Theo's Final Thoughts On Teixeira, For Now...Truck Day Parade Is Today

Theo Epstein recently waxed eloquently on the Boston Red Sox' attempts to obtain slugger Mark Teixeira. And here I was thinking all that talk had gone away like a whisp of fog rapidly evaporating on a clearing day. But his words are interesting on this Truck Day Parade Day. Yes, I said parade...more on that later. Theo speaks...
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“I just remember feeling like we were this close to landing one of the best players in baseball, and the fact that he showed up on a division rival left us feeling we were in an even worse position than before,” Sox general manager Theo Epstein said yesterday. “But it didn’t change who we were. It was just one more thing we had to overcome from a talent standpoint at that time vis-a-vis the Yankees. It wasn’t the end of the world. It just wasn’t the outcome we were looking for.”
“I don’t think this was any momentous event or turning point or anything like that,” Epstein said of Teixeira. “He’s a really good free agent, an elite player we really liked, and he went to the team that offered him more money. It’s pretty commonplace. We’ve proven over the last couple of years that we’re not big free agent spenders. Whenever there’s a player on the open market the Yankees want, they’re going to get him."
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What he's saying is this..."damn Yankees." But the 2009 version of the Red Sox has better pitching, in the rotation and in the bullpen, than 2008's model, and with a healthy Mike Lowell and a healed Big Papi, they'll be just fine. We also need our ace, Josh Beckett, to be healthy all year long. The club collected many low cost high risk players. If, oh, two of them fully recover from their 2008 health scares (Penny, Smoltz, Saito), this club will do no worse than the AL Wild Card. My predictions for the AL East will be right here near the end of the team's Fort Myers stay. Let's have a healthy spring training camp first.

And speaking of spring training, the annual Boston Red Sox Truck Day is today (thanks, Ian). Red Sox Hall of Famer Johnny Pesky will serve as the Grand Marshal of the truck departure parade. Pesky, whose uniform number ‘6’ was formally retired by the Red Sox last year, will ceremoniously “start” the engines of the equipment truck. Sounds like fun to me, and the weather will be a little warmer, but not much. Onward ho! Southbound and down.

You can click on the title of this post for more on the Red Sox from SI.com (check out the third article from the top under RED SOX BASEBALL NEWS). Its title..."Player for player, the Yankees are better than the Red Sox." We'll see about that! As always, BE WELL. Your comments are welcome and always needed. Shalom, aloha, see ya, my Constant readers.