Tom Who?

Well, since the Hot Stove flame seems like it is flickering and the off-season wheeling and dealing is moving a pace slower than this guy:

I figured I'd blog about something else.

This weekend, a Patriot QB did something no the other Patriot QB had ever done. (No, I'm not talking about marrying a pregnant girlfriend.) Matt Cassel threw for over 400 yards in two consecutive games. That is also more 400 yard games in a span of 2 games than Tom Brady has thrown in his career (or so I've hard, there is no snazzy Play-Index over at Football Reference like there is a Baseball Reference.) Cassel has really done a great job filling in for Brady during this injury. The Patriots still have a great shot of another championship. The Pats currently sit a game behind the Jets in the AFL East and tied with the Colts and Ravens in the Wild Card race at 7-4. Aside from this upcoming week against the Steelers, the remaining schedule is pretty easy. It looks like the Pats can easily finish the season at 12-4 or no worse than 11-5 which should easily clinch a playoff spot. However, the Patriots are no longer the sole winter team in Boston vying for our attention.



Although it is still early in their respective seasons, both the Celtics and Bruins are the top teams in their conferences. Usually nobody pays much attention to these two teams. However, since Kevin Garnett came to town, the Celtics have returned to being the force they were from a previous era:


Not only that, but the Bruins are actually fun to watch. They play fast, the play hard, they hit hard, and they score goals. I've never been much of a Bruin follower or a hockey watcher for that matter. Usually I'd start to tune into hockey come playoff time. There are less whistles and faster pace that is funner to watch during the playoffs. However, I actually did flick the channel over the Bruins game the other night against the Canadians. They were down 1-0 at that time, but came back to win in a shoot out. I can't remember the last time I flipped to that channel.

So, at least in Boston, we have some sports to keep us occuppied during this baseball void.

Oh, and since this is a baseball themed blog specifically tailored to the Boston Red Sox, there was a bit of news today. Rob Bradford at WEEI.com is reporting that the Red Sox opened negotiations with Jason Varitek by offering him a 1-year deal. If the story is true, I don't think that is an offer that is going to get a deal done. Maybe it is only a starting point, as according to Peter Gammons it doesn't appear that the fax machine dedicated toVaritek offers at the Boras office isn't exactly ringing off the hook.

I do hope that the Sox and Tek can work out a deal, possibly a 2-yr deal with a mutual option for a 3rd year, as I can't picture him in any other uniform but Red Sox.

Bye Bye Coco

The Red Sox have finally traded centerfielder Coco Crisp. They shipped him of to Kansas City (poor Coco) for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

At first I was a bit disappointed, because I thought, "Who the hell is Ramon Ramirez." But after look him up at Baseball-Reference, I saw that he is a quality middle reliever / set-up guy. This definately addresses on of the needs the Sox have in the bullpen. Additionally, this will allow Terry Francona the flexibility of having Justin Masterson go back into the rotation.

For Coco, it now gives him the chance to start everyday in center field. It also hands the Red Sox center field job to Jacoby Ellsbury, and will hopefully allow him to relax a bit knowing he doesn't have a player of Crisp's caliber waiting in the wings for failure.

Crisp was a good player for the Red Sox, and I enjoyed watching him roam center field. In 2007, I definetly think he was robbed of a gold glove award. Injuires played a factor in some of Crisp's medicore offensive output during some of his time here, but I hope he does well in Kansas City (poor Coco.)

Congrats Dustin

Congrats to Dustin Pedroia. He was named the 2008 AL MVP. The first Red Sox player to win the award since Mo Vaughn back in 1995. Kevin Youkillis finshed 3rd. The 1st pair of Red Sox players to finish in the Top 3 in MVP since Roger Clemens won and Jim Rice finished 3rd back in 1986.

Free Agent Frenzy?

Now that players who filed for Free Agency are able to sign with any team, the transactions are flying fast and furious. (Note the sarcasm dripping from that sentence.) The action has been slower than anticipated, with the biggest news of the Yankees desperate attempt to make sure they sign Sabathia. Supposedly they have offered $140 million over 6 years and if that is only their initial offer, one has to wonder how high they will go. So far, the only free agent to change uniforms is Jeremy Affeldt. He will not be returning to Cincinnati, instead choosing to sign with the San Francisco Giants.


