Re-Sign Jason Bay? Now...Later....When?

The American League All-Star voting has been coming out for the past few weeks now, and there seems to only be one or two sure things for the starting line-up. One being Catcher Joe Mauer and the other being our very own Left Fielder, no not that guy, Jason Bay. According to the latest results Bay leads all outfielders by a little more than 1 million votes. Some of this may be attributed to his spectacular season or Red Sox nation stepping up to the computer and voting hard. Either way there is no doubt that come July 14Th Jason Bay will be the American League teams starting Left Fielder in St.Louis.

A much more difficult question however is whether or not Jason Bay will remain a Boston Red Sox beyond this season. Bay's current contract has him making a whopping 7.5 million dollars (insert sarcasm here). He will become a free agent after this season where he will no doubt be one of the top free agent outfielders available especially if he continues hitting like he has this season. Prior to this season the Red Sox and Bays agent exchanged figures and had brief contract discussion which ended with the Red Sox saying they needed a better read on the economy before continuing discussion and Bay saying the he was not moving from his figure, while also having a healthy respect for the Red Sox point of view. The figures that were exchanged were said to have the Red Sox sitting somewhere between 3 years 30 million and 3 years 33 million, while Bay was believed to be looking for something similar to J. D. Drew's 5 year 70 Million dollar contract. While the two sides were seemingly far apart during those discussions it appears as though the Red Sox may be warming to the idea of playing Mr. Bay in or around the range of 15 million per season. The real sticking point here will be the years in the contract. Bay is a relatively young guy at the age of 30; he may not be worth 5 or 6 years for the Red Sox who appear to be content with signing people in that 3 to 4 year range but have consistently turned the other way in negotiations when the 5Th season has been in play. See Derek Lowe, Pedro Martinez and Johnny Damon. The only person that the Red Sox have recently been willing to go those extra years was Mark Teixeira, who we all know signed for more money elsewhere. While we may never know exactly how the Red Sox value Jason Bay, the two sides have agreed to begin discussing a contract extension over the All-Star break this season while Jason is hopefully leading the American League to a victory and providing us with home field advantage in this upcoming post season.

Jason Bay is currently hitting 269 with 19 Homeruns and 69 Runs Batted In, which puts him on pace for final season totals around 269 with 47 homeruns and 147 Runs Batted In, which would be career highs in homeruns and RBI's. For my money, I would sign Bay to a 4 year 60 Million dollar contract which would put him at a 15 million dollar annual salary, and I definitely would not wait for our rivals in New York to get involved.

Jonathan Papelbon

Jonathan Papelbon only needed three pitches to record his 19th save of the season tonight. What you may not have known about this save is that he has tied Bob Stanley for most saves in a Red Sox uniform with 132.

Papelbon's talent has never been in question since he made his major league debut as a starter in 2005. Although Papelbon has struggled at times this season he remains second in the American League in saves and a shoe in to make the All-Star team, an honor that has been bestowed upon him in each of the last three seasons. The future seems bright for this 28 year-old closer, however whether it is in a Red Sox uniform remains to be seen. Papelbon has gone on record as saying he would like to set the bar for closer's salaries across baseball, while the Red Sox have a long history of not setting the bar at any position especially with a closing prospect like Daniel Bard just biding his time.

USA Vs. Brazil

The USA squandered a two goal lead, falling to Brazil 3-2 in the Confederations Cup Final. Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan scored for the US and Luis Fabiano scored twice for Brazil before Lucio, was able to net the game winner in the 83rd minute.

Tim Wakefield and the All-Star Team

Tim Wakefield and Roger Clemens in the same sentence, no not for that reason, with todays start Wakefield tied Clemens for most starts in Red Sox history with 382. Also in today’s start Wake became just the third pitcher in the American League to win 10 games so far this season. The 42 year-old knuckleballer is making a serious case to make his first All-Star team in his lengthy career. Despite starting the 1995 season with a 14-1 record and an era under two in his first 17 games in which he pitched total of 6 complete games. The ultimate question that remains for his All-Star candidacy this season is whether or not he has outpitched his own teammate in Josh Beckett who at times this season ha looked like he is the most dominate pitchers in the game. The two starters’ stats are similar and both have made 15 starts to this point.

