"What the Red Sox have done is forfeit their right to complain ever again about economic moves the Yankees make."

Amen.

I'm with Sherman on this -- I really believe we need to go after a short-term stopgap and plan on getting two out of the Three Amigos (Hughes, Clippard, Sanchez) into the rotation by 2008. Overspending on free agent pitching hasn't worked well for anyone lately.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Yanks take a flyer on Mulder.

2 How about Kei Igawa for a two year contract? He's been posted. Then Koji Uehara, who's a free agent next year (this info courtesy of Mike Plugh), and as you say the harvest of some of the farm arms, and the Yanks have a good rotation at a cut-rate price.

As much as I would have enjoyed watching Matsuzaka pitching for the Yanks, I'm relieved this dragged-out WBC (Wild Bidding Classic) is over.

Announcing the launch of Uehara Watch:

www.ueharawatch.blogspot.com

"Mind boggling perhaps, but not evil. Stunning perhaps, but not evil. Incredulous maybe, but not evil. Obscene, as an executive of another club said, but not evil."

Mind boggling? Not if you saw it coming.
Incredulous? The third place Red Sox "showing the money" to block a coveted starter from negotiating with the Yanks? What's incredulous about that?
Obscene? How so?

Boston's winning bid was predictable, and shrewd. It was a big league move, well, perhaps a little bush league if they don't intend to sign Matsuzaka, but I think they do, and would be wise to.

Poor Chassticle wanted to blast the Yanks for buying Matsuzaka so badly he could taste it.

It is obscene Sliced Bread. That is A-Rod money for a player that contributes to his team once a week. Hideously obscene.

Nothing, I repeat, nothing will make up for the posting fee. It will be a giant loss on their ledger. That's cool if you are doing it to win a championship, but is there anyone here who believes this move makes the Sox better than the Yankees?

"Uberteam"

as Theo says

This is not Johan Santana they are giving almost 22mill a yr for here. This is an unproven foreign pitcher with a lot of wear on his 26 yr old arm.

Coming from a team that didnt want to pay Pedro a few million extra because he had wear.

And they're going to have to pay for
2 of's
2b
ss
bullpen
and closer

Going to be expensive in Sox Nation this year. Get ready for 19$ beers at Fenway.

Going into the Matsuzaka sweepstakes, the bar was reportedly set at $30 million dollars.
In that context, Boston's $40-whatever million dollar bid was not "offensive" or "repulsive," it was highly competitive.

What Matsuzaka will be paid can be considered obscene, offensive, repulsive, etc., but I don't think that's what Chass was talking about.

1) Opening East market as noted above, even if they don't sign him, it increases awareness of the Sux 'brand'.
2) If they don't sign him, they can always blame Boras.
3) If they don't sign him, they've driven up his market price for other teams (i.e., Yankees) next year.

Frankly, I'd be very surprised if they do sign him. And if if they sign him for five years at $60 million, that's a lot of dough. Even if he turns out to be the next Pedro, that's a ton of risk.

And weird, I feel better about this than I did about Beckett last year. We know how that turned out, at least initially.

The Sux just blew the best argument they have for always finishing second to the Yanks. And took a huge risk to do it. Now let them sign Drew.

If the Sux think that have to make moves like this to compete, I feel very good about the future of this rivalry.

The recent influx of big name Asian pitchers into The Majors have had the shelf life of sushi.

Nomo
Hideki Irabu
Chan Ho Park
Byung Hyun Kim
Kaz Ishii
Jae Seo
Sun Woo Kim

These guys seemed to start strong and acclimate to the Bigs well, but then in a couple of years, they just crash and burn. I wouldn't be surprised in Wang goes the same way in a year or two.

I'm not worried about Matuzaka as a possible Red Sox. Hopefully they sign him to a 10 year deal.

