Red Sox fans rejoice as team makes monster trade with Los Angles

Squawker Jon and I were at dinner Friday night when I got the following alert from the Boston Herald on my iPhone "Red Sox working on trading Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to LA Dodgers." I couldn't believe it -- I was thinking for a second that the Herald got hacked or something! What a jaw-dropper!

That's the type of trade idea you hear on late-night sports radio, as Lori Rubinson of WFAN noted on her show Saturday night. Thursday morning, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times wrote an article suggesting such a trade, and by Saturday, the deal was done!

Anyhow, as you can see in the above photo, those Red Sox were happy to get out of Boston, but Boston fans were even happier to see them gone. Especially Beckett (although I heard that the Popeye's near Fenway was mourning his absence). And you know who else has to be happy that Beckett's in Los Angeles? Roscoe's Fried Chicken and Waffles! (No, I never get tired of the fried chicken and beer jokes!)

I've heard a variety of Red Sox fans say that they felt like they got their team back. (Who knew that Nick Punto was History's Greatest Monster!) I've said this myself in Subway Squawkers that this Sox team needed to start cleaning house with the team in order to move forward. When you have people like A-Gon who writes a text message to ownership whining about his manager, then throws the recently-traded Kelly Shoppach under the bus for it, you have a pretty toxic environment. Not to mention what a jerk Beckett is. I do think Carl Crawford got a raw deal in his time in Boston, though, but now he gets a fresh state in LA.

It looks like the inmates may no longer be running the Sox asylum -- Alfredo Aceves threw a fit Friday and got suspended by the team for it. When was the last time you heard something like that happen?

Anyhow, Boston is out of it for this year, but I think they will be contenders again soon. It's not just that they dumped literally 200+ million in payroll, but they got rid of a huge jerk, and an up-and-coming one.

But I do have to wonder that if the Yankees tried to make such a trade, would people complain that it was unfair or something? You know how it is when it comes to the Yanks!

Beam Me Up, Beckett

Squawker Lisa, I realize that two of your least favorite things are Josh Beckett and "Star Trek," but I think even you will be amused at a clever piece comparing the two written by friend of the Squawkers Sully Baseball:

How Josh Beckett and the Star Trek films mirror each other

After I read Sully's piece, I realized that Oliver Perez mirrors "V." Both were clearly dead in the water by the end of last season, yet both somehow continue to avoid richly deserved pink slips.

Why was Josh Beckett so out of control against the Yankees?

Squawker Jon came over last night to watch Yankees-Red Sox with me (we had the Mets game in the picture-in-picture, and DVRed it as well). We were both surprised over Josh Beckett. But not for the reason that you might think.

When I was on the Larry Milian Show Thursday, I told him that if the Sox were struggling this weekend, a Yankee would get hit. I mentioned that the ball always seems to get away from the Boston pitchers in situations like that.

But I didn't expect anything like what happened with Josh Beckett. He started out great, but in the sixth inning lost his control. He reminded me more like a wounded animal lashing out than a headhunter in that inning, starting with hitting Robinson Cano. Now you can't really say it's a full out "intentional" plunking when you hit Derek Jeter with the bases loaded, and pitch inside to Francisco Cervelli and Mark Teixeira, also with the bases loaded. It almost seemed like Beckett just wanted out of the game or something.

What surprised Squawker Jon and me was how long Terry Francona kept him in the game. Beckett faced, what, 111 batters in the inning (or, at least it seemed like that!) Why did Terry keep him in so long - did he did into some of Joe Torre's green tea supply or something? It was just strange. Just when you've seen it all with Yankees-Red Sox, something like this happens.

At any rate, the Yankee dugout was positively peeved at Beckett by the time Jeter was hit. CC Sabathia and A-Rod apparently were the most angry. So I'm expecting CC to enact a little retribution today. As is the Boston Herald. John Tomase writes:

If and when Dustin Pedroia or Kevin Youkilis gets drilled by CC Sabathia this afternoon, they’ll have Josh Beckett to thank....

The Yankees were not happy.

And why should they have been? While it would be nearly impossible to make the case that Beckett hit either batter intentionally, it’s not about intent. Cano’s throbbing left knee and the welt on Jeter’s back could care less what Beckett intended.

I don't want anybody to get hurt. But let's just say I am glad that the Mike Mussina Years are over, and that CC is on the mound today. Especially if Cano, the Yankees' best hitter, ends up missing today's game.

Sabathia is an interesting combination - he's both laid-back and fierce. Did you see what he said yesterday about Dallas Braden flapping his gums again about A-Rod?

“He's a clown,” CC Sabathia said of Braden. “Guy says he's from the 209, what the [bleep] is that? That's where I'm from and I don't know what he's talking about. Two-oh-nine. He needs to just calm down - put that in the paper. That's just tired.”

This fan from the 718 (originally from the 201) applauds CC!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Are the Boston Red Sox building a bridge to nowhere?

Gather round, Boston fans. I have some questions about what you think about the state of your team these days.

