Sox Gone Wild

The Boston Red Sox have given themselves the dubious distinction of spending $51m for permission to talk to Scott Boras about a pitching prospect. A good pitching prospect. A top pitching prospect, even. But the insanity of spending that kind of money on an unproven commodity (even in Japan he pitched in the B-league) is exceeded only by the insanity of the pressure Daisuke Matsuzaka would face in Fenway.

Of course, there's another possibility here: the Sox have their enemies in a fork. If Scott Boras drives too hard a bargain, the Sox can let the deal go, and keep their $51m. Then the system has to be done all over again, and the Yankees will have to keep the $51m figure in mind when bidding next time around. The whole shenanigan will throw a wrench in their off-season signing works, and will end up costing them more.

Thus, by having a low ceiling wage (say, 5 years, $30m), the Sox could either get themselves a commodity at a sensible price or prevent the Yankees from doing so, and in addition, either deflate the legend of Scott Boras or stick a needle in George Steinbrenner's eye.

Of course, the more likely course of action is that the Sox will spend $60m for four years of Mr. Matsuzaka's services (this ratio seems in line with the previous 'post' signings), and wind up with a $28-million-dollar-a-year starter. This from the team that couldn't blow the extra cash to keep Pedro Martinez or Johnny Damon, and had supposedly made a religion of paying a player his value and not a cent more.