On Second Thought.....

He wasn't robbed. We weren't robbed. But that's the way I ended my last post. I was referring to the Cy Young Award voting that bequeathed the honor to Cleveland's CC Sabathia. I was in the heat of the moment, but now I've gone over all their stats, and I can relunctantly say that the voting could have gone either way. As it turned out, it wasn't even close, with Sabathia garnering 19 of 28 first place votes to Beckett's 8. It might have been the innings pitched that turned the trick, with Sabathia throwing 40 more innings over the regular season. And that showed in the postseason, as he was wild and ineffective when facing a mound opponent like Beckett and a batting lineup like the Red Sox. Hey, we have the rings, they don't. 'Nuff said!

There is absolutely no news on the Lowell front to report. But the Yankees, after already securing Jorge Posada's services for another 4 years, two of which he'll be their catcher and two spent at first base and/or DH, have offered their closer, Mariano Rivera, a three year $45 million dollar contract, which would make him the highest paid reliever in all of baseball. That's the type of moolah that would have locked up Mike Lowell for three years, unless he has his heart set on a four year deal. But we have to wait for our third base slot to be filled. Who will be playing defense at the hot corner and batting fifth in 2008 and beyond? We have no idea.

Enjoy your Wednesday hump day as we slide towards the weekend, and click on the title of this post for the Herald's Michael Silverman's Red Sox notebook, which looks at the Lowell non-goings on, among other things. Be well and be safe, and as always, your comments are more than welcome.