Shots In The Dark: Are the Sox the new Evil Empire?

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

Are the Sox the new Evil Empire?

The Boston Red Sox have just paid $51.1 million to the Seibu Lions of Japan for the right to negotiate to sign pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, and they will have to pay tens of millions more to sign him.

I'm not saying this is a bad move, because Red Sox GM Theo Epstein is a smart guy and doesn't throw money away lightly.

But...

I'd much rather sign a young pitcher and have him develop—on the cheap—than sign up an expensive free agent, as they have a way of turning out to be busts. Especially pitchers.

And...

Can we now never hear another word from Red Sox fans to the effect that the Yankees are the best team money can buy? The Yankee offer to negotiate with Matsuzaka was somewhere around $25 million...and they also just dumped Gary Sheffield ($13 million annually) and got three (cheap!) minor-league pitchers in return.

Fiscal sanity in New York? Free-spending in Boston? It feels sort of strange...but I think I like it.

¶ 12:00 PM

Comments:

Fear the open checkbook, I say.

# posted by Anonymous : 5:47 PM

No, I'm still gonna say that about the money. This 50 aside--and I agree that's ridiculous--we'll see what the annual payroll is next year. I'm sure it'll still be over 200 mil for the Yanks and probably, what, 130 mil for the Sox. I'm not saying New York always has the best team, I'm saying I'd like that problem. I'm saying I could do better with 200 mil. That's why I'll continue to knock 'em for it.

# posted by Anonymous : 10:59 PM

Wait a second—"this fifty aside"? That's pretty convenient of you. Why don't you just throw it in there—because, after all, it is essentially payroll—and say that the Yankees and the Red Sox payrolls are pretty much even?

# posted by richard : 11:35 PM

You'd probably want to amortize the posting fee over the life of the contract rather than counting it all as part of the 2007 payroll. That being said, it's a bit of a joke when the team with one of the top 2 or 3 payrolls in all of baseball cries about how unfair it is to have to compete against the team with the biggest payroll.

# posted by Anonymous : 1:21 AM

Who's crying. I'm just doing my duty, continuing to point out the underachievements of the evil ones. Never said it was unfair. Said I would continue to knock 'em for it. And you're point is ok from the perspective that the average team payroll is more like 50-60 mil, but having 70 or 80 mil between number 1 and number 2 is embarrassing. That's a whole team between the two. That's not a joke--not unless you're a pinstripe zombie.

# posted by Anonymous : 7:27 AM

I said the team had been known to cry about the Yankees payroll, not you. I was referring to Theo's comments this past summer. And yes, it's probably not fair thst the Yankees are able to spend $60 million more than the # 2 team, it's just that the # 2 team should probably be the last one to be doing the crying given that they too are spending outliers.

# posted by Anonymous : 9:10 AM

About Me