Pay The Piper, Theo Epstein, For Adrian Gonzales

Good early Sunday morning to all of you. I do hope you're reading this much later in the day than I'm writing it. It's not even 4:45am EDT and I just couldn't sleep. Too early to bed makes for very long mornings. I wanted to talk about Adrian Gonzales, a player the Boston Red Sox severely covet. I'd like to thank the Boston Globe's Chad Finn for the thoughts that fueled this post. As I said before, the subject is first baseman supreme Adrian Gonzales.

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and the San Diego Padres' rookie GM Jed Hoyer know each other almost too well. Any negotiations between the two involving Gonzales and a possible pool of young Boston talent going the other way will be done out of complete honesty, which could make for a very interesting situation, a set of circumstances that could greatly benefit both the Red Sox and the Padres. Think this...Teixeira who? Gonzales is due to make only $4.75 million in 2010 and a paltry $5.5 million the year after. Holy bargain, Batman! He won't be 28 years old until May of next year...another plus. Last season was a tremendous one. He hit forty taters and walked 119 times. His OPS was .958 (again, thank you Chad Finn).

The question remains and it is this...why would the Padres be willing to part with him? I think I can answer that one. Down the road, the Padres do not feel that they will be able to afford him. Right now, a deal with a viable and well-stocked club (in the minors) such as the Boston Red Sox would bring to Jed Hoyer multiple talented young players and it would bring a young and talented power hitting first baseman to the New England club, something they need. Jed Hoyer knows that and his buddy Theo Epstein knows it. Face it, all of Red Sox Nation and Red Sox International know it, too. Theo, make it happen.

The University of Connecticut national champion women's basketball team started their 2009-2010 season with a resounding
105-35 (!!) victory over Northeastern University at UCONN's home in Storrs, Connecticut. Even without two players who are temporarily on injury leave, they looked tremendous, awesome and unbeatable. A tougher test for them will come on Tuesday night when they play against Texas in Texas. You can click on the title of this post for more on yesterday afternoon's UCONN blowout. That's 40 wins in a row for that team from Connecticut. I love 'em.

I hope your Sunday will be a terrific one. It's still cloudy here with intermitent drizzle but we ( Nadia & Peter) woke up at the same time. I had breakfast, she had popcorn of the Orville Redenbacker type with movie theater butter. She always seems to surprise me. As always, BE WELL. I'll see you soon.