Bellhorn04

The Rays are the Rays. They do what they do out of necessity because of their low revenues and payroll. Friedman has done a great job, no question. The main thing that has kept them successful is the high number of good pitchers they have drafted. Not too many good position players. If the Rays model was that easy to duplicate many teams would be doing it.

Good catch there, Pal. I e-mailed Speier about this. He didn't reply to my e-mail but in his newly updated figures he added in '3.9 million Dodger subsidy'.

The Angels might have some pitching issues? They lost Greinke, Haren and Santana. Not sure who they picked up.

Good point.

Perhaps because Jackson, while a sturdy innings-eater, has the most perfectly mediocre numbers you can find. W-L 70-71 ERA 4.40 ERA+ 98 WHIP 1.44 Postseason ERA 5.46

Sanchez really played the Cubbies nicely from the looks of it, using them to add an extra 5 million to the deal.

And in a very ironic development, Atchison was non-tendered.

You're going to have to back that one up, because Speier doesn't factor it in and I read somewhere else that it's not factored in. The reason being that it's a team option and there's no guarantee that it will be exercised. If Lackey sustains a career-ending injury they're not going to exercise it.

Dempster won't be blocking the pitching prospects. If one of the pitching prospects is doing well he'll get his shot. A spot will open on the DL or the phantom DL.

Needless to say Lester and Buchholz have to pitch well or the rest doesn't matter much. Dempster is an innings-eater type anyway.

It might not be that dumb in the bigger picture if you look at where they're positioned and where their prospects are. They added prospects with the Dodgers trade, now in the offseason they've held onto all the prospects and the draft picks as well. I think as Sox fans we're just not used to a strategy that involves having patience for a couple of years.

I think there will be more. They've got 25 million + without hitting the tax threshold. They've at least demonstrated that they're not just pocketing the money from the Dodgers trade.

Ah well, f*** it...at least they're spending the money. Some of it stupidly perhaps. At least these are all short-range deals. Go prospects!

And I will be shockingly surprised.

Now the Rangers are going to have to do something to make their fans a little happier.

If he gives them 200 innings that's more than we've been getting from most of our starters. If he does it with less than a 4.5 ERA that's decent. If he does it with a 5 ERA he's Ryan Wakefield.

Angels are signing Hamilton - 5 year deal.

I couldn't give a damn about Youk signing with the Yanks. I certainly don't fault him for taking the 12 million. And he's just not the same player he was. Man the Yankees are an old team though.

Hello zac.

Right. They actually have an option on Lackey for 2015 which is at MLB minimum salary.

The threshold for 2014, 2015 and 2016 is 189 million.

Red Sox 2013 payroll numbers per Alex Speier of WEEI (who is one of the very few baseball writers who seems to understand how many people like to know these numbers) These are the luxury tax numbers-the AAV numbers. The luxury tax threshold for 2013 is 178 million. Guaranteed deals John Lackey, $16.5 million David Ortiz, $13 million Mike Napoli, $13 million Shane Victorino, $13 million Clay Buchholz, $7.4 million Dustin Pedroia, $6.80 million Jon Lester, $6 million Jonny Gomes, $5 million David Ross, $3.1 million Jose Iglesias, $2.1 million TOTAL GUARANTEED: APPROX $86 MILLION Arbitration eligible Jacoby Ellsbury Jarrod Saltalamacchia Andrew Bailey Alfredo Aceves Craig Breslow Andrew Miller Daniel Bard Franklin Morales PROJECTED TOTAL: APPROXIMATELY $30 MILLION-$35 MILLION Pre-arbitration eligible Junichi Tazawa Mark Melancon Felix Doubront Ryan Kalish Daniel Nava Will Middlebrooks Clayton Mortensen Pedro Ciriaco PROJECTED TOTAL: APPROXIMATELY $5 MILLION Additional expenses Medical, 40-man roster, etc. APPROXIMATELY $12 MILLION ESTIMATED 2013 TOTAL COMMITMENTS: $138 MILLION So we are about 40 million under the threshold. If they were to sign Dempster for 13 million that would leave about 27 million of room left.

Based on his last 3 seasons Sanchez appears to have the potential to be a solid #2 or #3 for a number of seasons. That's not clogging a spot, it's filling a spot.

That seems beyond absurd to me. I can't see them backing out unless there's a medical issue.