Maybe one of his bad knees can bleed through unto his uniform...

Mahalo.

Wow, that's too true.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/articles/hub_fans_bid_kid_adieu_article.shtml

Is this true of any highly paid free agent or do you have some other criteria?

"The Rockies, priced out on Dave Roberts, have Darin Erstad, Kenny Lofton and Steve Finley on their radar screen as center field options."

I can't decide who I most want them to sign.

http://tinyurl.com/y8p8yd

The Devil Rays for now wisely are rejecting overtures for outfielders Carl Crawford and Rocco Baldelli

While speculating on an Opening Day lineup on Tuesday, Rays manager Joe Maddon had Akinori Iwamura at third base and didn't include B.J. Upton.

If Bossman is available, Ned needs to look into what it would take to acquire him. Bossman could be our 2b for the next 10 years.

I think I might never go to dodger stadium again if Ned did this.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2687700

$10M/1 year, with a player option for anywhere from $6M to $10M, depending on how many innings he pitches.

Actually, how Mr. Drew is received by the Boston fans will be determined by (i) his performance and (ii) their expecations. If the fans expect Mr. Drew to perform like a number 2 hitter, he could be one of the best in the league. Unfortunately, his salary demands and "potential" make people think he is a clean up hitter. And that is where the disappoint arises. A successful team needs its "big bat" to play almost every day and to hit for power on a regular basis.

That is why, I believe, Mr. Drew disappointed the Dodger fans. So if Boston management lowers fan expectations to a leval Mr. Drew can meet, he may have a successful five years. I wish him well.

Mahalo.

Eric -- I keep trying to squeeze in Matt Stairs. I think "to stair" could be a verb --- "Her apartment was on the twenty second floor, but I was so excited I staired up in no time."

Can I get a ruling?

I think the lower dollar player option was a pretty clever solution to the impasse the Padres and Maddux were heading towards on the one year/two year thing. But it is a big contract and while offering arb had risk, I think the people (um like me) who thought it was a pretty safe risk and worth it were right.

Mahalo.

As for Drew, he would be well served if the Sox keep Manny as that would make him the third biggest bat and reduce expectations, but I don't see that happening. How do you sign the Dodger trifecta, keep Manny and still have enough money to obtain the Boras represented Daisuke Matsuzaka. I believe a Manny deal will be made in the next 9 days. That is how long the Sox have to negotiate for Matsuzaka before the window closes and he is sent back to Japan.

Lastly, whether Drew is accepted in Boston will not be determined by the quality of his play. He will hit like Ted Williams in Fenway. The issue will be if he plays at all. If he has an early injury or worse yet injuries himself in spring training--watch out it will get ugly in a hurry.

stair, v.

1 Obs. rare.

[perh. f. STAIR n.]

1. trans. To ascend.

a1400-50 Wars Alex. 3923 Stayrand on e staunke e stour to asaill. Ibid. 4834 With at stairis he forth e stye at stret to e est.
2. trans. To make in the form of stairs.

?a1412 LYDG. Two Merchants 635 Though to richesse ther be no grees i-steyred Tascenden vp.

Mahalo.

He couldnt carry Trot Nixons jock.

Two mitigating factors for Boston: The bid to Seibu is exempted from the luxury tax and, MLB protestations notwithstanding, the Sox could partly offset the bid's cost by cutting side deals with Seibu.
However, the present-day-value of the $51.1 million makes it even more expensive, as the entire sum is due once the Sox come to terms with Matsuzaka. Clement, by the way, has a bum shoulder and is basically a sunk cost at $9.25 million.

I think Boston is one Manny hamstring twinge away from feeling pretty desperate to save a huge chunk on Manny. Hopefully if the Dodgers revisit these talks they will act like they are in the driver's set rather than jumping in front of the front grill, like they did in the Pierre talks.

Mahalo.

I remember my father telling me stories about what he did during World War II. He was part of the Greatest Generation. The part of that stayed home because he was too young to fight, but he did make sure the cows got milked and would drive the tractor on dates because it was exempt from gas rationing.

And a good chance to talk about my dad and cows.

Nope, the entire bid is due upon agreement to terms with the player. Heck, I doubt several clubs even have $51.1 million in cash, let alone the ability to spend it at once. That's one reason so many people are skeptical about Lucchino's recent journey to Japan. Somehow, someway you can bet the Sox are confident that they can cut some sort of side deal with Seibu that will offset that $51.1 million.

Mahalo.

Mahalo for your mahalo.

"Repko isn't likely to hack it as an everyday center fielder, but he'd be a fine platoonmate for a left-handed hitter. The Rangers could sign Kenny Lofton and then recreate the Dodgers' center-field situation from the early part of last year."

http://tinyurl.com/yzthpu

Whoever said Ben Hendrickson before, that counts. And yes, so does every Bill.

Updating a previous item, The Chicago Tribune and Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal are both reporting the contract offer to free-agent SP Barry Zito (Athletics) from the Texas Rangers is six years at $102 million.

I enjoyed your Drew post. If you are looking to write more about Drew, how about examining (again) whether Ned should have better anticipated his departure. I'm not saying Ned should have known a few months ago that Drew was going to get $70 million. Still Drew more than doubled his $33 million and Ned acted like a guy who didn't see anything like that on the horizon. Kind of scary, no? Markets are tough to predict, of course. Who would have predicted that Pierre would get $44 million?
Maybe the Dodgers are better off without Drew but it is disappointing that Ned wasn't more attuned to Drew/Boras and the markets. So often Dodgers GMs appear to react posthaste to events rather than anticipating them. This looks like another example. Teams like Oakland and San Diego, conversely, seem to anticipate events.

Musing on Ben Sheets, but I don't think it's going to get there.

Mahalo.

Like John Kerry, a "botched joke."

Time to go find a rich widowed heiress to a ketchup fortune I guess.

I think you meant moron Zito offer

69
I wasn't taking anything personally. I was trying to say that, of course you should direct anger toward Andrew Shimmin.

Mahalo.

(Cue: Take My Breath Away)

I reserve the right to change my mind; I already have. But as of now, I would advise Neddy to try to sign Schmidt, but if that doesn't work out, just stand pat. Every position except for SS and C should be a competition this spring. Let's just see what we've got.

The curse of having all these hot prospects is every GM thinks he has to bag one if he does a deal with LA. Nobody wants Hendrickson or Tomko or Hall. Even if they need 'em, they don't want 'em. It would be like going to Nordstrom's and only buying underwear (which I've done.) So we're not going to hear realistic offers for anybody.

Mahalo

Sentences requiring commas sorta count, albeit with an asterisk, like Ernie Shore. In fact "Ernie, shore." is one of these.

Ron, hunt.
Al, maul.

etc

Cheers.

Get out of my physics lab exam early, get $30 in an econ experiment, and we got Saito for a cool $1,000,000.

In the case of Hendrickson, Tomko or Hall that would be dirty underwear.

Scoring runs = f(hitting, character, veteran presence, knowing how to win)