The Sox next four series are against Baltimore, Seattle, Oakland, and KC. Only the oriole series is away. The other three series are at home. The Yanks play Seattle, Toronto, Minnesota, and the Angels.
The Mets are like the Bad news Bears. What was Manuel thinking about letting KRod throw a strike to Jeter with Mo on deck. The Mets are under-manned and they are run by idiots in the FO and in the dugout.
There was no home town discount involved. Other financial considerations were at work. There's only a discount when a player has a bigger offer from another team at the same time. That was not the case with Youkilis, Lester or Pedroia. In fact the home team is taking a financial risk, because they might have been able to go year by year before they were FA eligible and negate the injury and other risks.