Change Is On The Air

Though he certainly doesn't know it, Jerry Trupiano was one of the main reasons I became such an avid fan of Red Sox baseball on the radio. Driving home from work every summer evening at around 7:30 pm, Trupiano and long-time Sox broadcaster (and fellow Nutmegger) Joe Castiglione accompanied my up the Berlin Turnpike and down interstate 84. Without a functioning tape deck or an FM station that was worth my time, WTIC 1080 AM became the lock for the drive home. It was there that my obsession for the Sox took root, thanks in no small part to the well-developed relationship between Joe and Jerry. They made the airwaves feel like home year in and year out.

This past week, the Red Sox announced a change in their announcing team, with Trupiano on the receiving end. Instead of his misleading "Way back!" calls, Sox fans will be asked to acclimate themselves to Joe's new sidekick, Dave O'Brien, and occasional fill-in Glenn Geffner.

By all indications, both O'Brien, who still works with ESPN, and Geffner are thrilled about the move. O'Brien in particular is pumped to be coming back to do Red Sox baseball, as he hails originally from Quincy, MA.

Closer? Go Fish...In The Potomac

We've signed the national treasure from the other side of the Pacific Ocean, managed to toss in (officially) a talented FA shortstop, and are reportedly close to making the deal with our ex-Dodger right fielder official, pending some contract rewording. The last two days have been filled with a blur of acivity, including the addition of two new bullpen arms: Brendan Donnelly and J.C. Romero. Unfortunately, though the bullpen has now been stuffed with experienced, middle-of-the-road relivers, there still remains one question to be answered: who's going to be closing games for the Sox in 2007?

In my heart of hearts, a part of me still sees Jonathan Papelbon trotting out of the bullpen in the 9th inning, but if you ask the Sox brass, that's not likely to happen. Eric Gagne, the one free agent who has had any sort of success in the closer role, signed a $6 million, one-year deal with the Texas Rangers recently, leaving a trade as the only feasible road to acquiring a closer.

There have been numerous reports that the Red Sox have been targeting one of my favorite players, Chad Cordero of the Washington Nationals. Cordero, who turns 25 next March, has been one of the few pitching studs for the Washington franchise over the last several years. Cordero has averaged just under 77 IP over the last three years, bringing a career WHIP of 1.12, ERA+ of 161, a K/9 ratio of 8.39. His plain old career ERA is swell 2.16. Just a reminder: this kid is my age, and yes, he's good.

So first of all, why would Jumpin' Jim Bowden even consider trading away the Nationals' own bullpen Boy Wonder? Yep, you guessed it: a closer ain't no good 'til you can win yourself a few ballgames, and all indications coming out of D.C. have been that the Nationals won't be improving much on their 71-91 record, particularly after they decided not to trade away Alfonso Soriano at the deadline, only to watch him waltz away to a lucrative free agent contract in the Windy City. Therefore, it stands to reason that the Nats could bag themselve a few young pieces capable of helping them out for more than just the 9th inning of a game.

Wily Mo Peña is likely available, maybe even David Murphy and Manny Delcarmen. Who knows, Charlie Zink could be just what our nation's capital needs to turn around it's performance on the sandlot. Still, this is Jim Bowden we're talking about, one of the game's absolute worst general managers. He's not exactly looking for above-average parts in a trade. Nor should he be, really. Cordero is on the cusp of proving himself an elite closer, and Bowden has to milk that for what it's worth. There comes a point, however, where Bowden should be looking at the overall health of his organization when considering a potential agreement. Cordero will likely not net any major starting prospects which, according to Bill Ladson, who covers the team for MLB.com, is exactly what Bowden is looking for.

Cordero would be the perfect cherry on top of what looks to be an impressive Boston offseason, but prying him away will prove to be incredibly difficult. In the end, a Cordero deal would benefit both sides, it just remains to be seen whether or not Jim Bowden can be dealt with. Otherwise, we'll have to look to the farm at the top of the 9th.

It's Official: Matsuzaka to Boston

(Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe)

At an afternoon press conference held today at Fenway Park, Red Sox GM Theo Epstein introduced the crown jewel of the 2006 offseason: Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Matsuzaka reportedly signed a 6 year, $52 million contract with incentives that can push the value of the deal as high as $60 million.

Thank goodness.

Airborne Matsu

Reports out of Boston's two main papers are claiming that Scott Boras and Daisuke Matsuzaka are currently en route to Boston on John Henry's personal plane. This comes only shortly after last night's reportedly "hurdle-laden" negotiations in California.

