SoxSport

Pass on Sanchez. His agent is way overvaluing him. He's not any better than what they have. What they need is some decent coaching of what they have. The pitching was handled badly last year.

Don't see this happening. The Sox have plenty of money to spend, and pitching is their weakest suit. Lester stands a good chance of rebounding with Farrell back, and Myers has had one good hitting year in AAA--a partial year. He is unproven at the major league level, and pretty much a one-dimensional player. KC is trying to sell high on Myers, asking the Sox to sell low on Lester after an off-year. With all that money to spend, it makes more sense for the Sox to sign FAs, rather than trade good players or prospects--even if it costs a draft choice (#44). They aren't in a money-saving mode, like they were a year ago.

Maybe they are waiting for the Rangers to make a move. Teams are keeping their cards close on Hamilton. Lucchino said no to 6, 7 or 8 year contracts. He didn't say no to 5.

Could well be. Cafardo is close to Lucchino, and has written about the need for Hamilton in Boston as an impact player. Cafardo first suggested Valentine as a possible manager last year, and he could be reflecting Lucchino's thinking. It could be a game of possum between Boston and Texas. The Sox could benefit from signing Hamilton's ex-teammate, Napoli. That may have factored into Napoli's signing. I emphasize "could."

Rosenthal on TV--saying the Rangers are the most active team--recorded earlier, I guess. The Red Sox have made the biggest signing of the meetings so far. good start.

Napoli 3yrs. Announced tweets, MLB TV. Cafardo has an ear to Lucchino. Gammons on--says they didn't want to give up draft choice for LaRoche. I think 3yrs is fine for Napoli. Did Gammons just say he was told Sox wouldn't go more than a year or 2 on Hamilton? Didn't catch the team or the player he was referring to. Baseball HOF being announced right now. HOF: old timers--Hank O'Day (ump), Jacob Ruppert, Deacon White. Ruppert was the benefactor of the heist of Babe Ruth and a few other Champion Red Sox to the losing NY Yankees/Highlanders, which some feel was orchestrated by the league to make NY the centerpiece--which it has been ever since.Yankee stadium was built to Ruth's specs.

The latest twitter noise (Cafardo) is the Sox are "going hard after Napoli."

I think the Red Sox are after Hamilton and they'll go up to 5 years to get him. The question is whether he wants to stay in Texas for less. For all the puritanical talk about Hamilton's personal issues, the guy to my knowledge has never missed any playing time in Texas because of them.

They have a ton of money to spend. I'd rather see them spend the money on FAs--which they didn't do last year-- than give up prospects or starting pitching in deals. Especially FAs that don't require any draft picks. Their no.1 is exempt, anyways. When you think about it, FAs are the obvious way to go.

Cherington will have plenty of help at the meetings. Lucchino and Henry are looking over his shoulder, and he has James and a few others in the FO to steer him straight. The big FA decisions will be made by Lucchino/Henry--how many years being the principle deal killer. My view is if they don't loosen up on the years, they aren't going to sign anybody who will make a short term difference. And this is a short term team. You save with the prospects you develop and cost control, but you have to spend filling the short term holes with free agents, unless you want to give up good players or prospects in trades. And that includes giving the extra year or two--or somebody else will. No bargains in free agents. All the contracts are bad--thanks to people like Boras, Marvin Miller and greedy owners.

Which means they better put humpty-dumpty back together again fast. They don't have a lot of time. There is still some doubt that Cherington is the guy to do it. But he is getting help, obviously, from Lucchino/Henry and James.

Hearing some noise via KC tweets that the Lester-Myers deal could come off. Farrell hasn't denied it, and Cherington said they are open to all options to improve the team long range. So there you have it. We'll see.

There better be some major moves at the baseball meetings. The citizens are getting restless hearing about Johnny Gomes.

I don't know who will be non-tendered, but if they non-tender Aceves, it will be the first mistake they make this year. He was one of their best pitchers last year--until he was badly mismanaged and over-used. These guys aren't robots or boring corporate types; they are athletes and competitors. They are the anti-Ben Cheringtons, if you get what I mean. One guy who should be history is Melancon. The guy sucked when it counted early last year. Send him back to Houston.

With the Span trade, from tweets tonite, attention seems to be focussing on LaRoche rather than Napoli--LaRoche is better defensively at 1B and can be had for 3 yrs while Napoli wants 4. As for the Yankees, they couldn't afford to match the Pirates' offer for Martin, so it's hard to see them going for Napoli who is much more expensive. The dust won't begin to settle until tommorrow at midnight, when all non-tendered players will turn into pumpkins.

Looks like most teams are waiting for the non-tender deadline Fri night, to see who's available. It could affect what direction they go--there will be more FAs available. Probably action this weekend.

And where do you think that big TV money comes from? It comes from our cable bills--about 50% of our cable bill goes to TV sports. regardless of whether you watch sports or not. That's the real crime--and one of the reasons why TV is swimming in money and the sports salaries keep going up. They just increase the cable bills to pay for it.

