The best seat in the house is the view from the couch

Quick Thoughts - 11/13/06

OK, I need to chime in a little bit on a whole lot of things happening over the past five days. Most of them involve one of my beloved Boston-area teams; a few do not.

Here we go, in no particular order:

n Daisuke Matsuzaka. Aside from making my spell-checker implode, I just named the hottest pitching commodity on the open market since the glory days of free agency when Mike Hampton managed a $100+ Million contract. There are conflicting reports coming out of both Japan and the GM Winter Meetings in Naples, FL. The only thing they agree upon is this: The Red Sox seem to be the team that has bought the exclusive rights to bend over and take it up the ass from Scott Boras. Reports say hat Boston bid anywhere from $38M to over $50M for these rights - Buster Olney says $38-$45M, Peter Gammons pegged the number at $42M, and Orestes Destrade said it is over $50M. Personally, I think the final number is going to be $51 Million. This is significant for a few reasons:

§ 1 – The Red Sox front office (read: Theo Epstein) realized just how bad they’ve screwed up the past two off seasons. Matt Clement, David Wells, and Wade Miller have been the three biggest free agent pitchers acquired since the Sox celebrated in Busch Stadium.

§ 2 – Paying upwards of $40M (just about everyone agrees that the winning bid will be over $40M) signals to the rest of the league that the Red Sox are not only going for broke, again, but that they will be major players in the future for the services of players coming out of Japan and Asia in general.

§ 3 – The figures being thrown around on a contract – 3yr/$36+ Million – mean that in theory, Daisuke Matsuzaka would be nearly a $100M pitcher for the Red Sox. That is an incredible amount of pressure for any player, in any market. But for someone who has never thrown a Major League pitch, in a city as ravenous as Boston, it could be too much to handle.

§ 4 – The posting fee is likely going to eclipse the entire 2006 team salaries of at least three teams, and maybe as many as five or six. That is simply ridiculous.

Personally, I think it’s a good move for Boston. If the guy pans out into at least a number two starter, then the Red Sox not only advanced their own cause, but in theory they hurt the Yankees’ rotation rebuilding process as well. That’s a double victory.

n J.D. Drew, Julio Lugo, Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, Dontrelle Willis, Andy Pettite, Roger Clemens, Jason Schmidt… These are all names that have been linked to the Red Sox in the past 72 hours. Rumor has it that the Sox have already offered Drew a 3yr/$30M+ contract… can’t see him passing that one up. Of course, for $4M less per year, the Sox could keep “Drew Lite” and just re-sign Trot Nixon. As for the rest of the names on that list, I’d welcome every one of them except Lugo & Zito. Don’t like Lugo’s game (when you can’t crack the Dodgers’ everyday 2006 lineup, that says a lot about your game) and Zito just gives up too many walks and long fly-ball outs to be effective in Fenway.

n Football… I’ll have my weekly rankings tomorrow, after the Monday Night Game is over and the Panthers have (most likely) obliterated the Buccaneers. Of course, since I’m 5-10 with picks heading into the game in an hour, I’ve got no confidence whatsoever in anything I predict anymore. A few quick hits though, while we’re here…

§ You should see the line to get to the Tobin Bridge railing right now… A little two-game losing streak (or as a caller on the radio appropriately put it today, “Two one-game losing streaks”), and suddenly this Patriots’ team is apparently doomed to wander the Earth for all eternity, looking for it’s lost soul. Geez – they got beat by a superior Indy team, and then coughed one up against a very good Jets team. They’re still 6-3 (surprisingly, 4-0 on the road and 2-3 at home), they’re still first in the AFC East. No worries people…

§ And here comes the stretcher again… How many more players do you think the Giants can lose to injury and still remain competitive? Two? Four? At least most of the injuries will heal in time for the players to get back before the playoffs.

§ Double-Down… Guess Trent Green gets his job back right away after all…

§ Will the real Mike Vick please stand up? I mentioned this in the comments section of another blog earlier today, but I have this theory about Mike Vick: He only plays big when the opponent is supposed to be superior. For example – against Pittsburgh & Cincinnati, he went huge. He absolutely dominated the games against what were supposed to be (at the time) playoff-caliber teams and defenses. But in the past two weeks, against Detroit & Cleveland – two teams that are playoff caliber (circa 2011), he has absolutely bombed. Guess which two weeks I started him in my fantasy football leagues?

n College Football… Two things to touch on:

§ So, apparently there’s a big college game this weekend, something about an age-old rivalry. I haven’t seen much coverage on it yet – hopefully the local beat reporters will manage to sneak a paragraph or two into the paper this week… By the way – I’m a Michigan fan. I would recommend against trying to contact me in any way whatsoever from about one hour before kickoff until one hour after the game ends, no matter the outcome.

§ Rutgers is already the feel-good story of the year, if not decade, in college football. But how about this stat – currently, the BCS Computers have them ranked as the #2 team in the country (they’re 6^th overall in the BCS standings). Yes, right now the BCS computers consider Rutgers to be a better team than Ohio State. And I can’t wipe the grin off my face…

n Basketball… Yup. I joined not one, but two fantasy basketball leagues this year, just for the hell of it. There was a time when I really enjoyed watching the NBA, and I still love college hoops. I just wanted a reason to follow the league again, so hopefully this will be it.

n Hockey… Just kidding.

So I think I’ve hit most of the topics of the day/weekend. I’ll repost tomorrow with my weekly Rants & Ranks. Comment/E-Mail as needed, if you feel like it.

Lata.

posted by Big D @ 7:51 PM