Articles that surfaced this morning had two potential figures to greet the morning cup of coffee. The Sox were apparently offering $48 million over six years, while for Boras's part there was reportedly an offer of $66 million over the same amount of time. It would be great to get Matsu signed for the former deal, but the latter is certainly about market value for, say Gil Meche. For a difference of roughly $3 million, this is definitely a deal that should get done.

I'm glad to see this turned around.

Why Boras Is Evil and Plan B

According to the Globe's Gordon Edes, there has been zero progress on the Matsuzaka front, meaning that (in my humble opinion) the door is now, officially, closed. It is believed that once the Red Sox board John Henry's private jet bound for Boston the talks will cease, as there will no longer be time to get a physical.

Before I get to the reason I chose the above title, I'd just like to say that there's one thing that's really sticking in my craw: Scott Boras. No, it's not that he's trying to get the most for his player, nor is it that the negotiations are going down to the wire. What really bothers me is Boras's complete disregard for fair play. By all accounts, the Red Sox don't even know if Boras has told Matsuzaka about their offers. Boras has made no official counteroffer, saying only in his press conference last night that his player is worth in excess of $100 million, despite never pitching in the majors. The Red Sox have atypically gone out of their way, it seems, to demonstrate just how serious they are about signing the young pitcher. They flew to California of their own volition just to try and get in touch with the player they're supposed to be negotiating for, and even though Boras promised a meeting between front office brass and Daisuke, no such meeting has taken place. In fact, Matsuzaka has been held out of the negotiations on purpose.

This is turning into Boras's own personal crusade to gain attention for himself, going so far as to make crass statements like "In Japan he's know as the national treasure, [in the United States] he''ll be known as Fort Knox." That's just plain rude, and not to the Sox. By all accounts there is a certain etiquette that must be adhered to when dealing with a foreign culture, and Boras has done everything in his power to ignore it, at least publicly. Sure, this is frustrating because I'm a Sox fan who wants Matsuzaka in the rotation, but it's made doubly so because it feels like only one person showed up to the poker table with the intention of playing.

Now, on to Plan B.

Well, that's a good question. There was never any sparkling free agent talent on the market to begin with (Barry Zito, in my opinion, would be a terrible fit for the Sox), and any team with an arm to hang 15 wins on is holding on for dear life. At this point, I really think it would be in the best interests of the team to just put Lester (health permitting) and Papelbon in the rotation and hope for the best. There's still the possibiliy that Brad Penny could be pried from the Dodgers for Manny Ramirez, but unless Jonathan Broxton, Matt Kemp or Andre Ethier are included, I'd rather hold on to the fickle slugger.

The limited options simply demonstrates how important signing Matsuzaka is. He's not just a pretty face at the top of the rotation for the next 5 or 6 years, he's the keystone for the next 2.

Nothing to See Here

No, seriously, there's nothing to see here. Scott Boras held a press conference from his Newport Beach, CA at 9 pm EST to announce, essentially, that unless the Red Sox pony up a $100 million contract over the next 6 years, Matsuzaka will go back to Japan and pitch. There's really nothing new here. We've known for some time that Boras is really trying to sell the whole "this is a national treasure" schtick, but to put these kinds of numbers to it makes the whole ordeal a bit unreal. There's no way the Sox can justify paying almost $17 million over 6 years to a pitcher who's never even been to Massachussetts.

To make sure their position is clear, the Red Sox are reportedly preparing to hold their own press conference later this evening. Nobody knows what they could have to announce, considering the first conference was essentially worthless. In any case, you can read the Associated Press article on the Boras new conference here:

Red Sox to Meet With Matsuzaka's Agent

(AP Photo)

"I'm Murray Chass and I approve this smear piece."

Boy, oh boy. The New York Times' Murray Chass is at it again. With the Red Sox' signing of J.D. Drew, Chass is starting to stir the pot a little bit by insinuating that the front office's dealings with Scott Boras over the newly acquired outfielder were less than kosher. According to Chass, a number of baseball officials have urged Dodgers general manager and baseball man extraordinaire (see: Pierre, Juan) Ned Colletti to file tampering charges against the Red Sox.

Exhibit A for the disgruntled is Boston’s signing of J. D. Drew, who walked away from the final three years of his contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a move that his agent, Scott Boras, said was aboveboard and precipitated by the marketplace. The signing of Drew could lead to an investigation by the commissioner’s office into possible tampering by the Red Sox; one baseball official said the commissioner’s office would vigorously investigate the matter if it received a complaint, but added that no complaint has been forthcoming. [...]

One general manager said that many people at the general managers’ meeting, after hearing that Drew would sign with Boston, urged the Dodgers to file a tampering charge.

“We haven’t reached a decision yet,” Ned Colletti, the Dodgers’ general manager, said by telephone yesterday before leaving the winter meetings in Orlando, Fla.