Beckett- 98 1/3 IP 1 CG 32 BB 94 K 3.48 Era 9-3
Wakefield- 94 2/3 IP 2 CG 36 BB 50 K 4.18 Era 10-3

Just from looking at the stats you can see that despite a shaky start Beckett has the obvious edge in strikeouts and Era, while the veteran Wakefield has more complete games and an extra win. Both have pitched similar innings and have yielded almost the same amount of walks with both categories leaning very slightly towards Beckett. Last seasons All-Star team took just 6 starters and 6 relievers, the following is who to this point appear to have All-Star numbers.

Starters
Roy Halladay: 10-1 2.53
Kevin Slowey: 10-3 4.41
Zach Greinke: 9-3 1.90
Jered Weaver: 8-3 2.65
Felix Hernandez: 7-3 2.74

Relievers Saves
Brian Fuentes- 21
Bobby Jenks- 18
Joe Nathan- 18
Jonathan Papelbon- 19
Mariano Rivera- 17

Those pitchers do not include any of the Red Sox starters, although there are still two spots available for pitchers. However what the causal fan may not fully understand is that Joe Maddon the American League manager must select a player from every American League team which may end up costing one of either Beckett or Wakefield a spot on this years All-Star roster.

For my money the Tim Wakefield selection would make for a much better story given his long prosperous career and 0 all-star selections to this point. However I do believe that Josh Beckett has been the better pitcher and deserves the selection more based upon this season production but who knows, maybe they will both make it. We must also not forget that there is a lot of time between now and the July 14 game and some of the above may falter just enough to get our boys on the squad.

NHL Trade

The Florida Panthers have traded All-Star defensemen Jay Boumeester to the Calagary Flames for Jordan Leopold and a 2009 3rd Round selection.

The interesting thing about this trade is that both Boumeester and Leopold are unrestricted free agents. The trade allows both teams an extra four days of exclusive negotiating rights to their respective player. Boumeester is widely regarded as the best available defensemen in this years free agent class.

NHL Draft

The NHL Draft has come and gone with little excitement coming out of Boston. Despite being involved in trade rumors all day Phil Kessel is still a member of the Black and Gold. The only news out of Boston today was their selection of Jordan Caron an eighteen year-old Quebec League Right Wing prospect. Who is a hard shooter and according to Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli, ''He has a lot of those tendencies I've talked about wanting, He has size and he can get after the puck.'' Don't expect Caron to help the B's this season however, he is not expected to be NHL ready until at least two seasons from now.

In other news around the NHL the New York Islanders selected John Tavares, who is supposed to be a prolific scorer and was widely looked at as the best prospect in this Draft.

On the trade front and perhaps the biggest news of the day, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks traded veteran defensemen and perennial All-Star Defensemen Chris Pronger to the Philadelphia Flyers for forward Joffrey Lupul, defensemen Luca Sbissa an two future first round selections. Going to Philly with Pronger will be minor league forward Ryan Dingle. Pronger was one of the many veteran names that were seen on the trade market today and was one moved.

Looking forward it would appear as though the Bruins are trying to move Kessel rather than attempting to re-sign him. It was believed that the Bruins extended him a qualifying offer this past week and it is my opinion that he did not think very highly of their offer leading the Bruins to seek out a trade. The window of possibility for Tomas Kaberle to be the return may have closed earlier tonight, given his no-trade clause after the NHL Draft has taken place. Toronto is only given a certain amount of time to deal him given the way his contract is structured. It appears to me as though the Bruins are willing to deal Kessel but for a top four defensemen, which in the NHL are hard to come by.

UPDATED: Boston Bruins Trade Rumor

Tonight is the annual NHL Draft and what would a draft day be without a little trade talk speculation. The Bruins have been reported to have offered Restricted Free Agent Phil Kessel and a future 2nd round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for All-Star Defensemen Thomas Kaberle. If any thing further comes of this deal I will be providing instant updates and analysis.

6:27 PM- According to TSN.Ca The deal mentioned above is currently on hold and may even be dead citing major miscommunication between the two sides. Apparently the Bruins thought that they would also be receiving the 7Th overall pick in tonight's draft along with the All-Star Kaberle. It appears as though the Maple Leafs were never willing to do that.

Michael Jackson

Yesterday the self-proclaimed King of Pop passed away. Although his legacy may have been a little tainted, he will forever be in our hearts with the music he made and the influences he made on the music we hear to this day.

