If Kevin Millar were looking for a product sponsorship deal, maybe he should look to a local dairy company like Garelick Farms to be the pitchman for their Half and Half or eBay company, half.com. Nobody knows more than Millar about how valuable a half can be.In his first year with the team, Millar jumped off to a hot start hitting .294 before the all-star break with 14 home runs and 61 runs batted in. In his second year with the Sox, Millar hit .319 with 13 home runs and 49 runs batted in.
Unfortunately, his “other half” wasn’t his “better half”.
| HR | RBI | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
| First Half | 14 | 61 | .294 | .361 | .511 | .872 |
| Second Half | 11 | 35 | .251 | .331 | .421 | .752 |
| 2003 Total | 25 | 96 | .276 | .348 | .472 | .820 |
| HR | RBI | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | |
| First Half | 5 | 25 | .280 | .361 | .401 | .762 |
| Second Half | 13 | 49 | .319 | .408 | .566 | .974 |
| 2004 Total | 18 | 74 | .297 | .383 | .474 | .857 |
In July of last year, as Millar started to heat up, I wrote the following:
“We all know that Millar is your classic streaky groove hitter. Being a fastball nut, once he finds his rhythm, there is almost nothing he doesn’t pull or hit hard up the middle.”
Like last year, Millar is off to a slow start. So far this year Millar is hitting only .250 with more HBPs (5) than extra base hits (3) and no home runs. And like last year, Red Sox Nation finds itself calling for manager Terry Francona to sit Millar’s behind on the bench.
Unlike last year, Theo Epstein and the Red Sox brass might not be willing to let Millar find his swing.
They have already brought up third baseman Kevin Youkilis who has been looking for an opportunity to find some regular at bats and spent much of Spring Training with a first baseman’s mitt on his left hand. They also signed slick fielding John Olerud to a minor league contract as he rehabs a foot injury from last year’s ALCS.
Unless Millar turns things around soon, he might find himself in the role that best suits him, cheerleader. A well renowned “clubhouse guy”, Millar’s value is higher off the field than on the field.
While I am not ready to hang Kevin Millar yet, and I am not looking at the box scores from Shea Stadium and looking for the fellow with the long last name and last out of the World Series ball’s stats, I am glad that Red Sox management is building up their options.
Over his Red Sox tenure, Millar has had months with averages/OPS of .208/.672, .218/.641, and .238/.700. But he has also had months of .373/1.068 and .373/1.146.
His May may need to be more like the latter than the former, because he is halfway out the door.
2 replies on “Half and Half”
Abstain Normally unless the story is really journalistically bad, I will at least give it a section vote; however, due to the fact that i have a quazi-Red Sox story still in voting, I cannot in good faith vote on this story. Nice read though.
I voted for your story I just thought that you could have added a little more on Youkilis and this is not just because I am a diehard Oakland A’s fan.
When you spoke of rookie Kevin Youkilis stealing at-bats, I might have thrown in a couple sentences in relation to how highly praised he was in Moneyball. The book was a New York Times Best-Seller and Beane had tons of praise for Youkilis in the book. He dubbed him the “Greek God of Walks”. Also when Beane flirted with the taking the Red Sox GM job the A’s compensation for letting Beane go to Boston was going to be Youkilis.