In Red Sox news, several Sox players and coaches are awaiting to hear some results. Bench coach Brad Mills and 3rd Base coach DeMarlo Hale both interviewed for the Seattle Mariners manager position. The Mariners are supposed to announce their selection today. Although, rumor has it that the Mariners will select Oakland A's bench coach Don Wakamatsu. Good luck to Mills and Hale.




Meanwhile, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis are 2 of the top candidates for AL MVP. We will find out the winner around 2pm today. Even though I think Youk is more deserving, my guess is that Pedroia will be named AL MVP. Go Red Sox!

Steve had a nice post over at his The Boston Red Sox Blog about a Julio Lugo - Dontrelle Willis trade that may be in the works. I'd like that.

Finally, if you have never checked out this blog: U.S.S. Mariner, it is one of the best blogs around. Anyway, one of the creators of that blog is trying to win a college scholarship for bloggers. Here is his post about it. So, let's support our fellow baseball blogger, and help him win. Vote for David Cameron!! He was winning for a while, but is now about 200 votes behind.

No, I'm not going to complain about Jacoby Ellsbury not winning the RoY. Congrats to Evan Longoria and Geovany Soto for winning the AL and NL RoY, respectively (I’ve always wanted to write that.)

However, I have uncovered a discrepancy in the NL RoY Voting (and I’m not talking about Soto not winning unanimously, although he should have). What I am talking about is that there was a mysterious “extra” vote cast.

The following is the voting results taking from the MLB.com article posted here.

If you calculate all the votes from these results, you'll find that there were 97 votes tabulated here. Was this voting done somewhere in Florida? The voting is done by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Two writers from each city cast a vote for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.

So for the 14 AL teams, there would be 2 writers from each city placing 3 votes or (14x2x3) which would get you 84 total votes. In the NL, since there are 16 teams, it would go (16x2x3) for 96 total votes. If you count all the votes from the results above, you get (GASP!) 97 votes. Additionally, 3 voters voted for an ineligible candidate! I demand an investigation.

Not only has voter fraud been seen in the political arena, but it has seeped into our National Pastime.

Oh the Travesty!

This next week or so is one of my favorite times of the baseball off-season. Although there is no red carpet like at the Oscars or the Emmys, to me the MLB Award season is a lot more fun. Over the course of the next 9 days we will find out the winners of: AL & NL Rookie of the Year, NL Cy Young, AL & NL Manager of the Year, AL Cy Young, NL MVP, and AL MVP.

For the most part, however, this award season is probably a little too predictable. There is a clear cut choice in 6 of the 8 categories, with only the NL Manager and AL MVP still unclear. Here is how I think it is going to go in other categories:

AL Rookie: Evan Longoria

NL Rookie: Geovany Soto

NL Cy Young: Tin Lincecum

AL Manager: Joe Maddon

AL Cy Young: Cliff Lee

NL MVP: Albert Puljos

The only one of the above that may not be a sure thing to win is Puljos, since the new fad in MVP voting is your team needs to make the post season. I will stand my ground there, but it will be interesting to see how many votes C.C. Sabathia and Manny Ramirez get in this category.

However, up for grabs are the NL Manager and AL MVP.

Now, let's take a look at the nominees for NL Manager of the Year:

Charlie Manuel, Philadelphia Phillies

Led the Phillies to their 2nd consecutive NL East title. (Won the World Series, but that result has no bearing on the voters since ballots are due by the end of the regular season.)

Fredi Gonzalez, Florida Marlins

Took a young team with the lowest payroll in baseball and had them in the NL East / Wildcard mix for most of the summer. The team finished with a respectable 84-77 record, which would have forced at least a tie if they played in the NL West.

Joe Torre, Los Angeles Dodgers

Led the Dodgers back to the post-season, pulling the team (along with the acquisitions of Casey Blake and Manny Ramirez) through a rough stretch to overtake the Diamondbacks and pull away in the NL West.