(NY Times, December 8, 2006)

Whoa, you mean that J.D. Drew left the Dodgers because his agent, some guy named Scott Boras, might have thought that his client would make more money on a bloated market? Ludicrous, especially because Drew actually was able to find a more lucrative contract. There has to be something devious here.

Please. There were similar reports around the trading deadline that the Red Sox front office contacted the agent for Julio Lugo about playing in Boston. When a player's under contract, that's a no-no. The supposed retaliation by the Tampa Bay executives was to claim Adam Stern off waivers and slow down the final portions of the deal that sent Javy Lopez to Boston. Still, there was never any sort of confirmation of this purported behavior.

In my opinion, the absence of prosecution, both in the Lugo case and thus far in the Drew situation, indicates one of two things. Either, as I would like to believe, there was no tampering on the part of the Red Sox and they did everything by the books, or, there has been no prosecution of the Red Sox because legal action would lead to a more illuminating examination of every team's front office dealings. Consider it a white collar version of Dirtgate. If Colletti isn't sure he's going to press charges, then he's not going to press charges. It's not the kind of thing you just sit around on.

Nothing is ever as pure as we want it to be. Steroids aren't the only thing to have given ballplayers unfair advantages over the decades. We've all heard the stories about greenies and spitballs, scuffs and spikes. Any trip to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY will place a visitor smack dab in the middle of a group of carousers and alcoholics, racists and chauvinists. But still, we view the game with the sepia-toned ignorance that allows us to keep The Game on It's precarious pedestal, elevated high above the other American diversions. I'm guilty of it, you're guilty of it. It's never as clean as I pretend, and I know that, as I'm sure you, the educated reader, know as well. Chances are that tampering (in it's tamest form, of course) is all too common in the tight-knit group that is the collection of front offices.

Let he who is free of sin cast the first stone. Right, Ned?

More Important Than Baseball

In my desire to write a slightly competent article on the signings of J.D. Drew and Julio Lugo, I completely neglected to mention one very important new item from yesterday: Jon Lester will report to Red Sox Spring Training on time.

According to a number of articles, a news conference, and an interview with Terry Francona at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Lester's chemotherapy has progressed well enough that the cancer is in remission. Jon looks to report to camp on February 16 with everyone else. Around Red Sox Nation and the rest of baseball, there is a sense of relief.

THUMP! "Here's the Party Line..."

Bill Mueller on J.D.Drew

"I tell you what, he's a great player, a great individual, and a character guy. Any left-handed bat like his, the way he uses the whole field, he could have great success there. Unfortunately for us, he went somewhere else, which is his option. The market is great and he took advantage of it.

"Boston is such a great, great, great place to play. It's hard for me to say don't go to Boston because I think everybody should be able to experience playing in Boston. It's the Mecca of the game."

"You definitely have to have a certain mentality going in. The way J.D. is, he goes about business the way I do. Usually when people have that kind of personality, they do fine because they go out there and play their hearts out." (the fantastic Rob Bradford, The Eagle Tribune)

Pending a physical, it looks like J.D. Drew will be patrolling right field for the Red Sox in 2007. According to Boy Wonder GM Theo Epstein, being interviewed at this second on XM Radio. It is apparently a 5 year, $70 million deal, though there has been no confirmation as to the nature of that fifth year (guaranteed or option-based).

The word on the street is that Drew is totally a nancy in the clubhouse, and everyone from Orestes Destrade to Santa Claus is down on the guy, myself included. I know the rumors have him as being prone to "phantom injuries", but in reality there's nothing outside of rumours and "clubhouse sources" to back up these accusations. I feel that, as a loyal Red Sox fan stuck in the middle of the long, cold winter, it's time to get excited about something. Oh yea, and if Peter Gammons is a fan of this guy, I'm a fan of this guy.

Here's another way to look at the Drew deal. This is a market in which Gary Matthews (career .263/.336/.419) received $10 million over 5 years from the Angels, and Alfonso Soriano got roughly $17 million over 8 years (career .280/.325/.510). Compared to those guys, Drew (career .286/.393/.512) appears to be getting a rather reasonable *cough* deal.

The five year contract length really sticks in my craw, because I'm not certain how well Drew is going to age. Could be that three years from now Drew ends up being our left fielder, where he doesn't need as much mobility. When you think about it, this may end up as a case of overpaying, but I don't think it's serious enough to claim this deal is absolutely godawful. We needed a bat in right field, we got a bat in right field, and one of the better ones in the league.