R.I.P Michael Jackson

USA/Spain Vs. USA/Russia

Yes, I know this is about a soccer game but after listening to some of what other people had to say I felt I needed to voice my opinion on the subject. First off, I would like to congratulate the Men's team on beating the #1 team in soccer and a team that was undefeated in their last 39 matches. However if you think that this is even remotely close to the 1980 Men’s hockey team upset of Mother Russia then you are either delusional or just not an intelligent sports fan. This game will be forgotten about in less than a week and maybe even tomorrow given the fact that people will most likely be talking about the NBA Draft for the rest of the week. Wait before I move on can we examine that for a second.... The NBA DRAFT is going to come before this game on Thursday’s edition of Sport center. Why, because no one in this country cares about soccer. When the 1980 hockey team beat the Russians the whole country was in an uproar. For those of you who are not familiar with the 1980 Olympics, Russia's Hockey team was the single greatest team ever in the history of hockey. To say that they were dominant would not be giving them enough credit. They won the Olympic gold medal in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976, not to mention disgracing the NHL players by routing them in an exhibition game referred to as the Challenge Cup. They were the best at what they did. The USA team on the other hand was made up of college kids who had never played together before but had a visionary coach in the late Herb Brooks. In an exhibition prior to the Lake Placid Olympics the United States fell to the Soviet Union (Russia) by a score of 10-3. Did anyone even know this soccer game was on?

The USA defeating Russia was the single greatest upset in sports history and to hear some very respected radio voices discussing this comparison was both disheartening and made me realize that it really was that slow of a sports week.

Interleague Play

Interleague play began in 1997 when the Texas Rangers hosted the San Francisco Giants. Since then teams from both leagues have been meeting in the middle of the season somewhere between 12 and 18 times a season pending upon scheduling. Interleague play like most things has its pros and cons, and sure enough every year around this time sparks the same debate about whether or not there should even be a DH in baseball or whether the two leagues are unbalanced.

Some Pros to the game having Interleague play are simple and can be broken down into the one thing. It attracts a bigger and wider audience to games. Even in economic time like this the Nationals just sold out all three games against the Boston Red Sox. Yes, that’s right I said the Nationals, a team on an average night that would not be able to draw half the crowd the have the past two nights. Another Pro for fans is that they get to see different teams come into town and play their hometown team. For instance I was fortunate enough to go to a Mets-Red Sox game earlier this year and watch David Wright and Carlos Beltran play at Fenway Park. That is something that I have never seen before and drew me to purchase a ticket to that particular series. Not to mention the amount of signs and people chanting about the 1986 World Series made the atmosphere electric at the ballpark. The last Pro that I will mention is that Major League Baseball is allowed to exploit the two teams two cities market, by setting up games between "rivals" like the Chicago White Sox and The Chicago Cubs the battle of north and south has been drawing major interest across the baseball world since the beginning of Interleague play. Another "rivalry" that gets used a lot is the Subway Series between the Yankees and Mets. These two teams have been battling for fan ship in New York for as long as baseball has existed.

Now for some Cons, the glaring Con is that the pitchers who have never batted before in the Major Leagues are forced to step up to the plate and take some hacks. Now occasionally we are blessed with a mistake, like Josh Beckett's home run in Philly but for the most part you either see a poorly executed bunt or a disgusting strikeout. I understand that this is part of the National League game but some of these American League pitchers have not hit since High School, never mind run the bases. Not all of these pitchers were like Micah Owings who played the Outfield in college. Next would be the un-even balance in talent. I understand that the pendulum of power swings from the AL to the NL, but recently the American League has simply been dominating the National League to the point of where the American league now had a 70 game advantage in the win-loss column. Lastly for the Cons I would be remiss to not mention the unbalanced teams in the two leagues which often leagues to strength of schedule questions for some teams.

In conclusion, for my money Interleague Play is worth the occasional ugly at-bat by a pitcher because of the way it opens the fans up to see both sides of the game. Not only does it open up their perspective from the stands but they can also relate to how difficult it is to manage in the two leagues and watch the different styles of play.

On a side note John Smoltz will be taking the mound for the Sox tonight for the first time in 21years without an Atlanta Braves Jersey on. For those of you keeping score at home I was 7 months old when Smoltz made his major league debut.

Manny Ramirez and the MLB Drug Policy

Now batting for the Albuquerque Isotopes number 99 Manny Ramirez. Wait; is this the same Manny Ramirez that violated the leagues performance enhancing drug policy? Ironically enough I thought that when the league said it was a 50 game suspension that it would actually be 50 games before we had the "pleasure" of seeing Manny play again.

