The Red Sox brass deamed it necessary, or imperative or intelligent to bid 51.1 (More than the initial 42 reported) million dollars for the rights to talk with Scott Boras, aka the Devil, in order to bring Daisuke Matsuzaka into the Red Sox fold. Now with the bidding set in stone and the Seibu Lions likely to accept tomorrow a few points need to be made on how this is a good move for the Sox and a few questions can be risen.~If as good as advertised Matsuzaka would bring the Red Sox a dynamic 1-2-3 punch in the rotation, and possibly 1-2-3-4 if indeed Papelbon is placed in the rotation and performs as well as he did in the closer role. That certainly would make the Red Sox a difficult playoff opponent, although Jeff Weaver was a stud this postseason, maybe you build teams around waiver wire wonders.
~The Red Sox came out and said that they couldn't compete with the Dollar Churning machine that is the New York Yankees. Now we can establish this as a blatant lie. Instead of signing a proven major league talent like Barry Zito or Jason Schmidt for a similar contract, the Red Sox went out and apparently well over bid all other teams and are basically handing away 42 million dollars with no return in addition to paying a top flight contract. The moral of this story is the Red Sox have boatloads of cash, the sell out every game and they're fan base spans and dominates much of 6 states. Don't ever complain about money again or say you can't sign anybody you want.
~Here's something I do not know, how much a figure is Daisuke in his home country? Basically, what kind of influence will he have in merchandising for the Boston Red Sox in the far east. Is he more Ichiro Suzuki, quiet, reserved, great but not the Japanese favorite or is he closer to Matsui, Japanese hero, outgoing, energetic? While Matsui had a big time advantage having played for the Yomuri Giants, Tokyo's team the biggest and most storied Japanese squad, Daisuke was the hero of the Japanese WBC championship. Maybe that made him a hero in Japan. The Red Sox certainly, if their intent is to sign him are banking on establishing themselves in the eyes of Japanese fans.
~What kind of contract is Satan, I mean Boras, looking for? Upwards of 10 mill a year? For how long? How do you estimate market value for a pitcher who's only 26 lit up the Japanese league with a 2.13 ERA this year and was the MVP of the WBC. Will he be asking for similar numbers he will be for Zito? If so this could be more expensive per year for the Sox than Arod is for the Yanks.~Anyone think that the Red Sox just might have thrown out a huge bid to guarantee the rights to talk to Matsuzaka with the intention of offering him a salary not market value, seeing if he will sign it, and if he doesn't feel just fine knowing they blocked the evil empire from getting him for atleast a year with no consequences. I think this is a mighty possibility, something Steinbrenner would do to the Sox if he thought of it first.
Comments