Along the same lines, this just in: the Red Sox have also reportedly agreed to a 4 year contract worth $36 million dollars with FA shortstop Julio Lugo. This is really one of those situations that likely could have been avoided in 2005 before the Renteria fiasco, but the we needed a shortstop, and after Lugo, it was something like Chris Gomez as the next most desireable player.

With the Lugo signing, I think the likelihood of Manny being traded decreases significantly, and the possibility of signing a FA closer goes up a chunk. Assuming Manny sticks around, here's what the first 5 spots in our lineup would look like, based on last year's numbers.

Youkilis .279/.381/.429
Lugo .308/.373/.498 (in TB, not in LA)
Ortiz .287/.413/.636
Ramirez .321/.439/.619
Drew .283/.393/.498

Frankly, that's pretty good. The Sox batted .269/.351/.435 as a team last year and left more men on base than any other team in the major leagues. (Interestingly, despite the fact that they batted so terribly, they led the majors in total walks last year, clocking in at 672 for the season, 22 more than the second place team, Oakland.) A top five like the one above would make them a more well-rounded likeup, benefiting greatly from the addition of Lugo's speed on the basepaths.

Both of these reported deals are contingent on physicals, so nothing is set in stone as of the time of this posting. Still, it's nice to see the Sox actually move forward instead of spinning their wheels and trying to plug holes with bargain parts (see: Mohr, Dustin and Harris, Willie).

Nixon Not Offered Arbitration

Midnight of last night was the deadline for major league teams to offer arbitration to all eligible free agents. For those who are unclear, if a team offers a player arbitration and that player then decides to sign with a different team as a free agent, the original arb-offering team is given compensatory draft picks based on the player's rating from the Elias Sport Bureau. The Red Sox only offered arbitration to one player this year: reliever and one-time closer Keith Foulke. It is believed that Foulke is nearing a contract with the Cleveland Indians, nearer, say than any of the players who failed to receive arbitration offers: Mark Loretta, Doug Mirabelli, and Trot Nixon.

The big scandal here is the fact that Nixon, a first-round draft pick by Lou Gorman's 1993 front office, was not given the option of arbitration. Consensus around the the educated halls of the Hub has it that Trot will not and should not be back in right field. At least, not as a starter.

G   AB    R    H   2B 3B  HR  RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+-
  2    4    2    2   1  0   0    0  0   1  .500  .500  .750
 13   27    3    7   1  0   0    0  1   3  .259  .286  .296
124  381   67  103  22  5  15   52 53  75  .270  .357  .472
123  427   66  118  27  8  12   60 63  85  .276  .368  .461
148  535  100  150  31  4  27   88 79 113  .280  .376  .505
152  532   81  136  36  3  24   94 65 109  .256  .338  .470
134  441   81  135  24  6  28   87 65  96  .306  .396  .578
 48  149   24   47   9  1   6   23 15  24  .315  .377  .510
124  408   64  112  29  1  13   67 53  59  .275  .357  .446
114  381   59  102  24  0   8   52 60  56  .268  .373  .394
+--------------+---+----+----+----+---+--+---+----+---+--+-
982 3285  547  912 204 28 133  523 454 621 .278  .366  .478

Nixon is not exactly a knock-the-cover-off-the-ball corner outfielder, but he's no slouch, either. We're all familiar with his season in 2003, where he hit .306/.396/.598, crushing 28 HR and knocked in 87 RBI. The 2003 season also wrapped up a three-year stretch where Nixon clubbed a total of 79 HR, his only serious power surge. He has been incredibly fragile, playing 130 games in only 3 seasons, his "home run years," and it's this fragility that has come to characterize everybody's favorite Dirt Dog.

Nixon's attitude on the field, deference in front of the cameras and fans, and his efforts in the non-profit community have had a profound impact on everybody who follows the Sox. The outrage that has bubbled to the surface in the last few days (and it's been muted, to be sure) swirls not so much around the on-field performance (which has been commendable), but around his personality. Add to this mix the seemingly inevitable signing of J.D. Drew, an equally fragile outfielder, wearing number 7, who has managed to flash better power numbers, at an outlandish 4 years, $56 million dollars (or somewhere near there), and you have a controversy.

The fact of the matter is that Nixon has been unreliable in right field. I love him as much as anybody, and the thought of him in another uniform is hard to stomach. I have also, however, come to be just as comfortable with Gabe Kapler or Wily Mo Peña in right field as I have Nixon. Offering arbitration to a player that fragile would be akin to paying $7 million for 3 months of average offensive performance (and zero production against lefties). Whatever I or the pundits may say about Drew's clubhouse presence, it is nothing but spectulation, and his performance at the plate and in the field can't really be discredited. It's a shame that Trot may be gone, but it looks as if we'll have an exceptional player in right field in his stead (provided he stays healthy.)