Now to be fair Manny is not the first player to go on a rehabilitation assignment prior to fulfilling his suspension. J.C. Romero did the same thing before returning to the Phillies a season ago, but how are we as fans suppose to take this suspension seriously if the man isn't actually SUSPENDED! It is a joke a mockery to the game. Something else that was brought to my attention today which is even more of a joke that Manny being able to play prior to the 51st game of his suspension is that if a minor league player not on the Major League teams 40 man roster tests positive for PED's he is allowed to be called up and play in the Majors. To put all that simply if Daniel Bard, who was not on the Red Sox 40 man roster at the beginning of the season, had tested positive for PED's the Red Sox could still have called him up and had him pitch for the big team. How ridiculous is that? If Manny Ramirez or anyone else who tests positive for performance enhancing drugs is not major league ready to play on that aforementioned 51st game then tough. Send him to the minors then and please don't give me the sob story about how the Dodgers or any other team will have to pay them their major league salary again because they are no longer suspended. It is the team’s faults that they did not do enough back round research on their free agent acquisitions or have a strong enough in house policy.

I completely understand that the drug policy had to be agreed upon by the owners and the players and the commissioner but how hard is it to understand that 50 games is 50 games. The man cheated! He took a drug that made him a better baseball player. Sammy Sosa and others may be kept out of the Hall of Fame because of this but we can not get Manny Ramirez back on the field fast enough. The Albuquerque Isotopes sold an extra 7,000 tickets when people found out Manny Ramirez would be in the line-up tonight and that is great for baseball from a revenue stand point but the commissioners office needs to have some back bone on a topic like this. Manny has been practicing and hanging around the club house almost everyday of his suspension and the leaving right before the game so he does not violate the rules. The real question is why is he allowed in the clubhouse in the first place? In all other major sports if you test positive you can not even be on the team’s facilities let alone practice and take batting practice.

This is an issue that the Commissioners office needs to take a stronger look at.

Daisuke Matsuzaka

To the appeasement of most people in Red Sox nation Dice-K was placed on the disabled list for the near future yesterday, citing a weak shoulder. Given his recent struggles the decision appeared to be an easy one for the Red Sox brass and may have put their surplus pitching problem on hold for the time being.

Now may not the be the best time to evaluate the decision by the Red Sox to go out and sign the Right Hander but I thought that I would put my two cents in on the subject. For those of you not familiar with how Dice-K became a Red Sox let me familiarize you with the process that took place in the winter of 2006. On November 2nd, 2006 the Seibu Lions granted Dice-K permission to pursue a career in Major League Baseball via the posting system, the posting system allows Dice-K's former team to be compensated for letting him go, the winner of the posting fee is granted 30 days to negotiate a contract with the player being posted. The Red Sox of course won these rights on November 14th by bidding 51, 111, 1111 Million dollars which outbid the New York Mets, New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers. Having won the rights the Red Sox were now allowed to negotiate with Dice-K and his agent Scott Boras. Exactly 30 days after the negotiations began Dice-K was on a plane with the Red Sox brass, his agent and members of the media signing a 6 year-52 Million Dollar contract with an initial 2 Million dollar signing bonus. This was no doubt a strong investment by the Boston Red Sox and a move that will be scrutinized and questioned until the final day of Dice-K's contract.

Was it the right move?

