The Red Sox Latest Comings & Goings...

The Boston Red Sox exercised their four million dollar 2009 option for pitcher Tim Wakefield. Last year his record was 10-11 with an OK ERA of 4.13. He was too much of a low-price, high inning option for Boston NOT to retain for another year. New to file free agency were Curt Schilling, who said he wants to pitch in the last half of the 2009 season, Bartolo Colon, who willingly remained a complete idiot by leaving the club when the prospect of his moving to the bullpen became known (he's always been a complete and utter bum...always will, too), Alex Cora and sadly, very sadly, Jason Varitek. His agent is the famous (and infamous) Scott Boras, and his view of 'Tek's worth and the view of the Sox differ incredibly. We all know how valuable Jason has been to the club, but his season long slump at the plate will hurt his chances of remaining our team captain. Sad, so sad. And the Red Sox will make a strong push to sign switch hitting free agent first baseman Mark Teixeira...believe me, so will the Yankees.

Multiple Yankee officials have said that the pinstripers will make a strong pitch to sign a new leftfielder. His name is Manny Ramirez, and nothing about Manny surprises my any longer. But to go to the hated Yankees borders on the absurd. If it happens, I can hear the boos now, in the offseason! Another former Boston player, Petey Martinez, has also filed for free agency. He will still have success in the big leagues, and that's because he knows how to pitch without having to overwhelm and overpower opposing batters. He will be picked up by someone (NOT Boston) promptly. If he stays healthy throughout the 2009 season, he'll win 15 games with any run suppport at all. Good luck, Petey.

In a personal note, my MRI on Friday morning was loud but tolerable. They gave me earplugs and said it might be a little loud. A LITTLE? It sounded like a 747 flying 10 yards above my head! But I thought of good things, kept my eyes closed and the half hour went by like it was only 29 minutes. My thanks to those of you who wished me luck in the comment section of yesterday's post. I also wanted to personally thank Rooster (Rational Sox Fan) for changing his comment format to "separate page." I was not able to comment on his great blog, which is on my link list, near the top, had he not done that. Thanks, Rooster. Check out his blog, if you haven't yet.

That's a wrap for this Saturday morning. I thank you for popping in, your comments are always welcome, and as always, BE WELL. Click on the title of this post for the Boston Globe's Red Sox homepage. It tells all about Wake and Manny and Cora and Colon and our captain, Jason Varitek. Thanks...have a wonderfully great weekend, too!