Tag: Red Sox

Just say no, Theo

Over at Boston.com, it’s running 82 percent to 17 percent against trading Jacoby Ellsbury as part of a package to land Johan Santana. And I didn’t even vote.

Yes, by any traditional baseball measure, the Red Sox should be willing to give up kids to get a great pitcher like Santana — even kids who thrived in the World Series spotlight, like Ellsbury and Jon Lester, or who have incredible promise, like Clay Buchholz.

But it shouldn’t be all about winning — sometimes it should be about winning a certain way. As a fan, I’m tired of seemingly every star player whose current team has decided it can’t afford ending up with either the Red Sox or the Yankees. Major League Baseball is not healthy right now. After the steroid scandal, the second-biggest problem is the economic dominance of Boston and New York.

Of course, I realize that if Santana doesn’t wind up with the Sox, the Yankees are likely to land him. Let them do it. It won’t be good for the Red Sox, and it won’t be good for baseball. But I’d rather see what the kids can do than land yet another proven star and pencil in a guaranteed (barring injury) 18 to 20 wins.

It’s supposed to be competition, not annihilation.

Keeping Schilling and Lowell

The Boston Globe’s Kevin Paul Dupont looks at the merits of keeping Mike Lowell, and adds to the conventional wisdom that Curt Schilling is as good as gone.

Well, it’s not my money, and I understand Dupont’s point that the Sox timed the departures of Pedro Martínez and Johnny Damon pretty impressively. But still — wouldn’t it be worth overpaying Schilling if he’ll agree to just a one-year deal, which he says he will? Certainly it would by crazy for the Sox to commit to eight figures for Schilling for 2009, but he says he’s not looking for that. Just one more year. Let him do it here.

Lowell might be a tougher call. He just had his career year. If he puts up 2006 numbers next year, that would be great. I’d say four years would be too much, but two years would be perfect. But I’m sure Epstein and Lucchino would say the same thing, and Lowell’s probably going to get a better offer. The question is whether a three-year deal makes sense. I guess I’d say yes, with the understanding that we may all regret it about midway into the 2010 season.

One for the ages

Last Sept. 2, right after the Red Sox announced that Jon Lester would leave the team to undergo cancer treatment, I predicted that Lester would be the Opening Day pitcher in April 2008. It’s not going to happen — that honor will obviously go to Josh Beckett.

But this is a whole lot better, isn’t it? What an absolutely incredible story. Lester got behind on some batters last night, but he looked pretty much unhittable.

And not to sully this moment with the Alex Rodriguez saga, but he’s already done that, hasn’t he? Mike and Mike were tearing into him on ESPN Radio (AM 890 around here) this morning, as well they should. Blowing off Hank Aaron and putting his contract wishes above the World Series in one day has got to be some sort of a record.

I hope Theo and Larry don’t even think of signing him. A-Rod’s a great player, and maybe his post-season failures have been a fluke (or maybe not). But he’d be a constant distraction. The Sox have proved they can win without him. The Mariners, Rangers and Yankees have proved they can lose with him. Enough.

Sign Schilling?

One of the great non- controversies in Boston sports is on the plate this morning, as Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe considers what the Red Sox ought to do now that Curt Schilling’s contract is expiring.

The answer, which I can’t imagine anyone would disagree with, is this: If he’ll take a one-year deal, then yes, of course. It is, as Cafardo says, a “no-brainer.” More than one year? Well … maybe.

Tim Wakefield may be on the verge of retiring. That would leave Beckett and Matsuzaka as the number-one and -two guys, and Lester and Buchholz at the back of the rotation. I want Schilling at number three. Don’t you?

Especially after last night.

Schilling photo (cc) by benostrander. Some rights reserved.

Crisp’s last stand

Your blood must run ice-cold if you don’t feel for Coco Crisp, losing his job in the middle of the post-season. So of all the many highlights from last night’s game, I thought the best — well, OK, tied with Pedroia’s home run, and just barely ahead of Papelbon’s shutting down the Indians in the eighth — was Crisp’s running into the wall to grab the final out.

And what about Daisuke? The Sox can’t make it through the Series with just two starters, and it looks as though Matsuzaka has rediscovered enough of his talent at least to keep the game close. Just in time.

Sox, Media Nation climb

I was sitting in my car last night, trying to get a signal from a campsite near Mount Monadnock, when J.D. Drew finally worked off the first $1 million of his $70 million contract. Absolutely incredible. At that point, I took a radio into my tent and listened to the wavering ESPN play-by-play on an AM station in New York.

I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew it was the fifth inning, and the Sox were ahead, 10-1. I turned it off and went to sleep. I still don’t know who the heroes were, other than Drew and Curt Schilling. As soon as I post this item, I’m going to find out.

Today I helped lead a group of eight Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts to the top of Monadnock (elevation: 3,165 feet). It was a perfect day, made all the more so because we knew the Sox would be playing a Game Seven tonight.