is not acceptable from a $14 million per year player in red sox nation

somewhere in early september of 2007, we began to see the jd drew theo epstein believed we'd ultimately see ... in the final month of last season, jd batted .342 with 4 home runs and 18 runs batted in ... and then in the postseason, jd showed boston what the fascination was all about ... he will be most remembered for his grand slam in the must win game six against cleveland in the alcs ... but his overall performance put him in the world series mvp conversation (.314 /1/11)

what made jd drew an all-star selection for the first time in his 10 year career was his performance for the red sox in june of this season ... on the last day of may, david ortiz was disabled with a wrist injury ... jd was inserted into big papi's #3 spot in the batting order ... and from that point his hitting was all-star ... with one of the sweetest left side swings in all of baseball, drew batted .337 with 7 doubles, 12 home runs, 21 walks and 27 runs batted in ... for his "david ortiz-esque" june, jd was named american league player of the month

in last night's all-star game, jd drew hit a 7th inning, line drive homer into the right field stands at yankees stadium ... the 2 run blast tied the midsummer classic at 2-2 ... and before the near 5 hour, 15 inning all-star game was done (with an american league 4-3 win over the national league), drew had batted 5 times with 2 hits, 1 home run, 1 walk, 1 stolen base and 2 runs batted in ... and he was prepared to follow the last pitcher on the al roster, scott kasmir ... and pitch the 16th inning ... there was no way al manager terry francona was bring kasmir back out to pitch the 16th inning on one day's rest

today, we are all asking "what's the fascination with jd mvp"