The acquisition no doubt proved successful in its first year when the Red Sox defeated the Colorado Rockies in the World Series, bringing Boston its second world title in the last four seasons. Mr. Matsuzaka posted a 15-12 record in the regular season and was also 2-0 in the post season. While 15-12 was not exactly what Red Sox nation was hoping we held back criticism due to the overall teams’ success. Moving into 2008 expectations were through the roof. He had already played a season in the majors and did not have to worry about the World Baseball Classic prior to spring training. This was the year for Dice-K to prove to all of u fans that he belonged in the majors. He did not disappoint. Dice-K went 18-3 with an Era of 2.90. On the other hand he pitched the least amount of innings of any pitcher in major league history that had won 18 games. His slow delivery and tendency for getting himself into trouble with his walks did not exactly impress the Red Sox fans everywhere. However they were impressed with his .211 batting average against and his ability to win games. A fun fact about the 2008 season was that Dice-K was 11-1 when he walked three batters or less in his starts. He finished in the top 5 in CY Young voting, but failed to produce the World Series championship at the end of the season. All that brings us to the Dice-K we see before us today, an injured pitcher on he disabled list for the foreseeable future. Dice-K continued to struggle this year with his command but unlike last season could not wiggle out of trouble in the same David Copperfield like manner. Answering the aforementioned question of whether or not Dice-K was a good investment is as I said before a question that can not be answered until the end of his contract and we see the whole body of work. However as it stands right now I would have to say that the acquisition ha proven to be a success. I mean the guy won 33 games in his first two major league seasons and helped us win a world title. How many guys can you say that about in their first two major league seasons? Not many. Sure it’s frustrating to watch him walk the bases loaded but isn’t it more fun to see him wiggle out of it? I for one am certain hat this team will need Dice-k down the stretch this year in order to complete their ultimate goal of winning a World Series Championship. Does anyone remember Derek Lowe in 2004? He was cast out of the rotation and looked at as a liability until the playoffs where we all remember him as the winning pitcher for every series.

Oh, and one last thing, can we please end all of this Dice-K to the bullpen talk. It already takes him an hour to warm up, and he can not throw strikes as a starter what makes you think that him pitching in the bullpen would be a good idea?

Rajon Rondo and The Boston Celtics

First off I would like to say Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers out there. I hope each and every one of you are able to take a piece of your day to spend some quality time with your son or daughter.

Now for the post. We are going to move on from baseball for the time being and shift gears in to the Boston Celtics. The Boston Celtics have been the subject of some controversial trade rumors over the past few weeks involving various teams and players. One player who's name seemingly never stops coming up is staring point guard Rajon Rondo. The most recent rumor involving Mr. Rondo was a trade that would send him and Ray Allen to the Phoenix Suns in return for Amare Stoudamire and Leandro Barbossa. This trade seems more likely to happen in a video game than in real life but I thought i would take some time to analyze this trade from both sides. As far as the Boston Celtics are concerned this trade would give the best front court in maybe NBA history. This would allow Doc to run Kendrick Perkins as the sixth man and negate Bostons need for off the bench big man help they so desperately needed against the Magic and during the season. Now don't get me wrong here i realize that without injuries to K.G. and Leon Powe these needs would not have been as glaring but the acquisition of Mikki Moore was just a flat out joke. In addition to having the outstanding front court they would also get a younger 3-point shooting threat that would no doubt get more wide open shots than anyone in history while playing with Pierce, K.G., and Stoudamire. But here in lies the problem. While the Celtics no doubt get younger in this trade they are trading away one of the best young point guards in the game, leaving your team with no point guard at all unless you think Gabe Pruitt who averaged a measly 8 minutes a game can handle this offense. Point Guard is no doubt the toughest position in the NBA to play and having one of the best and keeping Ray Allen might not be a bad thing. Now from the other side Phoenix would no doubt love to acquire Rondo for their run and gun style offense with Steve Nash on the proverbial back nine of his career. This would also free up a ton of cap room for the Suns to maneuver in what appears to be the greatest free agent class ever after the 2010 season. In addition to that they would pick up Ray Allen's expiring contract which would not only get them a productive player but it would be for nearly nothing. All in all this trade would not make sense for the Boston Celtics unless they are planning to A. Acquire a point guard in addition to this deal and B. Sign Amare to a long term deal in which he would take over the reigns for K.G. after he finishes out his contract.

Further speculation about the Boston Celtics has lead us to believe that they are looking to move up in the draft. As of now the Celtics only hold the 3rd to last pick (58Th overall). A few weeks ago they were believed to be in talks with Memphis for the #2 overall selection. Those talks ended fruitlessly and have left us to wonder who and what they would have done with that 2ND pick. It has been reported that the Celtics have offered up Kendrick Perkins straight up for that pick. As a Celtics fan I was a bit surprised to hear that and even more surprised when Memphis responded by laughing Mr. Ainge off the phone. Would even that deal have benefitted the Celtics? Maybe these two deals were a prequel to one another. If Memphis had accepted the Perkins deal would it have opened the door for the Celts to take Jonny Flynn or Ricky Rubio to play point guard and then be able to trade Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen to Phoenix? We may never know but because of all this talk I personally will be taking a closer look at the NBA Draft on Thursday night.