Lou Pinella, Chicago Cubs

Led the Cubs to the best record in the NL and 2nd consecutive NL Central title.

My Choice: Lou Pinella

Now, here are the nominees for the AL MVP award:

Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees

302-35-103 OPS: .965. Stellar number once again, but with the Yankees out of the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons, he is not in the talk for this award. Additionally, since this year is an even year (2008), recent history says A-Rod will not even place better than 10th in the race. However, he will probably finishing somewhere between 4-8 in the voting.

Carlos Quentin, Chicago White Sox

.288-30-100 OPS: .965. Led the White Sox offensively, until missing the final month of the season with an injury. He may have been the leader of the pack at one time, but that injury may be what keeps him from winning, as he was limited to only 130 games.

Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox

.326-17-83 OPS: .869. Pretty much was lifted into MVP contention with a stellar August with clutch hit after clutch hit, picking up for Manny Ramirez. He even hit in the clean-up hole for a couple games with big results. Boston fans will light up the WEEI phone lines if he doesn't win it, but I'm not sure he is the favorite, it is that close in this race.

Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins

.328-9-85 OPS: .864. Winning a batting title as a catcher is a TOUGH thing to do. This was his 2nd batting title in 4 seasons. He plays the most demanding position in baseball, and I've heard some talk that he is more valuable to the Twins than Morneau is. However, he probably is the darkest horse in this race.

Josh Hamilton, Texas Rangers

.304-32-130 OPS: .901. He got off to a monster start, and was the story of baseball by the All-Star break. However, he faded a bit during the hot Texas summer, and not too mention he plays on the Rangers. If he was on the Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, or White Sox he'd be the winner hands down.

Justin Morneau, Minnesota Twins

.300-23-129 OPS: .873. May be the front runner with Pedroia for this award, he was the offensive power for the Twins again AND played in all 163 games. However, could his and Mauer's 0 for in the playoff game with the White Sox affect his chances in a race this close?

Kevin Youkilis, Boston Red Sox

.312-29-115 OPS: .959. Filled the void in the clean-up hole that was left when Manny decided he didn't want to play in Boston anymore. This was definately a career year for Youkilis, and I think he is the Red Sox MVP over Pedroia, but Pedroia has all of the sentiment on his side, especially nationally, that he probably finishes 3rd behind Pedoria and Morneau for this award.

My Choice: Dustin Pedroia

The announcements begin today with the Rookies. I look forward to this, and the drama will build for the AL MVP which, like the Best Picture, will be announced Tuesday, 11/18 to close this show.

Good News On Tek....

He's a Type "A" Personality.

The Sox and Tek haven't come to an agreement on a contract. Who knows if they even will? However, the MLB Player Rankings have been published by the Elias Sports Bureau and Varitek has been rated as a type "A" player. This is good news, because a type "A" free agent will get their former team a supplemental round pick between the first and second rounds and a compensatory pick from the signing team.

Now, the Sox will only get these 2 draft picks if:

1) They offer Varitek salary arbitration and he declines it.
2) If Varitek signs with another team before the deadline for teams to offer salary arbitration to their free agents.

This rating makes it a virtual no-brainer that Varitek will be offered arbitration. If Varitek accepts arbitration, it means that Varitek will be a Red Sox in 2009 at the least. That basically means that the Sox and Tek have agreed to a 1 year contract and if the two sides can't agree on a salary, it will be decided by an arbitrator.

However, if he rejects arbitration, he can still sign with the Red Sox. However, they will have to come to an agreement based on the terms negotiated by the team and Tek's agent, Scott Boras. Boras has come out to say that the starting point of negotiations for Tek is a Jorge Posada's recent 4 yr, 50 something million deal. If any other team signs Tek, the Sox will get 2 draft picks, as stated above.

So the good news translates to: Red Sox will either get something for Varitek (2 draft picks) or have a chance to get him for only a 1 year deal via arbitration process. Both are good results for the Red Sox. As there is no way the Sox are going to give him a contract similar to Posada, especially when Tek would be 41 years old at the end of the deal.