I wrote something for The Faster Times about Jason Bay's rejection of the Sox's offer, and the pending Mike Lowell trade. It seems to me that the concept of loyalty is very one-sided in Soxland. Lowell took the hometown discount to stay in Boston, and he gets traded (pending that thumb issue, of course). Same thing happened with Bronson Arroyo - he got traded two months after leaving four million on the table. Nice!

Then there's the way that we inevitably hear negative things about the player when they're on their way out the door. Last year, Jason Bay was considered better than Manny Ramirez. Now, he's supposedly an injury risk. Right. The same way that Mike Lowell, considered one of the classiest guys to ever put on a Boston uniform, is supposedly now a clubhouse complainer. (See my article for more details, and go to Baseball Think Factory to read others commenting on my piece.)

The way the Sox front office trashes its players is so unseemly, yet it happens pretty much every single time a Boston player goes elsewhere. Tacky.

Anyhow, Theo Epstein had some talk the other day about how 2010 will be the bridge period. Sounds like it's the cheap period to me, with another year of John Smoltz/Brad Penny type supposed "low risk/high reward" signings. Like this year, with the Sox signing the immortal Boof Bonser, after all!

Of course, ticket prices are still going up during this transition time. Shocker!

Are the Sox already conceding the 2010 AL East division title to the Yankees? I think they are. As does Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy. He sharply criticized the Sox in a recent column, saying fans should "not buy the bill of goods the Red Sox are selling." He continued:

I’m not buying. The Sox have the dough to sign Matt Holliday or Jason Bay. Just like they had the money to bag Mark Teixeira last winter. But they keep getting beaten by the Yankees and then they cry about it.

Stop. It’s hideous of the Sox and their fans to complain about the Yankees buying championships. Sure, the Yanks can afford Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett, just like the Sox were able to afford Matsuzaka and Drew. The Sox got Curt Schilling and Victor Martinez the same way the Yankees got Curtis Granderson this week. The Sox are not the Pirates. They are not the Brewers or the A’s. The Sox are Haves, not Have-Nots. Like the Yankees, the Sox are happy to raid the rosters of teams that can’t afford high-priced talent.

Absolutely. I thought about that Schilling deal the other day, and how Sox fans I knew then tried to claim that Boston gave up a lot in that trade in Casey Fossum and Brandon Lyon. Please.

Shaughnessy also writes:

It’s nice that Theo has a passion for player development, but asking fans to take a year off is outrageous. Henry is a billionaire and the Sox are making bundles of money. If you don’t believe that, call their partners at Ace Ticket and try to score a few tickets.

Agreed. John Henry is worth a lot more money than George Steinbrenner is. Why are they holding the purse strings tight with one hand, and raising ticket prices with the other?

One other thing I also read at the Boston Globe this week was about how Theo opposed the Josh Beckett/Mike Lowell for Hanley Ramirez trade, made in his brief absence from the team in 2005.  That makes no sense to me. Yes, the Sox gave up a future superstar in Ramirez. But they also won the 2007 World Series thanks to Beckett and Lowell. That seems like a pretty fair tradeoff.

Let's take a quick look at some of the 2010 Red Sox payroll obligations. Right now, they've committed to pay Texas nine million to take Mike Lowell off their hands, assuming the trade goes through. They're also paying nine million for Julio Lugo not to play for them. They'll be paying $14 million for J.D. Drew - a heck of a bigger injury risk than Jason Bay - to play right field; that is, when he isn't taking his weekly day off.  They're paying $12.5 million to David Ortiz - which looked like a great deal at the time - to be their DH. Dice-K (or is that Dice-BB, as my friend William calls him?) may actually show up to spring training in shape this time around to earn his $8 million this year. And don't forget that captain Jason Varitek will be getting $5 million as a lifetime achievement award for 2010.

Yes, yes, I know the Yankees have ridiculous contracts as well. (Kei Igawa, anyone?) My point is that Theo Epstein, for all his brilliance, has made a bunch of bad deals that have cost his team. And that not many other teams could afford to essentially pay other teams to take on their players, the way Theo did with Manny Ramirez, Julio Lugo, and is trying to do with Mike Lowell. So sorry, I'm not going to feel too bad for the Red Sox's payroll obligations. If they're having to pinch pennies now, it's because of bad decisions by Epstein, not because of the Yankees' dominance.

Of course, now that I've written this article, watch the Sox sign John Lackey, Matt Holliday, Adrian Beltre, and some other high-priced free agents this afternoon, just to prove this all irrelevant!

But what do our Sox fan readers think? Tell us about it!

A.J. Burnett's pitching and the Yankees' sleeping bats make me sick

Well, that game kind of stunk. So much for my fearless prediction that A.J. Burnett would have a very slight edge over Josh Beckett in a pitchers' duel. Ha! The only edge in that game was when Yankee fans wanted to slit their wrists while watching the nightmare of Burnett's outing.

Oh, and one of my brothers wondered if the Sox could go 18-0 against the Yanks this year. Then again, look what happened to the Patriots after they went 18-0!

So much for Burnett being a Sox killer. The only thing A.J. had good aim for last a night was the cooler he kicked while going into the dugout. That was a strike right down the middle. Let's hope the often-injured Burnett didn't break a toe!