I personally liked it much better when they were flailing for excuses for losing year after year. After 2004 and now this, they have beaten the Yanks on the field and now off it. Tell a person in winter 2003 that the Red Sox came back from 0-3 against the Yanks in the ALCS, swept the Series, and outbid the Yanks in a pure pissing contest for a player the Yanks desperately needed and the person would have laughed in your face. Those were different times.

As far as silver linings go, this one ain't cutting it for me.

If it goes well, they will compete, no doubt. But if he's merely a #2 or #3, I don't think they will.

It's a big risk, and for that I feel good as a Yankee fan. The Beckett trade was less of a risk, and they blew that one. The Mirabelli and Arroyo trades were even less risky, and they blew those too. If anything I see a club in Boston that is flailing in their plan and their execution.

Basically they've now tried everything to compete the last three years. Now they're trying even bigger spending. Where can they go next?

They're a third place team, with alot of holes. Sure a #1 pitcher helps, but only if he ends up being that. Even then, they still have alot of work to do - just to hang with Toronto.

But I think there is a difference in the moves that both teams have made recently. The Red Sox made smart moves (at least I thought they were smart at the time) that didn't work (yet). The Yanks made idiotic moves (signing Womack, Pavano, and Wright instead of Beltran) that immediately proved disastrous. (Cashman seems to have righted the ship a bit since then though.)

I hope this is another "smart" move that crashes and burns.

It's been a while since I lived in the land of the rising sun, but I seem to recall baseball seasons lasting about 132 games or so. Don't forget the curfews -- the boys need to be in bed by 12:00, 1;30 at the latest. I also seem to recall pitchers going on 5 or 6 day rotations. Not to mention that your principle opponents are an hour or so away; no more than a half dozen or so in each league -- so learning how to travel well is not part of the process.

More than all that I recall the almost diabolical pleasure Japanese take in the concept of practice and logging massive hours devoted to such. Nothing whets the Japanese competitive instincts like practice. All of this is a perfect storm way of saying that along about the end of August, or even earlier for that matter, you may see the young Matsuzaka coming up a little worse for wear. All's the pity.

Let me also throw in here the cultural riddle of Byung Hyun Kim whose ghost still lingers sullenly in the ole' Fenway clubhouse still projecting a faint deer like image under the klieg lights. He who last bore the brunt of screaming rascist Boston and just flat out snapped, saluting the mob with the well deserved finger.

Make no mistake, this is not the nitwit cherub Johnny Popplearm strolling out to the mound to the cheers of the fenway faithful -- Why armbands never caught on with these nitwits, I'll never figure out. But the point is, it will be something for Matsuzaka to withstand the bawling scrutiny of Red Sawks nation and there is NOTHING, NO ONE, NADA, ZIP, MATTAKUNASHI here in Boston to support him outside of his own clique of hangers-on that he will bring with him -- and who, may I add, will be properly aghast at Sawks ball. I pray Manny stays. Please God, pretty please.

New York is a suitable stage for success, Boston is trash strewn city plaza of liberal angst and despair that inside of three months will devour its young. They don't mean to be knuckle-dragging slack jawed goons, it's just the way they are.

So here's lookin' at you kid. Gyroballs Away!

Oh, I reserve the right to major revisions to the above, should the kid wind up in pinstripes.

Believe it or not, teams are contacting the Yankees about trading for right-hander Carl Pavano; the Rockies are one club that might have interest if the Yankees paid a portion of the $21 million that Pavano is owed over the next two seasons.

The Yankees, naturally, say they won't give Pavano away; their public position is that they want him to get healthy and be productive. Still, it's difficult to imagine the Yankees rejecting even a mediocre offer for a pitcher who has been a severe disappointment.

One rotation possibility that the Yankees might consider, with or without Pavano: Right-hander Scott Proctor, who was one of the team's best relievers last season.

Beckett could work out better, but that is now looking like a terrible trade, esp. that they followed up with an unnecessary extension. They need a SS and their future SS just won the ROY in the NL. What's worse is they gave up a young, and cheap, 4th or 5th starter too. That trade is much closer to "blew" than to a toss-up.