MLB Draft

On June 9th over a thousand college and high school players had their named called in Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft. This however was the first year in which you could see television coverage of the draft making the MLB the last of the four major sports to have their draft televised. Why didn't you know this was on? Maybe because every team in baseball had a game that night as well as the fact that it was Game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals or Game 3 of the NBA Finals. I understand that it may have been out of Bud Selig's control to have the NHL and NBA play on the same night but he certainly could have made sure his own league didn’t have a full schedule. I mean the night before there were only 2 or 3 games. The real question is would that have even helped? Other than Stephen Strasburg who has drawn every major sports media outlet to San Diego State University to see his 103 mph fastball and devastating slider there were not many known players that went this year. Out of the hand full of people who read this post I am willing to be that a very high percentage of you did not even know who the #2 overall pick was or you still may not even know as you read this today. Sure you have the local guy that were drafted that a friend of yours may have played with once or goes to the same school as that player but did you follow him? Doubtful. Moving forward into drafts in the future Major League Baseball should look into the following:

Trading Draft Picks: Every other major sport allows you to trade draft picks, why not baseball? Some say that there are too many rounds it would prolong the process of the draft. Still though maybe limit the trading to the first few rounds or the picks have to be traded before the draft. For example say the Nationals can not afford to sign Stephen Strasburg, should they not be able to trade him for players that will be cheaper and will help them now? Or the Red Sox who tend to pick in the later first round want to move up to take that can’t miss catcher or prospect that they think would help them, should they not be able to make the move up.

Slot Draft Pick Salaries: This is something that according to some sources is actually being looked into. I again bring up the Stephen Strasburg situation in which the Washington Nationals may not be able to sign him and will be forced to lose out on this "can’t miss" prospect. As it stand Major League Baseball gives all of the power to the player’s agent and leaves the teams no choice but to cooperate with the demands of agents such as Scott Boras, Arn Tellem and other negotiators. Why not slot picks like the NFL does and only allow the agents to negotiate incentives and other minute things other than the increasingly high signing bonus and year to year salary. Especially when they are hamstrung by the August 17th deadline.

Pick a Better Time: This is the only league in which the draft takes place in the middle of the season, this is actually something I agree with because it allows underclassmen to let their future or present coaches know whether or not they can expect them to be on their upcoming roster. Under this heading I would also bring up the aforementioned point of having the draft take place on a less busy night, or on the weekend for that matter. Maybe have some build up about more than one player, provide some more in depth coverage like the NFL Draft which has analysts working around the year scouting and mock drafting players.

Lastly I would like to say congratulations to Kyle Vasquez who was drafted in the 15th round by the San Francisco Giants. I have had the distinct pleasure of watching Kyle pitch for the Franklin Pierce Ravens for the past two years. I wish him the best of luck

Spam?

I am not sure of the last spam blog to post personal information like a name and where they go to school but I assure you the problem will be taken care of very shortly and I apologize for any inconvenience.

Sosa, Steroids and The Hall of Fame

First off let me just say that anyone who is on Facebook needs to become a fan of One-Nine Sports. It is run by a very intelligent sports man and personal friend Joe Al. It is a great way to debate and comment on everyday sporting topics.

Now for the post, Is anyone really surprised that Sammy Sosa was found guilty of doing steroids? I mean for a guy to stand in front of congress and say that he can not speak English when asked the question of whether or not he took them in the first place is lying. Did he think that because his lawyer said he didn't do them that he would avoid perjury? I mean not only did he test positive for steroids he used a corked bat more than once, even in that same season. Wow. Of all the names that I have heard this guy might be the least surprising of all of them. Moving on to a separate topic the conversation has come up as to whether or not Sammy Sosa and other convicted steroid users should be allowed to enter the Hall of Fame. In my personal opinion I believe that people like Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds and other people who fit this same profile should be allowed to go into the hall based upon their performance in a tainted era. Just because they got caught does not mean that they are the only people in the era who used PED's. For example a guy like Brady Anderson who was an average outfielder goes on to hit 50 home runs one season after not topping 21 in his career until that point or ever after that. Maybe he got better pitching, saw more fastballs or had a better hitter hitting behind him who knows but one tends to wonder about things and certain players who have never come up in PED conversation or positive tests. It is people like this who we assume did steroids or PED's that leave us open to attack when we make assumptions about other players. I do believe that cheating in the game is wrong and that there are different ways of cheating i.e. Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe Jackson. Those players statistically belong in the hall of fame but tainted the game by not playing on the level. Rose bet on his own team, and Shoeless Joe "threw" games in the 1919 World Series. Players who have been accused or have even been convicted of doing steroids may have helped themselves out but they did not lose a game on purpose or try to get a certain result out of a game. Steroids is not the be all end all of baseball either guys like the aforementioned Barry Bonds still have to hit a baseball and people like Clemens still have to be able to spot a fastball and mix up his pitches. It would not be fair to punish those guys just because they are the people who we believe did steroids or were convicted of doing PED's they were not alone, and these players still have to be good all around baseball players to put up the kind of numbers that would enter that player into the Hall of Fame discussion. A parting thought on this topic is the lack of testing prior to the 2003 "anonymous" testing that took place, in 1961 Roger Maris hit 61 home runs passing Babe Ruth's single season home run record. Other than 1961 Maris hit a season high of only 39 home runs which happened to be the year prior to hitting 61. Was he on steroids? or PED's? We will never know and that is why people should not penalize those who have been assumed or convicted of using. The whole era is tainted either way.

