A grab bag of smaller deals and rumors, while waiting for updates on the four-team trade of death …
The Red Sox are rumored to be interested in Cody Ross, which makes no sense for a team that already has every outfield position and DH covered … unless Jacoby Ellsbury's on the block. The problem with an Ellsbury trade, which has also been rumored, is finding a suitable trade partner. The 29-year-old center fielder should get a healthy raise in arbitration following an $8 million salary in 2012. Problem is, he's coming off an injury-wracked season in which he hit a measly .271/.313/.370 and played in just 74 games. He's also a free agent after next season. So you've got a player with a solid argument for 2011 MVP who tanked the next season, now stands to make eight figures, offers only one year of team control, and would likely require a quality pitcher in return. It's baseball, so we should never say never. But if Boston's going to add pitching during or after the Winter Meetings, it might very well be via a straight free-agent signing, rather than a trade.
Two of my favorite Onion stories are "Kevin Youkilis Puts Sign-up Sheet for Threesome in Red Sox Dugout" and "Kevin Youkilis Keeps Everyone on Bus Awake With Another One of His Nasty Sex Stories." Look at that face: looks like the crass degenerate we all knew in high school. But he's not some stunted party animal. He is an intense, talented, and intelligent ballplayer who is also a giant pain in the ass for his teammates and coaches. As his career in Boston moved past the championship phase and into a new decade, the problems grew, and the negatives of Youkilis, the man, began to erode the positives of Youkilis, the player. It led to a late-June trade to the White Sox, and when Youkilis returned to Fenway in the gray-and-black for the first time on Monday night (Boston beat Chicago, 5-1), he soaked in the applause and played the role of conquering hero. But is that characterization accurate? More to the point, is it fair?
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Thursday.
Delmon Young hit two home runs and Justin Verlander lasted into the eighth as the Tigers avoided elimination with a 7-5 win over the Rangers in the ALCS. Texas will now have two chances to advance to the World Series at home, and won't have to contend with Verlander. Unfortunately, they will have to contend with Nolan Ryan's "fable hour," where the Rangers owner forces the team to gather around and listen while he tells tall tales about his days in the majors. Tomorrow's installment is about the time Ryan built a stadium by himself in a single day when the old one was wrecked by a storm, and opened it up by throwing a no-hitter that very night.
In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Wednesday.
Jacoby Ellsbury's sixth-inning home run helped the Red Sox even up their series against the Yankees with a 9-5 win. Ellsbury's opposite-field shot went over the Green Monster, which marks the 34,245th straight day where the supposed "monster" just sat there and did nothing while people hit things at it.
In case you were out living a young person's life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.
This morning we're counting down the ten most significant moments of Tuesday night. They could be great, they could be awful, or they could be "other," but the ranking is entirely dependent on their importance. Kind of like how Time magazine's Person of the Year can be Gandhi, Hitler, or Mark Zuckerberg.
