BudLight

done deal. Thomas signs with the Blue Jays http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6177276

If you sign Lidge I'll make sure I send enough Albert Pujols masks to the Red Sox to outfit the entire line-up. The boy just hasn't been the same since meeting Pujols in Game 6 a few years ago

Here's the big differences I see: Mussina has pitched his entire career in the AL East with a career 3.63 ERA and 1.17 Whip. He has 22 postseason appearances with a 3.40 ERA. Schmidt has pitched his entire career in the inferior National League with an ERA of 3.91 with only 5 postseason appearances. That 3.91 ERA quickly becomes 4+ in the AL East. I'll keep Mussina and try to sign Schmidt with that $13M savings from Sheffield

My understanding is if the highest bidder does not sign him, he returns to the Lions and cannot be eligible for free agency again until after the 2008 season. I could be wrong but thought I read that somewhere yesterday.

How about Henry and Werner spending that $42M on improvements to Fenway, adding more seats that "Joe average fan" could afford instead of Muffy and Buffy controlling all the seats year in and year out. This expenditure of $42M to negotiate with an unproven MLB talent while doing nothing to appease your fan base who are shut out from tickets each year doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It seems since the current ownership has taken over, instead of hating "King George in NY" they are becoming more and more like him every day. This move to sign the Japanese wonder kid has more to do with sticking it to George than it does with improving the Sox product on the field in 2007. He's a pitcher, not an everyday contributor. He hasn't thrown a pitch in the MLB and Boras will demand #1 ace type money for him and a short contract. It will take him at least one season to adjust to the "american" style of baseball and by that time the novelty will have worn off and the hitters will have adjusted to him. I don't like this process as a whole and believe all players wanting to play in MLB should be treated under the same FA rules. No hidden bids to determine who gets the rights to negotiate with them.

Add to that all of the cuban defectors have been represented by one agent who is now going to jail. There's a lot to be fixed in the acquisition of international free agents to level the playing field.

No doubt, Philly was dumping salary and probably believed at the time that they were totally out of the playoff picture and were setting up for a big FA signing this off season (see Soriano). It is also the reason they have been trying to dump Burrell and his salary. Like the Yankees, they agreed to really stupid contract amounts on both Burrell and Abreu and the no-trade clauses only screw it up more. FWI - we talk about the haves and have nots, but the Matsuzaka lottery is another prime example of where Bud Selig and MLB are failing the system. A team will pay upwards of $20M just for the privilege of negotiating a contract with him. That's ridiculous!!! When's the last time you heard of a MLB team paying a college prospect $20M just for the rights to talk to him about a contract

No argument the "system" is broke and the fact that the Yankees and Mets will be exempt from the contributions while paying for their new stadiums really will put a damper on the payments to other teams and further widen the gap. The 7 years, 7 different champs statement is meant to prove the point that even with the inequities teams can still compete and beat the top money teams in baseball. Just because they spend ridiculous amounts of money on players doesn't guarantee them a championship.

Not irrelevant - lends support to the belief that revenue sharing is working in the MLB and teams with lower payrolls are able to compete as a result of teams like the Yankees paying their "tax" every year. Guess it depends on your school of thought of a successful season - some believe you must win the WS to be considered successful.

7 years, 7 different WS champions - who cares about salary differences, not those 7 clubs.

the one SS who keeps getting overlooked in the AL is Michael Young. Again this year he should have won the GG in the AL for shortstops. While Gonzo is probably the best glove in the AL at SS, this past season he is trailing the likes of Tejada, Jeter, Young, Betancourt, Peralta and Guillen in games played and chances. I can understand how that would figure into the voting.

I can't see a situation that would have AFraud opt out of $23.75M for the next four years for $18M per. In addition to the salary he receives his marketing income by playing in New York is much greater than it could/would be anywhere else in the country. His ego would not allow him to take a pay cut. He stays put unless George really tires of him and AFraud decides to waive his no-trade clause.

Hey, anyone seen Crunchy today?

Sean You nailed it a few pages back! Yeah, it's sad for Cory Lidle and his family and his fans, but in reality, Congress should not establish a holiday on 10/11 in his remembrance. People need to put it in perspective. If you all really want to mourn heroes, mourn those that are brought back to Dover Air Force Base on a daily basis after getting blown to bits in Iraq or Afghanistan. After all, without their sacrifice we wouldn't have the freedom to be sports fans.

I guess my opinion on coaching matters is slightly tainted being here in St. Louis. I can't stand LaRussa or Duncan with the Cardinals, I think they both are horrible and deserve to be canned. Then I see this with Jackson, who is highly respected and very successful as a hitting coach and wonder sometimes what people are thinking.

Okay, I see your point. But, Francona doesn't make the decision on who stays, who goes, the players don't make the decision on who stays and who goes, the FO does (maybe with input from the above). In the end though, IMHO, Jackson has done a great job the last 4 years with this team offensively. Ortiz, Manny, Youk, etc. If they decide not to re-sign him based on the teams offensive drop off this season, it's a bad decision when you take into account all of the other issues from this season (injuries, signing light hitters, etc.)

Not at all - my point is, regardless of who the comments are attributed to, the FO is still the one that makes the decision regarding his fate as the hitting coach. If the FO does not re-sign him I believe they are making a serious mistake. I also find it interesting that the "veterans" made these comments. What veterans? Red Sox veterans or MLB veterans? If were talking about Red Sox veterans it would be a very short list since their success of 2004. Besides, look again at the Sox injuries and offensive downturns of Varitek, Nixon, Crisp and Gonzalez. This is all attributable to Jackson?

typical FO trying to cover their asses after a miserable season. I'm sure Jackson was the reason for the poor performance of the Sox. It had nothing to do with injuries, the FO signing Crisp, and a light hitting SS and although Lowell rebounded somewhat, his numbers last year should have been an indication that something may be amiss in his offensive production. Papa Jack turned Big Papi into one of the most feared hitters in baseball and now the FO will turn Papa Jack into the scapegoat for their (FOs) shortcomings. Sad state of affairs.

Okay, I stated before, Jeter deserves consideration for MVP along with a host of others. However, the argument here always comes back to, nobody can provide any justification for Jeter being considered for MVP. So here goes: He will accumulate over 200 hits again this year (along with Tejada, Young and Suzuki). He leads AL shortstops in Avg, OPS, OBP and Runs. He was a constant offensive threat in a lineup this year that lost two starters for most of the season who bat nearly .300 and drive in a lot of runs. His team is solidly in first place in their division with a 10 game lead this late in the season. Does this give him the edge for MVP, NO, but it sure does mean he deserves serious consideration.

No doubt Hafner deserves serious consideration, I was just listing those players whose names seem to be getting thrown into the MVP consideration pot with more regularity by the media. After all, the media decides.

To start I guess we would have to agree on the criteria for MVP. Power, team standing, hits, obp, ops, avg???? Here's a snapshot: Avg R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB OBP SLG OPS TB Jeter 0.341 107 197 36 3 13 93 66 95 31 0.416 0.481 0.897 278 Ortiz 0.283 107 148 28 2 49 129 107 108 1 0.405 0.625 1.031 327 Mauer 0.344 79 165 32 4 11 79 77 46 8 0.431 0.497 0.928 238 Dye 0.32 95 163 27 3 42 117 55 112 7 0.387 0.633 1.02 322 Thomas 0.28 73 120 10 0 38 105 74 73 0 0.39 0.57 0.96 244 Morneau 0.32 88 172 34 1 33 123 50 83 3 0.376 0.571 0.946 307