Pie-thrower Burnett was the one with pie on his face after this debacle. He said this after the game:

"It's embarrassing, it's very disappointing," Burnett said. "But obviously I'm not going to kill myself. I'm not going to go and try to figure out what went wrong or this and that. I'm going to get back out there. The confidence is there."

I appreciate that he was mortified over the way he pitched. But I'm troubled by A.J. saying he wasn't going to try to figure out where he went wrong.

Here are his numbers against Boston so far this year: 12.91 ERA, with 13 hits and 8 walks in 7.2 innings. Last night Burnett gave up five walks and five hits in 2 2/3 innings, and the slumping David Ortiz hit a monster shot off him. Heck, a double by Nick Bleeping Green knocked him out of the game!

I'm not saying Burnett needs to be a shoe-gazer, but it wouldn't hurt him to figure out where the heck he went wrong.

As for Ortiz, I did call that homer in my pre-game predictions. What's funny is that Squawker reader Paul from Boston disagreed with that prediction of mine!

While Burnett was a thousand shades of awful, I can't let the Yankee batters off the hook. I figured Beckett would pitch well, but I didn't think he would flirt with a no-hitter. I was so peeved over that turn of events that I went on Facebook last night and wrote this in my status update at 8:34 p.m. "Lisa Swan is going to jinx Josh Beckett's potential no-hitter. There, I said it. Jinx, jinx, jinx!"

Literally within a minute, Robinson Cano had broken up the no-hitter, albeit with a little help from Dustin Pedroia. Lisa the Jinx strikes again!

The Yankee bats managed two hits all night. Two. It didn't matter who was pitching - Beckett, Manny Delcarmen, the man in the moon - the Yankees weren't going to do anything, and they got shut out for the first time this season. What a disaster.

One other note - did you hear how Michael Kay called Beckett "Burnett" not once but twice, including after Beckett struck out the side in the fourth? Good grief.

(Puking pumpkin pic courtesy of extremepumpkins.com)

What did you think of Tuesday's game? Leave us a comment!

That's rich! David Ortiz gripes about Joba Chamberlain going after Kevin Youkilis

Just in time for this weekend's Yankee-Red Sox series, controversy is a-brewing. David Ortiz is quoted in today's New York Post issuing a warning of sorts to Joba Chamberlain, Friday night's pitcher for the Yanks:

David Ortiz yesterday said the talented right-hander should avoid using Kevin Youkilis' head as a bull's-eye.

"None of that, man -- just play the game the way it's supposed to be, and that's about it," Ortiz said, referring to Chamberlain.

"This is a guy, as good as he is, the next step for him will be to earn respect from everybody in the league. He's not a bad guy, but when things like that happen, people get the wrong idea."

Hmmm. Perhaps Ortiz should have a talk with Josh Beckett about how to play the game the right way. If you'll remember, last week Beckett celebrated Easter Sunday last week by:

1) Taking forever in a Red Sox-Angels game to throw a pitch,

2) Getting irritated when Bobby Abreu called for time,

3) Throwing the ball inches above Abreu's head,

4) Storming off the mound and walking towards home plate to argue when the usually unflappable Abreu took offense,

5) Getting to stay in the game despite all this, when Angels who argued with him were thrown out,

6) Griping that anybody would read anything untoward into what he did,

7) Suggesting the Angels' angry reaction had to do with the death of Nick Adenhart,

8) Complaining over getting disciplined at all, even when his six-game suspension was reduced to five games.

Then again, I'm quite sure that Big Papi has had a stern talk with the Big Twit - Beckett - about just playing the game ''the way it's supposed to be," right? After all, "when things like that happen," like at that Easter Sunday game, "people get the wrong idea."

What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Did Joe Girardi overmanage the bullpen?

Well, so much for hopes of a Yankee sweep of Kansas City. And it all happened when I started watching the game.

Squawker Jon and I went out for Easter brunch in Westchester. We were listening to the game on the radio on the way home. The Yankees started winning when I turned off the radio while getting gas. But everything fell apart after I got home and put on the game.

Joe Girardi took out Damaso Marte, then Jose Veras walked Billy Butler, then Phil Coke blew the game. And fans across the blogosphere are outraged, suggesting that Girardi messed up, among other things, by pulling Joba Chamberlain after 88 pitches, not letting Marte face Butler, putting Coke in too intense a situation, and not pitching Mariano Rivera.

While I can see fans' points on most of this decisions, I don't think bringing Mo in to get four outs against Kansas City in an April game would have been a good move, given that he is coming off shoulder surgery. Joe probably got a little too cute overmanaging, but I'm not ready to jump off the ledge yet over it.

Besides, I blame my self for jinxing after I starting to watch the game on TV!

* * *

In other news, I did see a clip of the Josh Beckett/Bobby Abreu confrontation. Let me get this straight - Beckett hurls a fastball inches from Abreu's head, after the batter had called time. When Bobby, understandably, gets mad, Beckett gets off the mound and walks toward him. And the only people thrown out of the game are the Angels angry about what Beckett did? Sheesh.

On a lighter note, I was listening to the new Bernie Williams album "Moving Forward" on the way to pick up Squawker Jon. Good stuff!

What do you think? Leave us a comment!