Since Tek has already filed for free agency, here is the likely scenario that will happen:

1) On Nov 14, he is eligible to sign with any team in MLB (if he does, the Sox receive 2 draft picks.)
2) Red Sox will offer him salary arbitration. They have until December 1, 2008 to do so.
3) Varitek will reject salary arbitration. Tek will have until December 7, 2008 to do so.
4) Tek will sign a contract with some team other than the Red Sox, and the Sox will get 2 draft picks.

A lot of this will depend on how Boras and Tek feel the about the offers they get from other teams, if any. If Varitek decides to accept arbitration, we will know that there was not much interest from other teams in him OR he REALLY wants to stay with the Red Sox. The good thing about arbitration for Varitek, is if he does file, the worse his contract will be for is the same 10 million he was making, as the chances of him getting a larger salary in an arbitration case would seem to be not too good, especially considering his putrid offensive production this season.


A quick congratulations to Dustin Pedroia who is going to be named the winner of the AL Gold Glove Award for 2nd Basemen. It could be just the first award he may receive this off-season, as there is a chance he could win a Silver Slugger and a Bronze....errr I mean MVP award.

Jake Says No, Look to Japan again

Jake Peavy has said he would not accept a trade to the Boston Red Sox. Peavy has a full no-trade clause in his deal with the Padres. Kevin Towers confirmed that the Red Sox were on a list of teams Peavy does not want to get traded to. However, the New York Yankees are not on that list. Seems there is something about the Padres not liking Boston. Remember when Brian Giles would not accept a trade to Boston at the trade deadline?

However, it seems like the Sox aren't going to give up on trying to get Padres. It looks like they may be interested in acquiring shortstop Khalil Greene. Greene is coming off a down year where he hit .213 in only 105 games. In 2007, he did hit .254 with 27 HRs and 97 RBIs after having 15 HRs a season from 2004 - 2006. Greene would either be a free agent after 2009 or be in his last year of salary arbitration, as he will finish up a 2-yr, 11m contract extention that he signed at the beginning of 2008 to avoid salary arbitration. This could be a nice stop gap to give Jed Lowrie a bit more seasoning, especially if they can move Julio Lugo somewhere duing the off-season.

So, word has it that the Red Sox are the front runner for a young amateur free-agent from Japan named Junichi Tazawa. He is 22 yrs old, supposedly with an above average fastball to go along with a curve and split-finger. He requested that Japanese professional teams not draft him so he could sign with MLB as a free agent. Japanese players usually must go through a posting process, but since Tazawa has never been drafted or sign to a Japanese professional team, he does not need to through that process. It is unclear how major league ready he is, but it is never wrong to try build up some quality young pitching.

Don't forget to vote today!!

Staying Put

Good news for the folks of Fort Myers, FL. The Boston Red Sox are not going anywhere. The city of Ft. Myers, the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox since 1993, and the club have reached an agreement where the Sox will keep training in the city for 30 more years. The club had been looking at moving to Sarasota, but apparently Ft. Myers will build a new complex for the team.

I have never been down to a Spring Training. However, that is one of my goals in life. A nice 2 week vacation, where I could visit several spring training sites seems like it would be fun. One of the drawbacks of spring training in FL, though, is that a lot of the clubs are spread out quite a distance. That is the biggest reason you see quite a few clubs who have left Florida or Arizona, where there are quite a few teams training facilities within quite a small radius, compared to FL.

Another thing I'd like to do one day is try the Red Sox fantasy camp. Spending a week like a major leaguers would be cool. I think there is a blog that somebody wrote that chronicled their experience at a fantasy camp. Someday, I'll do that.

The Phillies declined Tom Gordon's 2009 option. That could be a nice replacement for Mike Timlin for a season. I think he still has some life left in that arm. He has, obviously, had some success her in Boston as a reliever. I'm sure he'll get some offers from clubs who are in contention, so he may end up being a little costlier than the Sox may want to pay. Another name out there that would make a nice invite to spring training is Mark Mulder. The Cardinals released him a week or so ago. He has gone through quite a bit of arm injuries, but if you could sign him to a minor league deal and bring him to camp, I think that is a no-lose situation.

Hopefully we'll here some news out of the GM meetings soon.