By Chris Cue
January 7, 2009

Heading into the first full week of January 2009, it would be an understatement to say that the Red Sox haven’t made any “Front Page” signings this off season. I would however, like to address what has been done and what has been attempted to be done by this front office.

First, a subject by now most of us are probably sick of, but I continue to read comments about it so maybe I’m in the minority here. Frankly, I’m over the whole Mark Teixeira to the Red Sox issue. I’ve made my opinions known on that deal long before he joined the Yankees. However, there remains a large number of fans that continue to blame the Red Sox front office (mainly John Henry and Theo Epstein) for “not getting it done”. Well, I’ve got news for you.

In an interveiw with Mike Francessa on WFAN (link HERE), Mark Teixeira made it known that his wife was a huge factor in his decision. “My wife loves New York” he said. What he said he was looking for when trying to decide on a team is the following:
1). Close proximity to his extended family in Baltimore and Atlanta.
2). His family’s happiness
3). A chance to win every year
4). The contract
Mark also said that the Yankees were always in the mix noting that Scott Boras and Brian Cashman had kept an open dialogue all along.

I read an article by Tony Massarotti (a well know Teixeira lover and critic of the front office in this)  that Mark had made up his mind that New York is where he wanted to play 2 weeks prior to agreeing on a contract.  You’ll remember that the Red Sox met with him 1 week prior to him agreeing to terms with the Yankees.
The link to the Mazz article is HERE and here’s the quote.

“…..let the record show that Teixeira acknowledged that he
all but decided on the Yankees two weeks before Christmas, during a
Dec. 12 dinner with his wife, Leigh, at the cou ple’s Dallas-area
country club. And let the record show, too, that the Teixeiras’ weekly
date came precisely six days before the Red Sox’ fateful and fruitless
visit to Dallas in hopes of closing a deal with the player.”

He made that decision based on the 1-4 criteria mentioned above as described in the Francessa interview. These are no longer rumors, they are facts. Now here’s my question. How can someone acknowledge that Teixeira never intended to sign with Boston, yet still hold the front office accountable for “not getting it done”? You can’t have it both ways here. It doesn’t wash unless you think they should have offered him a contract that essentially was worth 10 years and 220 million dollars. If that’s the case, then you’ll have to excuse me if I think you need your baseball head examined.

The gut feeling I have here is that John Henry’s email he sent to the press after meeting with Teixeira, meant what it said. “It’s clear we are not going to be a factor”.  I suspect that the Red Sox contingent that met with Teixeira knew what was going on and bowed out of the race so they wouldn’t be used any further. That’s not a fact, but purely speculation on my part.
The facts are he was never realistically going to play for the Red Sox. So, is it finally possible we can put this issue to bed? I sure hope so. I’m beyond tired of it.

Second on the list is a look at what the Red Sox have done recently. We’re talking about the signings of Brad Penny, Josh Bard and the latest, (yikes!) Nick Green. I think it would be fair of you to say I’m not overly impressed with these signings. However, other then Brad Penny, Bard & (yikes again!) Green may never make the Major League club. Bard was signed to a non-guaranteed contract and (OK I won’t say it again) Green was signed to a minor league deal that included an opportunity to comepete for the middle infielder bench role.

These are not “Front Page” signings. They do however serve a purpose, even if that purpose is only for us to kill more time by asking more questions.
Questions like:
Is Bard really going to try and catch Wakefield again?
Is (omg) Green really here in case we trade Lugo?
Is Penny really our 4th starter?

Call me a “pollyanna” or a “Glass half full” kinda guy if you will, but I really have a hard time believing that those 3 acquisitions are considered by the Theo Epstein to be “The Master Plan” going into the 2009 season. If they are, heaven help us. No, I think we still have some work to do in the “Let’s improve the team” department. I don’t think Theo is quite done yet. I do think that this team as constituted (minus the catching vacancy), is ready to compete next season and keep us close enough by the trading deadline to warrant a significant move at that time if one is not available now. Still, I think a move or two will be made prior to opening day. Stay tuned because this isn’t the final solution (we hope).

Third and finally, as teams begin to firm up their rosters, watch out for all the “Expert” predictions that will follow. You’ve seen it before. Several weeks prior to the season openers, these folks line up and write about who will and who won’t be in the running this year. Take these with a VERY large grain of salt. There is no evidence that any of these people will come any closer then  +/-10 games to the final results. In fact, if you want to call yourself an expert and predict how many games the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays will each win, do the following:
Get a dart board and hang it on a wall
Re-label the numbers on it starting with 87 wins and ending with 97 wins
Blind fold yourself
Throw a dart.
What ever number it lands on is as good a guess as any of the so-called experts. Trust me on this one. Sure, you’ll find out by seasons end that one or two blind squirrels were able to find a nut, but it won’t be because they knew something you didn’t. It’ll be more luck then anything else. When you’re looking at a  plus or minus 10 game variable in Baseball, that 10 is a HUGE number. The games are played on a field not a chalk board and there’s good reason for it.