a700hitter

The fact is that the information was not made public for 6 months, so it was a secret for 6 months. Bay said in his interview that Theo was concerned that if it got out it would hurt Bay in his negotiations with other teams. In January, the information which had been kept from the public for 6 months, became public. Curious timing. Who other than the Sox would have wanted this to become public. It would only hurt the Mets. Bay wouldn't want to piss off his new team by releasing it. So, who could have benefited from releasing the info?

There is no other plausible explanation. Were you an O.J. juror?

A lab tech? You are kidding right. They are not allowed to even read the results, nor would they have any knowledge of the Red Sox doctors' opinion and reports. You are reaching, and for what I don't know. What and who do you think you are protecting with such far-fetched theories? You just are completely denying the only possible source of the leak-- the Red Sox. I don't know who in the Red Sox organization leaked it. I don't think it was Theo. I'll give you that, because he is not the Media Relations guy. They kept it a secret for 6 months and let it out after he signed.

They did leak the information, but it was not a violation. Have either of you been reading this thread or are you too busy responding to each other? Jacko has been trolling and you are taking his idiotic bait.

It stands to reason that if a World Championship alleviates pressure allowing players to have better seasons afterward that there should be more back to back championships.

Yet back to back championships are so uncommon.

...or maybe he'lljust decide to coast through now that he has won a championship.

If they found $100 million under a pile of papers on someones desk, they still wouldn't get a big bat before the season starts.

So does Julio Lugo.

He's still a despicable phony and cheater with bad taste in women. And he has those ridiculously feminine purple lips ... and man boobs.

When he played for the Sox, he was so lackadaisical that he rarely attempted the pivot at 2B for the DP.

Only a trolling Yankee fan would make such an assertion.

The results of the team doctor's exam is likely not privileged. They no doubt had Bay sign privacy waivers. However, the other medical reports would be privileged, and the Red Sox will be careful not to dispute or discuss those reports so as not to violate Bay's rights.

You are the one concocting this "master plan" or "conspiracy" theory. I am saying that this use of the press is just business as usual. There's no conspiracy. It's like you disagree with me for the sake of disagreeing, because you cannot bear to admit that, despite all of the evidence, I am correct in my assertions that: 1. this news was kept under wraps for 6 months, 2. the release of this information could only have come from one source-- the Red Sox, and 3. the only party that would have had a motive to release the information is the Red Sox. There is nothing to refute any of this. You still have not answered the question why they would chose this time to release it. Saying that it was just "a brief comment" by Gammons does not negate the fact that his source for the brief comment was almost certainly the FO, which still leaves us with the question why the FO divulged this information now, when they were able to keep it private for 6 months. I don't know why you bring up Theo. No one else has, and as far as I know, he is not the only person working in the FO. He is not the head of their media relations, so I don't know how he enters this conversation other than your cultish Theo thing. BTW: The Sox are not happy with Bay's response to their leaked information, but they are afraid to go he-said, she-said, because they are concerned about possible liability for violating Bay's HIPPA privacy rights. From today's Boston Globe: Bay turned the public relations table on them a bit with his response, and now their hands are tied a bit. http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/01/24/protection_has_become_part_of_the_package/

Yes, I listened to the interview and read the article. Bay was clearly responding to the Gammons story. On the WEEI interview, Bradford clearly states up front that he felt that one of the reasons why Bay wanted to talk was because of the Gammons' story. Bay clearly wasn't the first party to divulge the information of the MRI. His interview with Bradford was Bay's response. The Doctors couldn't release the information. The Mets had no motive for this story to come out. The Mets had a motive for it not to be released. That leaves only one party that could have released the information-- the Red Sox, and the Red Sox were the only party that had a motive for the story to become public.

