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If I only knew you were writing essentially the same thing, i would have saved my fingers the work. Right on ORS. :thumbsup:

Interesting little blurb, with some further Matsuzaka interview quotes: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061122/kyodo/d8li3mbo0.html This is a pitcher who likes pitching to Ichiro. Nice!

Only if they have the team to get them there. If, like last year, the sox are leading the AL East into July and they collapse again, then I agree with you. If, however, it is quickly appearant that this team can't compete then its not Epstein's fault, assuming they had agreed with his direction to this point. There's a lot of work to be done yet.

Yup, I'm not concerned about whether or not Matsuzaka will be a "useful" or "good" pitcher. He'll be good.

but whoever they get should be better with Papi hitting 4th. Move him to clean-up.

That's just weird reasoning. Boras has as much interest in getting this deal done as Boston does, or as Seibu does, or as Matsuzaka does. If Matsuzaka goes back to Japan and hurts his arm next season he's looking at NOTHING. Not 51 million PLUS his contract, but nothing. Now you think about it: is Boras such a dumb ass as to take the ONLY team that is guaranteeing 100 million dollars to his client (on a short contract) and shut them out of negotiations? No. He's not. He's rich and smart and he understands game theory enough to know that, in many situations, it is not a winner take all scenario. In this case there is no winner to be had from ANY scenario, either everyone wins or everyone loses. In an everyone wins or everyone loses scenario the chances are TREMENDOUS that everyone wins. You think Seibu is willing to throw 10 million in to make the deal happen? I do. You think Matsuzaka is willing to NOT be the higest paid pitcher in baseball? I do. You think the Red Sox are going to ensure that Matsuzaka gets every possible creature comfort, every provision, every chance at the nicest apartment, car, parking spot available? I do. It is such conspiracy theory crap to think the Red Sox would lowball Matsuzaka with the intention of a "take it or leave it, we're not flexible at all" stance. Not a chance in hell that this deal doesn't get done.

what does that even mean?

How many WS titles would it take for you to take that back?

That's fine. I don't see him as an adequate Manny replacement anyway.

I'm not sure about Barajas. I'd like to get him, for sure, but I don't know what he's looking for in terms of money. I'm stuck on the possibility of moving manny vs. not moving manny. I don't know what to make of it. Given that it seems like it would be very difficult to replace his bat this season, could the Sox legitimately ask for K-Rod and Brandon Wood from the Angels, while hoping that the current team with solid SP is enough to be competitive for this season? The following is a list of FA's available for next year. If the Sox try to get a nice future return for Ramirez then perhaps they have their eyes on one of the following players: Andruw Jones Adam Dunn Jermaine Dye Michael Young Vernon Wells Dye is a longshot, as he's older and he may be signed for longer. There could be players I'm missing.

thanks nate...?

Nobody said it wasn't a good lineup. I think the AL these days is FILLED with good lineups. It's just not an "all star" lineup. here's an "all star" lineup using the same positions and batting order: Crawford Jeter A-Rod Manny Cabrera Martinez Ortiz Beltran Soriano THAT'S an All-Star lineup. The other lineup looks much more like a "team" with people being used for things other than hitting. i think it is extremely representitive of the better teams Matsuzaka will realistically face.

This is absolutely the case. The Sox probably have their best bargaining position on Manny in the past 3 years (since the A-Rod deal). I don't think that Sox fans will like the immediate results of a Manny deal (not enough in return) but I think a year from now (if not sooner) there will be a player or two that has taken his place and this team will be faster and better in the field overall.

So in other words we won't need to worry about Alfonso Soriano again for 8 years, as he'll be drying up in CHC land? Fine with me.

Here's what I wrote last night in the other matsuzaka thread. I'm too lazy to re-write it and it actually belongs in this new thread: --------------- I'm surprised that more people haven't commented on this. This is the clearest picture of what it will be like for Matsuzaka in the MLB. The team he faces has some very good players, but it is not a true "All-Star" lineup that he's facing, despite the name. It resembles a good AL lineup, in my opinion: Carl Crawford Jack Wilson Hank Blalock Moises Alou Miguel Cabrera Victor Martinez Johnny Estrada Brad Wilkerson Alex Cora 9 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 6 K, 31 Batters Faced. What I noticed from the video (which shows every pitch from the Monster) was that he actually had worse control than he seems to in most of the other starts I watched. In this tape he really misses a few times, but I get the sense that he's simply trying not to leave fat pitches over the plate. This is especially true of his fastball. He just looks like he's being a lot more careful than he is in most of the japanese games and he's not nearly as dominant (which is to be expected). He's the type of pitcher, though, who seems to use all of his stuff to his advantage. He doesn't get stuck on using one pitch and he knows that he needs to be creative to get these guys out. Watch the way he sets up Hank Blalock to end the first tape (30 seconds to go or so). A high fastball that looks like he truly missed his spot, followed by a nasty forkball or circle change that starts up and ends up down in the zone. Nasty. There is no reason to think this guy can't handle MLB batters after watching this tape.

Nobody wants to play guitar hero with me even when I'm sober. :thumbdown that said, if scaffolds is just a really bad drunk then that's fine. If he was sober during that rant I'm calling the department for human services and locking my door.

Agreed completely. Let's just let Kottaras develop for a bit before deciding on him. We had Shoppach as a security blanket, then we had Bard and now we have Kottaras. We need to keep this guy incase something happens to Varitek and we need a legitimate threat to come off the bench. There is nothing saying George K is going to be the next big thing, but there's nothing saying he isn't. Tek is aging before our eyes.