Potentially Huge

ESPN.com reported on Thursday that the Red Sox and Twins have discussed a potential deal in which center fielder Coco Crisp, left-hander Jon Lester and promising Minor League shortstop Jed Lowrie would head to Minnesota along with one other prospect in exchange for Santana.

Can you imagine the Beckett-Santana KO? I am all for this man coming to Boston, as long as Pedroia and Ellsbury don't leave because of it. Coco, man, I love him and I think he is underrated (well, defensively anyway!) but Santana would be a really huge get.

Adding more intrigue to the story is the fact that the Yankees -- the Red Sox's chief rivals -- are also in hot pursuit of Santana. The Angels are another team to have expressed interest.

Another plus to getting him--our rivals won't.

Also in the news: There are some procedural matters to take care of, such as deciding whether to offer salary arbitration to six free agents from the 2007 team.
The Red Sox have until 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday to make that decision on Mike Timlin, Eric Gagne, Matt Clement, Bobby Kielty, Eric Hinske and Doug Mirabelli.

Surely we will be hearing about that soon enough. What to do about Gagne? Hope this season was a fluke, I guess?!

More Awards for Boston Players

A good thing happened to a good kid yesterday:

Jon Lester received the 2007 Tony Conigliaro Award, which is given annually to a Major League player who has "overcome adversity through the attributes of spirit, determination and courage."

Now, there is the story of Lester, whose rookie season of 2006 was cut short after he was diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Lester received six chemotherapy treatments before beating the cancer. And the end of his 2007 season was nothing short of storybook.

"It was great," said Lester. "Just with the struggles that I went through this year, just to regain confidence in my stuff and my command and mechanics and where I was at physically, it was great. You couldn't have asked for a better ending. It's always good to go out on top."

That's the only newsworthy item I have. :( I do not like the offseason very much.

Just in Case

Just in case you were interested in seeing The Devil, here you go (the one on the left, of course):


He apparently uses the alias 'Scott Boras' in his everyday life. Watch out.

Go Pete

This is just a cute story that is nice to read on a lazy Sunday: Jacoby goes home
Lots of new Sox fans in Oregon for sure.

And because it deserves a mention, Pete Sampras beat Federer the other day in an exhibition match. I only post this because Pete was my favorite player from the time I started paying attention to tour tennis (probably when I was about 8) until the day he retired. Then came Ferrero. But the point is, I love this man and I don't care if it was only an exhibition, and Federer just came off a tournament win, it doesn't matter because there is a 10 year age difference and Pete is "old." Yay Sampras! He kept getting closer to winning, as you can see from the scores from the 3 matches they played: He lost the first 6-4, 6-3, almost won the second 7-6, 7-6, then won the final 7-6, 6-4. Good scores for the old man!

This is Fear

Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury could wind up being sent to the Minnesota Twins in a deal for vaunted lefty Johan Santana.

This is the kind of craziness I wake up to. I check my email first thing, of course, and I get Remy's Today in Sports email. Usually I skip right over it (hey it's the offseason) but I saw Pedroia and Ellsbury in the title and had to read it. So this is what I get?!?

They wouldn't trade my two favorite players...right? Because I'll be honest with you, I might be tempted to walk out on them if they did that. Every year that I announce my favorite, he goes. I thought I was safe with DP, and if they let him go...watch out!

Anyone Surprised?/LOWELL

Why?? Player, Club	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	Points
Alex Rodriguez, NYY	26	2									328
Magglio Ordonez, DET	2	22	4								258
Vladimir Guerrero, LAA		3	10	9	3	3					203
David Ortiz, BOS		1	11	6	3		3	2	1		177
Mike Lowell, BOS			1	6	2	7	4	3	2		126
Jorge Posada, NYY				3	4	6	6	3	1	2	112
Victor Martinez, CLE				1	7	5	4	2	3	1	103
Ichiro Suzuki, SEA				1	6	2	5	3	3	1	89
Carlos Pena, TB			2			2	2	3	8	5	64
Curtis Granderson, DET				1	2	1		5	1	10	51
Derek Jeter, NYY					1	1	1		1		17
Grady Sizemore, CLE						1		1	3	1	15
J.J. Putz, SEA				1				1	1		12
C.C. Sabathia, CLE							1	1	2		11
Torii Hunter, MIN								1	1		5
Orlando Cabrera, LAA								1		2	5
Bobby Abreu, NYY							1				4
John Lackey, LAA							1				4
Placido Polanco, DET								1		1	4
Justin Morneau, MIN								1			3
Chone Figgins, LAA									1	1	3
Josh Beckett, BOS										2	2
Fausto Carmona, CLE										1	1
Frank Thomas, TOR										1	1

Do you all see where Lowell finished? Behind Ortiz, who I didn't even consider. Vlad? I love ya, but you are not the MVP. Ordonez? Who? A-Rod? But I don't like him!

Why don't they ask me before they make these decisions?

Actually, I'm somewhat happy Lowell finished so high. I didn't think anyone but me (and the fans in the stands during that one postseason game) thought he should be MVP.

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More important than that award, Mike Lowell will be back!! For 3 years!! YAY!

