They lost Johan Santana, in whom they had little interest at the start and none at all once the New York Yankees pulled out. Now, the Boston Red Sox have found out on the eve of spring training that Curt Schilling could be done which means they'll enter 2008 where they were two months ago: as favourites to win the American League East.
The truth is the Red Sox entered the winter believing that Schilling and Tim Wakefield would essentially fill one spot in their rotation. Wisely, they'd pencilled in Jon Lester as their third starter and felt that between Justin Masterson, Clay Buchholz, Kyle Snyder and Julian Tavarez they'd be good to go. And remember: general manager Theo Epstein still has all those bargaining chips that kept being linked in Santana trade rumours. It's clear how this will pay out: knowing that the New York Yankees are in the middle of a transition involving their own pitching staff, Epstein figures time is on his side. The Cleveland Indians will need to make C.C. Sabathia the highest-paid pitcher in baseball in order to keep him away from free agency. The Red Sox will be players in any trade rumours involving Sabathia. And Epstein has already laid some groundwork with the Oakland Athletics Billy Beane for a deal involving Joe Blanton, remnants of discussions the clubs had about Dan Haren before Haren was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
(That could have implications for Etobicoke, Ont.'s, Joey Votto. How? The Cincinnati Reds have been talking about Blanton, too, and Votto is a batter who is high on the Athletics list.)
At any rate, here's what Schilling had to say about the matter on his website. He also lets us know he voted for John McCain in the Republican primaries which, you know, sort of figures. Not the worst choice he could have made, frankly.
* I'm going to engage in a little clarification regarding the Blue Jays using an on-line sales pitch to sell single-game tickets in April to fans in Detroit and Boston. The plan does NOT include the April 4 Home Opener against the Red Sox, which will sell out. The Blue Jays will use MLB Advanced Media's consumer list to sell tickets to Red Sox's fans for games on April 5-6. Predictably, the Blue Jays decision has generated some comment (not all of it complimentary) but I think it's a smart marketing move by the team, one that has no downside. As president and chief executive officer Paul Godfrey says, the team can monitor sales and make adjustments in order to keep their own fans happy. In-stadium revenue and on-line revenue have supplanted television as prime revenue generators for Major League teams. This seems like a happy marriage of the two;
* as someone who has been lucky enough to cover Pedro Martinez on a daily basis - and has travelled to the Dominican Republic during winter ball season - I wouldn't worry too much about on-line footage of he and Juan Marichal being in attendance at a cock-fight in their homeland and being seen to release two birds into the right to fight.
(This isn't Michael Vick. There are moral issues about animal cruelty as there are in bullfighting, but cock-fighting is legal in the Dominican Republic. Still, it's a mis-step by Martinez and Marichal, the latter of whom is a Hall of Famer and also a former minister in the Dominican government. Martinez has already made a statement apologizing and my guess is he'll cut a cheque to somebody like PETA and it will all be done. But commissioner Bud Selig needs to move on this matter because several Major League players and officials spend time in the Dominican Republic;
* What do Monica Lewinsky and Brian McNamee have in common? They kept the DNA evidence, apparently, and according to this New York Daily News story legal experts think it could be used as evidence in a court of law. It remains to be seen whether McNamee's collection of bloody gauze and syringes will have the same impact as Lewinsky's blue dress, but Clemens, who is off to D.C. next Wednesday for his date with Congress, spent the last part of this week doing some intensive lobbying on Capitol Hill. Don't know what to make of this: one minute I'm convinced the Rocket's guilty, the next minute I wonder why he's pushing this matter so much. Like I said on Bob McCown's show on Wednesday: my sense is at the end, it's going to come down to Andy Pettitte, one of the few players to come out and simply admit the charges against him in the Mitchell Report. He'll either give Clemens some breathing room ... or bury him. Either way, conventional wisdom is that Clemens is going to have a 'Mark McGwire' moment: one of those 'I'm not here to talk about the past,' things ...
MacLeod and I are off to Florida next week. I'll be making a pit stop in D.C. for the Congressional dog and pony show, and then we'll ramp up the on-line coverage during midweek. Look for more in-game blogs this spring and, as always, your comments and emails are appreciated.