We know the Doctor didn't release the information. That would be a serious and criminal ethical breach. The Mets have no interest in this being made public, because it could only result in negative scrutiny as they didn't carve out an escape clause for his knee condition. So, you think Bay is just so chatty that he couldn't contain himself and divulged this at the risk of embarrassing his new employer, who didn't protect themselves from this condition? I don't think so. Bay doesn't strike me as a guy that divulges a lot of information about himself. He also doesn't strike me as a person who would go out of his way to embarrass his employer. Bay has been responding to the story that Gammons broke. Gammons has quite a few inside sources. When you look the other way despite the stark evidence to the contrary is when you cross the line and become a total apologist for the FO. Of course this information came from the Red Sox FO. All of the other parties involved had a motive to not have it become public information. The Red Sox are the only party that had a motive to make it public. You have your head in the sand. Again, I give the Sox credit here. I also give the Doctor, the Mets and Bay credit for not being stupid enough to disclose information that could not benefit them or the Mets. You seem to think Bay is a dope who will unwittingly embarrass his employer within days after signing a $60+ million deal. I don't think he is that dumb.

Bay may have been impressed that the Red Sox didn't release the information, but i am sure that his attorney was not impressed. If they had released a medical report with which Bay disagreed when Bay had independent doctors opinions disagreeing with the Sox findings and it damaged his ability to get a market value contract, the Red Sox would have been facing some very serious claims for damages. It was in their best interests to keep the information under wraps. As you pointed out in the bold above, they had no real enthusiasm to bring him back. Their medical opinion was at odds with the other medical opinion. They believed their medical opinion. The last thing they would have wanted was to ruin his market value, have him sign elsewhere for a reduced amount and then get sued for damages. There was nothing altruistic about keeping the information under wraps for six months. It was in their best interests. If they were being noble or altruistic, they would have filed that medical report away and moved on, but they didn't. They made it public. Why? Answer that question. They were not forced to disclose it.

No, I didn't forget Hermida. I forgot Hall.

They still need to round out the roster. They need a utility IF, unless they are cinfident that Lowrie can stay healthy and hit more than .150. I don't know how they could have any confidence in his health. They also need another OF.

No one said they made up the story about his MRI. In fact, I acknowledged that the stories written about players after they leave are probably true, because I didn't think the FO would circulate lies. And no one said that the Sox did not make the right business decision in letting players walk. What I did say is that the FO uses the press as a public relations tool to sell their moves to the fans. The MRI was in July, and the results concerned the FO enough for them to back away from the deal, yet we didn't hear about this until January 2010 after Bay signed with the Mets. Do you think there is a reason for the timing of the release of this information? I do, and it has to do with public relations. If Bay had signed with the Sox, this information never would have been made public. I don't know why the notion of teams using the press as a public relations tool should surprise anyone. If the press didn't help promote the game, major league baseball wouldn't have them around. Every major business feeds the press information that it wants it to have. I hope you don't think that sports writers are independent investigative journalists. They depend on the teams for information for their stories. It's a cozy relationship. It is because of this cozy (you scratch my back I'll scratch yours) relationship that the media looked completely the other way during the steroid era. Only a federal investigation and Congressional hearings fully brought it to light. The writers knew. It was right in front of their faces, but they never wrote or spoke about it. If they did, they got ostracized like the guy in Chicago who asked Sosa to test his urine. You scoff at this by calling it a made up conspiracy or a smear campaign. The fact is that the media and MLB are partners in a way, because they both have a financial interest in the game being popular. If you don't question the January release of the July MRI info, then you are just looking the other way too. They might as well have called it an official Red Sox press release. Is this an evil or bad practice? No, it is a smart practice by a smart organization. They are spinning the story to put themselves in a favorable light with their customers. I recognize it for what it is, and it is not an attack on the FO. I, unlike others, expect them to act like businessmen, and good businessmen control the release of information about their business unless their is a law requiring that it be disclosed.

You've cracked the case.:dunno: What does this prove?

Lugo wasn't really a useful part of the team and he wasn't on the team at the end of the year, so I excluded him. Baldelli would give him a run when he wasn't cramped and fatigued. There were times that he absolutely lumbered down the line. Unless you can show me times of Youkilis and Pedroia that are faster than Bay, my money is still on Bay. Pedroia's speed is strictly average, but he is usually a very effective base runner. Drew comes out of the left hand side, but I think Bay runs him to a dead heat first to third. Lowrie doesn't have good speed. Anyway, if any of those guys are faster it would be by the barest of margins. Bay was one of the fastest and best base runners on the team even with his terrible knee condition.