The Ongoing Papelbon Pay Plea

Boston Red Sox elite closer supreme Jonathon Papelbon, who has a new pitch in his arsenal, a slider, has a contract that is coming up for renewal. And he wants a raise. Hey, who can blame him? He was arguably the best closer in all of baseball in 2007, and he wants to be paid accordingly. He'd like something along the lines of what the Phillies' Ryan Howard takes home, an All Star who earns $900,000.00 per year. The club may opt to give him $500,000.00, which is what the White Sox pitcher Bobby Jenks is paid. Paps had this to say yesterday...

"It's a tough situation for me right now because basically I'm at a point to where I feel like the position I'm in, there's a certain standard that needs to be put in place here," said Papelbon, who had 37 saves last season, then added one more in the Championship Series and three more in the World Series. "I feel like with me being at the top of my position, I feel like that standard needs to be set, and I'm the one who set that standard.
"I don't think the Red Sox are necessarily seeing eye-to-eye with me on that subject right now. Hopefully we can get somewhere."

Peter here. The club wants to put this matter behind them by Thursday of this week. Here's my opinion...PAY THE MAN. He is helpless in his situation, with no leverage because he hasn't played for the club long enough. SO SHOW HIM YOU LOVE HIM, Red Sox FO. Without him, the Sox would have been a near .500 ballclub in 2007, with no glory to look back on and blown saves galore. Jonathon Papelbon established himself in 2007 as the premiere closer in all of baseball, with all due respect to Mariano Rivera. And Paps will be just that for many years to come. Much to our delight. He'll be fun to watch yet again this year, for we ALL know that when it comes to the ninth inning of a one run game, the Sox will have a decided edge, an almost unfair one. But what's unfair to our opponents results in so much fun for us! And a victory.

Down in Florida, Daisuke Matsuzaka had his second spring outing, and it was a good one. Papelbon also pitched a clean inning, the fourth, and earned the victoy. The final score was Boston 3, Pirates 2. Here is the Sox pitching summary...

D Matsuzaka 3 2 1 1 2 2 0
J Papelbon (W,1-0) 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
J Tavarez 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
D Hansack 1 0 0 0 1 0 0
M Tejera 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
B Corey 1 2 1 1 1 0 0
K Jackson 1-3 2 1 1 1 0 1
J Vaquedano (S,1) 2-3 0 0 0 0 1 0

Good stuff from down south. Just the way we like it. I wish every one of you a happy and healthy Wednesday, Hump Day, as we begin that slide towards another weekend. Click on the title of this post for the Boston Globe's complete look at Paps and his contract. Me? I'm not worried. Not one little bit. As always, be safe, be well. And keep the faith. We live on it!