A Most Impressive Pitch

Well it's all but official: The Red Sox top brass(Epstein, Lucchino, Werner), after flying from Boston to L.A. in owner John Henry's private jet to a last minute bargaining session, have pretty much locked up Daisuke Matsuzaka for the next six years for a total of $52 million, with $8 million left for incentives. I've waited to write about Daisuke(pronounced "Dice-K") until it was almost certain that we'd get him, and well, we pretty much got him.

Rather than splurge and write about 28 paragraphs on the guy right now, I'll be writing plenty about him leading up to Spring Training in March. Needless to say, I'm absolutely STOKED about getting Dice-K. We now have an unbelievable starting rotation, one that is anchored by two veterans(Schilling and Wakefield) and filled in the middle by THREE 26-year old hard throwing studs(Papelbon, Matsuzaka, and Beckett). Also, should Wake not have a stellar year due to his rib injury again, Jon Lester will be wating in the wings. Lester disclosed recently that his cancer is in complete regression, and he will be joining the crew at Spring Training. To add even more intrigue, word has it the Sox have given Clemens a "most impressive" pitch in regards to pitching for them in 2007. Whether this was just a precautionary measure had the Sox not signed Matsuzaka, or whether it was the plan all along, remains to be seen. Either way, it's times like this that it's exciting to be a Sox fan.