Did any of Ben's pitching pickups last year amount to anything? They contributed mightily to the team's bad ERA. I'll discount Bailey, because he got hurt and pitched well enough when he came back except for one bad outing where they left him in to give up 7 runs. This after pitching him in two consecutive previous days, as I recall. That one outing killed his ERA. He'll be OK this year if he's handled properly. The Red Sox pitchers have had terrible coaching the past few years since Farrell left, and the betting is they will improve as a group this year without many personnel changes. I still have reservations about their rigid ideology on pitch counts, because it may affect arm strength in starters and lead to overuse of the bullpen. Can't prove that, but the whole pitch count philosophy hasn't been proven, either.

Please tell me the Dempster rumor isn't true. Another example of needless mediocrity on a mediocre pitching staff.This FO has a nasty tendency to prefer over the hill retread pitchers than giving the prospects festering in Pawtucket a real shot. It's clear that Cherington is only a piece of the decision making machinery right now. Lucchino and Henry are in up front on the dealings. After last year, I doubt they trust him completely. Larry said on WEEI that it's the years, not the money that is the difference right now in their FA dealings with Napoli et al. He should know that nitpicking on years is a route to striking out. If you want the guy, you have to give him the extra year--or somebody else will.

If they get Swisher and/or Ross or Hamilton, can't see them trading Lester for Myers.

Could be their game plan.

I'm going to re-post the fangraphs article on local cable revenue for the teams, because it's important in understanding where the top FAs are likely to go. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/dodgers-send-shock-waves-through-local-tv-landscape/ Note that this money is local cable TV money, and is not shared like the network TV money is. The top teams: 1.LA Dodgers --$240-280 million per yr, starting 2014 2. LA Angels--$147 million 3.Yankees--$90 million 4. Rangers--$80 million 4A. Astros--$80 million 5.Mets--$65 million 6.Padres--$60 million 6A. Red Sox--$60 million The two LA teams have displaced the Yankees, thanks to their Fox contracts. Next are the two Texas teams. The Astros are making a bundle but not spending it. Will they surprise everybody and sign Hamilton? The Mets are next, but their owner is hard-pressed financially due to the Madoff settlement. The Red Sox and Padres are next. When will the Padres start spending? The Astros and the Padres are cheap teams, yet their cable revenues are among the highest. Looks like the owners are pocketing the money in profits. The two Chicago teams take in roughly $50 million/yr in local cable money. About the same estimated for the Giants in S.F. Below these teams are the Mariners, Tigers and Phillies in the $45-35 million range. The Mariners at $45 million have more money than you think to spend. The Phillies and Tigers must be spending near their limits, though the Phillies will be getting a new TV deal soon. The Cardinals, always a good team, are way down the list at $14 mil, but they have Busch beer money behind them. The Marlins at $18 mil are surprisingly low, considering their spending spree last year. That tells you a lot about why they just dumped so much salary.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/jon-heyman/21167556/red-sox-is-targeting-a-trio-napoli-swisher-and-cody-ross Heyman says the Sox are targeting all three: Napoli-Swisher-Ross. Hard to believe they will get all three. Two would be an accomplishement. Still think the biggest impact would be Hamilton, but getting all three above would have impact, too. Hamilton may well be a fallback. Remember Cherington said they would be among the highest spenders this year. $60 million in cable money puts them in the top third in cable revenue. The 900 lb gorilla is the Dodgers (over $200 million), and they could buy everybody up if they want to. Most likely, they will buy Greinke and maybe one other frontline pitcher. Maybe Hamilton--you never know. But they need pitching, not hitting. The Red Sox could make a run at Wilson for closer, but you wonder if the Dodgers won't scarf him up. You want to know where the big FAs are going? Just follow the cable money. See my previous post on that.

Somebody leaked this proposed deal, and it probably wasn't the Red Sox. It doesn't appear Lester is "on the block". Rather it looks like KC is looking for a starter and asked about Lester, dangling Myers as the bait. There are two sides to looking at this proposed deal. One side says yes--Myers is the best hitting prospect in the minors right now, and Lester had an off year. Plus it opens a spot in the rotation for somebody else, and they can use Lester's salary elsewhere. The other side says it's crazy to weaken your weakest link when you should be strengthening it. The question is which Lester will show up next year. Also, Myers looks like he needs a half year or more in AAA. They are in good financial position now to spend, so why not go after FAs instead of prospects they have enough of right now. I still think they should go after Hamilton. He would energize the fanbase and fill the middle part of the lineup. I don't see that happening next year with Myers. Or maybe ever, as prospects go.

From Fangraphs, a breakdown of how much TV money each team in MLB gets: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/dodgers-send-shock-waves-through-local-tv-landscape/ The LA teams are eclipsing everybody thanks to Fox. The Yankees get a surprisingly small $90 million/yr from their cable channel. But the NY taxpayers got hooked on the new Yankee stadium plus concessions to the team. The Red Sox are in the hunt at $60 million.