Baying At The Moon

The Boston Red Sox must address some issues before the 2010 season starts. I'll go through them one at a time, once per day for the rest of this week. I'm going to start with leftfielder Jason Bay. His 36 taters and 119 RBIs would be sorely missed. He would be crazy if he did not test his worth in the free agent market and that appears to be the way he's leaning...right now. He'll do it. He'd be crazy if he didn't. As to his relationship with the Boston Red Sox, Theo Epstein, the Boston MVP of the off season, had this to say, first about the team itself and then about his leftfielder...

“I think it can go a number of different directions,’’ said general manager Theo Epstein. “We’re always open to change because you need change to improve. It’s part of the natural cycle in baseball and life. Sometimes the market doesn’t bear that out. Sometimes there aren’t the right fits. Sometimes it’s not the right free agent market. Sometimes you end up with more status quo than you want. f that’s the case, if we look back three or four months from now and say, ‘Wow, there weren’t major changes,’ then I think next year will be perhaps the last year of this main group of players ('Tek, Papi, Lowell) - we have a lot of players going into contract years next year. It might be one more chance with this group to go out and win the whole thing. I still feel the core elements are in place in that we really want Jason Bay to be a member of the Boston Red Sox, and Jason Bay really wants to be a member of the Boston Red Sox,’’ Epstein said. “We’ll just rely on those two strong elements of the deal and talk again and see if we can work something out. We want the relationship to continue, and we’ll see if it does.’’

I took excerpts of Theo Epstein's many comments with the help of the Boston Globe. My thanks go out to them. What does Bay think? Well, he hasn't come out and really said ANYTHING specific but here's a brief something for you. He was asked if the Red Sox are at the very top of his list...

“I’m not going to say that,’’ Bay said yesterday, after cleaning out his locker at Fenway Park. “I’m not going to state that. But, yeah, I think ultimately it just boils down to I’ve gotten to this point. I’d do myself a disservice if I didn’t look around. I’ve said all along, I’m a pretty levelheaded guy. If something comes up that makes sense, tough time saying no."

Believe me, there's more than one team out there who will offer him what he wants. I can only hope that the Boston Red Sox are among his top choices. It would be SO great to see him back beside the Green Monster.

The world champion Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Colorado Rockies last night and the league championship matchups are all set. The Yankees, in what will be a very entertaining series, will face the LA Angels and those Phillies will be pitted against Joe Torre's LA Dodgers. Will Joe triumphantly return to Yankee Stadium II? Time will tell, starting Thursday.

Have a great Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow with a question about what the Red Sox should do about their aging veterans. As always, BE WELL. I wish we were still playing. We all do. See ya.