No matter what contract they sign DM to, it will be overpriced, even if he's the best pitcher in the game. If this shows Henry's willingness to dig into his billionairre pockets, they're now a much different organization. And as we seen previously, an organization that's willing to spend, quickly loses focus of what it takes to win. The Sux were a third place team, the last I looked. A #1 helps, if he's that, but they still have alot of work to do. Hopefully, it involves trading Manny.

Question 2: If the Yankees traded Pavano, could they fill the spot on the DL?

"Is there anything evil about what the Red Sox have done...Incredulous maybe, but not evil."

Sorry, but the bid is not incredulous. The bid might be incredible, and Chass might have been incredulous when he heard about it. But the bid can't be incredulous.

His name was Irabu.

Japanese for "Fat Pussy Toad".

Just saying. Beware.

At least give credit to where you scooped that from. Fox Sports.

I haven't changed my opinion that Matsuzaka will be a top pitcher. This is not only because he looked so good in video from Japan, on international TV making US hitters look foolish in the WBC, and of cours his stats. It's also because the conversation on elite, proven, young starting pitchers is limited to around single digits. Sure, Verlander and Liriano may join their ranks soon, but I don't count either of them as "proven," not yet. I also won't bite on the obvious projection techiques being used by other fans here, who want him to be like Irabu just because our team didn't get him.

The truth of the matter is, if Matsuzaka signs, the Red Sox have thrown a ton of money at one player, enough money that it might cripple their franchise even if Matsuzaka turns into an MLB ace.

Ranking my excitement for remaining free agent pitchers, on a scale of 1-42:

Zito 30
Schmidt 25
Lilly 20
Pettite 19
Mulder 15
Eaton 12
Clemens -2

spoken like a true nitwit... which fans are booing their MVP again? and enough with the racism stuff... seriously, most of you guys here are baseball smart and thats why i read here but a number of you are extremely childish and ignorant.

19 The guys you mentioned had the younger part of their career back in Asia, Wang was actually trained and developed by the Yankees when he turned 20. And Wang doesn't have an Asian size, he's bigger than Jeter which should help.

Speaking of which, I find it interesting how many reports all mentioned how the Red Sox will now be able to open its Asian market (assuming they do sign Matsuzaka). The so-called Asian market is consist of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Besides Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese, no one else in Asia gives a damn about baseball.

Nowadays, Asian market is no longer a combined market, Koreans have their pitchers, Taiwanese have Wang and Guo, Japanese also have many players including our classic Matsui. Say if the Yankees landed Matsuzaka, that will be one very large Japanese market, but since Matsuzaka is more likely to end up in Boston, the market doesn't add up as large. No matter what, it's the Japanese market they are looking at, not the whole Asian market...I am just saying.

24 " Believe it or not, teams are contacting the Yankees about trading for right-hander Carl Pavano. "...Almost music to my ears. But you are right, that's one big spot to fill on the DL.

To win the bid, and NOT sign him, would give the Sox a distinctly bad 'blackeye' with MLB, the Japanese and the fans.

I was leary about the Yankees paying 16+ mil/year for an unknown. I'm happy to see the Sox spend $80+ mil on this guy. They are overpaying... plain and simple.

OK.... lets ALL put our money where our mouth is. Everyone weigh in on what the Sox end up with. Lets hear 2 things.... dollars and years.

I say: 4 years/$50 million (with a team option for year 5 at $15mil)

35 I say: they don't sign him. (Do I have to say what they offer if I think they'll fail to sign him?)

Is Matsuzaka going to be that good? Maybe, but he'll have to be Santana's equal to be the sole difference-maker between the two teams. For the moment, he's just another piece of the puzzle.

23 As a liberal Yankee fan who lived in Boston for 5 years, I'd have to say that remark about NYC vs Boston is impolite at best and insulting at worst. In any case, chill out jayd. Why make this personal or political? Why compare the two cities at all?