Multiple news outlets -- including ESPN.com, the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe -- reported on Monday afternoon that Lowell and the Red Sox have agreed in principle on a three-year deal that is believed to be worth between $36-$38 million.

They won't announce it until tomorrow, but we all know it now--things are right in Boston.

Yay!!!!!

Wrong Choice

Sabathia was listed first on 19 of 28 ballots cast by two writers in each AL city and totaled 119 voting points. Beckett received eight first-place votes and the Angels' John Lackey received one.

Beckett losing the Cy Young to Sabathia is the most perfect example I can think of as to why postseason performances NEED to be taken into consideration when deciding on these end-of-season awards. Because seriously...

Beckett owned Sabathia in the ALCS. TWICE.

And A-Rod will "most likely" get the MVP over Lowell. A man who contributed nothing to his team in the postseason vs. a man who won the WS MVP. And that first guy is picked to win?

How good can you be if your team doesn't make it to the postseason, or if you lose in the LDS?

I question how these things are decided. I am still really thrilled about Pedroia, but I am seriously disappointed that Beckett, who should have won, didn't.

--------------------------

P.S. FINALLY! Youkilis shaved that horrible beard off (for charity of course)! You cannot tell me he doesn't look a million times better now:

YAAAYYYYY

Pedroia is (AL) Rookie of the Year! Yay!!!!!!!

He was listed first on 24 of the 28 ballots submitted by two writers in each league city and second on the other four to total 132 points. The Rays' Delmon Young finished second behind Pedroia with 56 points. HE DESTROYED THE COMPETITION!

Congratulations DP, now everyone will know why you're my favorite!

Just call him The Winner

Like I Needed Another Reason to Love Pedroia

The awesomest man:

Pedroia played the final two months of the 2007 season with a cracked hamate bone in his left hand, The Boston Herald reported on Saturday. Pedroia told the newspaper that he didn't know when the injury occurred, only that an MRI and bone scan on Sept. 10 revealed the break.

The rookie second baseman played in 30 games after the injury was discovered...

Compare: Wily Mo Pena missed nearly two months for the Red Sox in 2006 with a fractured hamate.

Yeah, love him.

Mikey Lowell Stuff

I had another one of those Red Sox nightmares last night: Mike Lowell was a Yankee.

Thankfully, I have more faith in Lowell than I did in Damon, and I don't think Mike would do that. He seems a little less...umm...stupid, than Damon (can't think of a better word?). Plus, my dreams never mean anything (the night before last, I dreamt I was about to be killed by Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th before I convinced him we would make a good team, I'd break into houses and he would do his thing. I'm a weird bird).

So there's not much to tell, just Theo meeting with people and attempting to get some deals done. Every day I come home and hope Lowell has agreed to stay with us another year or so, and so far I've been disappointed. It will happen though. Maybe on the same day he is announced MVP!

Schilling's Back

Curt Schilling signed a one-year deal worth $8 million that could be worth as much as $14 million should he reach all the incentives in the package. That's good, hopefully he will have another good year...but maybe with a better win-loss record.

In other news, Kevin Youkilis won a Gold Glove for his awesomeness at first base. It was expected and totally deserved. He only had like 429088 consecutive error-free games...or something like that. Where is Lowell's, though?

Days I'm looking forward to:
11/12: Pedroia wins AL Rookie of the Year
11/13: Beckett wins the AL Cy Young
11/14: Lowell wins AL MVP

Yes, they will all win. Well, they SHOULD.

Strange Look

Not Sox-related, but....how weird does this look?

Manny and David

Yeah, okay, so I'm a little behind. I just watched Ramirez on Leno and Ortiz on Conan (never realized what a huge Sox fan Conan is) and Live, and it pretty much doesn't get any better when Steve Carell and Jerry Seinfeld are the other guests! I love seeing the players in non-baseball situations, and getting Manny, Papi, and Papelbon is great fun.

Funny=
Manny: "Are you related to Kevin Youkilis? You guys have the same chin."
Jay: "My dad got around, I'll check."

Also funny=
Ortiz showing off his bedazzled jacket, just for Papelbon.

You cannot dislike these men!

I Guessed in Error

So much for my Wakefield theory -- Tim and Julian Tavarez will be back next year. Their options were picked up for '08.

Good News on the Pitching Front

John Farrell, the man who led the best group of pitchers the Red Sox have seen in years, has agreed to return next year: The highly respected pitching coach will return to the World Series champions in 2008. This, after Farrell turned down an opportunity to meet with the Pittsburgh Pirates regarding their managerial vacancy.

This is really great news, when you consider that for once, our pitching is a strength instead of a weakness.

Hope you all got to see Papelbon on Letterman a couple nights ago--just reaffirmed my belief that he would be a lot of fun to hang out with!

What else? Mirabelli filed for free agency, which presents a problem for Wakefield. Of course, he wasn't that great this year with the bat, but we've seen what happens when a catcher not named Doug tries to catch Wakefield. Maybe we could just replace Tim? Now begins the Waiting Game, I guess.

I would like to mention that Eric Gagne filed for free agency as well. But I'm not too concerned about that, strangely enough...