Sox Game

As i was sitting at the Red Sox game watching Hanley Ramirez roam the revolving door we Red Sox fans call Short Stop i was wondering whether or not i would have done the off-season deal that Theo so quickly turned down. Shortly after the heart break of Mark Teixeira there were rumors about the Red Sox going after Mr. Ramirez. The rumors which will never get confirmed were that the Marlins wanted Clay Buchholz and Jacoby Ellsbury as well as a lower level minor leaguer in exchange for the All-Star short stop. As we know now Theo was not interested and the conversation was said to have lasted about 5 minutes. Looking back was that such a bad deal for the Red Sox? In my opinion it was one that they at least needed to consider. Now don't get me wrong i love Clay Buccholz but there are still way to many answered questions about his mental mind set and ability. Sure he has a sub 2.00 Era in AAA right now but so do 100 other people that aren't as highly regarded as this guy. His struggles last season lead the Red Sox to signing Brad Penny and John Smoltz in order to push him completely out of the rotation. What does that say? How much better is Clay than say Michael Bowden who is also dominating the AAA level? And lastly the Boston Red Sox are probably one of the few major league teams that can trade a highly touted prospect of his caliber and not effect their major league roster. Moving on to the other major part of this deal and the one that fans would seemingly be so upset about would be the departing of Jacoby Ellsbury. Now we all know that Jacoby is a fan favorite and a heart throb for the female fans of Boston but so was Johnny Damon and the women seemed to move on just fine. Ellsbury as a player is an exciting guy who Could become a 300 hitter with 70 steals and win a few gold gloves in center. However is anyone really sold on that? Granted it was his first major league season it did not take opposing pitchers long to figure out the holes in his swing and dominate him with inside fastballs causing him to hit 280 with a bleak on base percentage of 336. I will agree that those are not bad numbers for a rookie but 336 as a lead off hitter? Parting with Ellsbury would be difficult don't get me wrong but the more i see of Julio Lugo and Nick Green the more comfortable i am becoming with that idea. Now the prize of the deal Hanley. As a 24 year old full time short stop you saw him hit 301 with an on base clip of 400. He also managed to hit 33 home runs out of the pitchers ball park that the Marlins play in. As a whole Ramirez is just flat out a better player than the two players that the Red Sox refused to include in the deal, however if Jacoby and Clay were to meet their full potentials then and only then would this deal become a hesitation. It is a simple question of taking the proven or the unknown because you do not know what Clay and Jacoby will become and you know that Hanley Ramirez is the best short stop in baseball right now and is arguably in the top 10 players in the game right now. So in my opinion the Sox and Theo should have at least considered this and maybe even pulled the trigger.

Introduction

Hello, My name is Daryl Jeannetti. I am a college student at Franklin Pierce University and reside just outside of Boston in a small town a few people know called Foxboro. For those of you who do not know that the patriots play in Foxboro you should stop reading now as this blog will be of no use to you. This blog will cover a lot of topics ranging from everyday life to the sporting world that surrounds us today. This blog will be updated rather randomly. It will not be like most other blogs that post everyday. I will do my best to post everyday, however i may post more than once on some days and not at all on others. Surprisingly enough i do have some other things to do besides pass on my thoughts on various topics. Some of those other things involve playing baseball, working and hanging with friends. Thank you for even reading this entry and I look forward to passing on my thoughts to you.