Business Sense

When Billy Wagner tried to play hardball with the Red Sox by "threatening" to accept arbitration, the Red Sox gave him a much needed middle finger when they did in fact offer arbitration, and in turn protected their investment with the addition of two draft picks in the upcoming draft. The Red Sox did the smart thing by taking the risk and making the arbitration offer, and hopefully they will do the same thing with regards to the Jason Bay/Matt Holliday negotiations. If you have been living under a rock or just aren't very good with math, the Red Sox would stand to gain more draft picks IF they sign Holliday than if they sign Jason Bay. With a farm system that isn't so much depleted, as it is in a rebuilding cycle, which would be the best thing for them is to get the draft picks that teams will have to give up when signing Type-A free agents.

In other AL East action the Rays are going balls out this offseason with trades and wheelings and dealings. They recently acquired Kelly Shoppach from the Indians, and I'll be honest that scares the bejeezus out of me. He's another power bat to that youth infused, powerful, dangerous lineup. The Rays are going to try and be for real without spending Jack, scary ain't it? This one move doesn't make them that scary, but they are trying to swap Pat Burrell for Milton Bradley and having Chicago eat some of the cost. You may be thinking, "Milton Bradley essentially just shit the bed last year with the Cubs." I'll agree, but some players are NOT big market players, (See: Pavano, Carl and Brown, Kevin). If that's not excuse enough he's a year removed from hitting over .320, over 20 homers, and more than 75 RBI, to think that he has hit an irreversible wall would be borderline obtuse. Also the manager/scenery change could be the most important reason that I think he will rebound to have a VERY good season if I were to speculate (I'm not one to do that am I?) I'd say he's gonna hit .310 18HRs and 75 RBI again. If Bradley can add the dimension that Burrell was supposed to the Rays will once again be a SCARY team to deal with.

On some unrelated side notes; I had the shit scared out of me the other day. I'll preface by saying I LOVE scary movies but I was borderline petrified the other day for the first time since I had seen the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre about 10 + years ago. The Orphan, (please don't laugh at me) was for some reason, in a hyphenated word, spine-tingling. I'm not going to ruin anything for you but the girl used in this movie was reminiscent of Chuckie, mixed with the intellect of Hannibal Lector, and presumed innocence of that Pepsi Girl. The movie was less predictable than most horror films, and as a bonus it didn't include those awkward looking "scary" beings from The Grudge or The Ring. Overall I'm giving this movie an A for horror factor.

Alright I'm done scaring the pants off you and will now hand you something funny. About 3 weeks ago I watched one of the funniest skits I'd seen on SNL since Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan left ( I realize the Old timers are shaking their canes at me screaming, "BELUSHI"). I'm like to take an active role in politics, national and local, and this is absolutely one of the most accurate, comedic things I've ever had the pleasure of watching. For your viewing pleasure, I give you: A Masterpiece. I also want to note that the translator looks strikingly like Vanessa Lengies.

Stay Tuned

Ryan