rician blast

even if the Sox don't have a true interest in Clemens, look for them to drive his price higher by posturing and showing some interest.

WMP starting in CF. The thought scares me. 6 words: the horror the horror the horror

With all due respect, and please note I'm as excited as anyone: The Sox FO didn't "beat" Boras, they didn't "steal" Matsuzaka, and Epstein doesn't deserve kudos for playing "poker" The posting system, as it is, took away the bulk of Boras' and Matsuzaka's bargaining position. From the Sox perspective, the $51m absolutely is part of the overall cost of acquiring this guy. And from Matsuzaka's perspective what was his alternative? Go back to Seibu and pitch for whatever he was making before....$3m or so? So $8+m a year for a pitcher that has never pitched in the MLB AND has no leverage to talk to other teams probably is not that bad. I'd say the Sox were in a stronger negotiating position then most of us thought. The impressive thing, then, is that they (and I mean THEY, the entire FO, not just Theo, because he does not operate autonomously) did not allow themselves to buy into Boras claims that this kid was worth $12-$15m per year, excluding the $51m bid. I'm psyched, yeah, but I don't view this as a steal..just a nice solid job by the FO.

people are quick to write him off because he didn't look particulalry good in the limited opportunity he had last year. Personally? I'll hold off on judgement. I'd like to see what this kid can do. But I can't really complain if some Sox fans are not excited by the prospect of him starting the season at 2B because hasn't shown much thus far.

IF the counter offer is truly at $11m per, for 6 yrs, then this deal will get done. The $3m gap can be closed, although I assume the Sox will have to go higher than the midpoint. I'd be surprised to hear that Boras and his client put out a 6 yr. proposal, though, so I'm not totally sold that the 6/$66 rumor is fact.

Boras is the king of using the media to do his dirty work. On one hand I'd say look for him to not say much concrete, but lay the ground work for molding a public perception that makes the Sox FO look like the barrier to getting this deal done. On the other hand I'd like to think that the he'd not fck with the front office so publicly as they are #2 in spending and are one of the hands that feed him. I'm really not sure what to make of this press conference.

nope it's no joke. The Cards contacted the Yanks and asked for all records from Pavano's gynecologist.

:stop: wrong forum, dude. just curious, but did you enjoy Brokeback Mountain? OK, all kidding aside, this is a rather silly thread, and its a reminder of the jerks who wear "Yankees Suck" shirts. The Yankees certainly do not blow. Kansas City? Yeah, they blow...let's see the Sox win the AL East and the Yankees finish third before we start puffing our chests.

they set a price at which they thought he was attractive...the Royals bid more...so he goes to the Royals and now the Sox will look elsewhere. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

Hmmm..the KC Royals, with an average per game attendance of 17,000 in 2006 (as compared to the league average of approx 30,000) pony up the big bucks? Is revenue sharing good to these types of teams or what?

What would Arroyo, if he were a FA, be worth in today's market? I wonder if he is pi$$ed he took that home town discount before the Sox moved him.

I posted a few days ago that my projection for Drew, if he played the same # of games as last year, was 18HRs...a little better than the PECOTA projection someone linked to.

oh, never heard that one, but love it. Yeah, Merchant is a fkn creep. just the way they handle the close-out of a boxing telecast with him waxing poetic (when he should really be standing in the unemployement line waxing the 12" double-headed donger he's gonna sit on later that night) has always bugged me. Larry...you are not the event. You are a parasite and a coward and deserve to be locked in a room with a horny Mike Tyson and no vaseline.

Foulke's fastball is pretty scary too.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair? My guess is that's a carnival in P-Town.

Or Ronald McDonald, or Art Garfunkel, or Carol Burnett, or Pippi Longstocking? All one in the same, I fear.

Larry Merchant is a douche bag. In 2003 Lennox Lewis fought Vitali Klitschko...6 months PRIOR to the date he had originally planned for him. So Lewis comes in at like 260 lbs. and started slowly...Klitschko out-pointing him slightly through the first several rounds. By the 6th Lewis is taking charge, not in number of punches but certainly in the damage they're doing. He splits Klitschko open like a ripe melon, and the fight is stopped before the start of the 7th. Larry merchant interviews him and fkn basically tells Lewis he was out of shape, would have lost if the fight went on, etc. You want to interview the champ...yet instead of performing your journalistic duties, you badger the guy? Lewis should have told him to go fk himself and walked away, but he was too classy to stoop to that level. Yeah, he needs a serious beat down.

At least one guy is. The Panamanian Electrocutor.

Pedroia has to start his period? did I read that right? I guess he's "bush"-league, then, huh?

Right now Dustin Pedroia IS Lou Merloni, he just doesn't know it.

As a Sox fan, I personally do not want the Yankees to get Pettitte as I think he has enough in the tank and enough savvy to be effective still.

Given Callaghan's bashing of Manny, I'm thinking they are considering making a deal and it ain't one we're going to be ga-ga over...thus the anti-Manny spin begins. Yeah, the deal you responded to seemed a little weak, but I don't think, if a deal is made, the Sox are going to get close to an equal return. I hope to be wrong.

fkn A, Jacks...this is not good. Also would make him virtually untradeable unless they ate about $3m.

Fact is there have been many fans in these forums who've expressed some frustration with Manny "being Manny", as they say. But the other side of it is that they realize that in today's day and age of major sports, a substantial number of star players carry baggage and it kind of goes with the territory. You take the good with the bad and look at the player's overall contribution to THE TEAM. If you're cheering for the name on the front of the uniform, then you have to cheer for Ramirez as he is, because even as flawed as he may be in terms of occasional lack of hustle and such, he is a key piece to the team's success, and that's what we all really want, no? Team Success? Callaghan's article is insulting to Red Sox fans, but I'm not at all surprised. Its the media spin tactic, destroy the potentially departing player in the eyes of the fans. I just hope the media's comments don't get accepted as the general thoughts of ALL Sox fans, as so often happens. Sounds to me like this could be a primer designed to lessen the blow of Manny being dealt for less than we all think the Sox should have received.