COLD NOVEMBER

On an unseasonably balmy fall Friday in Boston, I was greeted with such pleasant news on my way out the door to start the weekend. In fact, a double-whammy of good news (and some more good news for the unfaithful faithful):

1. The Yankees most dangerous hitter is gone. Yes, the Yankees unloaded mercurial slugger Gary Sheffield on the AL Champion Tigers for a trifecta of young arms (a mid-level starting prospect with elbow problems and two single-A closers). I am ecstatic. The killer of all things baseball is out of the division. Do not get me wrong: I do not like Gary Sheffield. Never. Unlike Rickles, I do not have the Sheffield-1990s Florida Marlins shrine going on, but I do respect him as a hitter. There was no one (let me repeat that: NO ONE) more dangerous in that Bronx line-up. And the fact that the Yankees mis-handled his option and did not get a major league level prospect (which he should have brought, at the minimum) is music to a Sox fans ears.

2. Buster Olney at ESPN.com is the Red Sox may have the top bid for Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka. I have repeatedly pleaded ignorance about his skills having only seen him pitch during the World Baseball Classic (and even then, I was barely conscious), but top-end starters are few and far between. Bully for Theo Epstein for making an aggressive move and bully to ownership for floating the moolah. Schilling, Papelbon, Beckett, Matsuzaka, and Wakefield looks like a championship rotation at this point.

3. The only bad news is that, to the surprise of no one, Keith Foulke is on his way out of Boston having declined his player option after the Sox did not pick up the team option. Foulke is desperately in need of a fresh start. Foulkie should be revered for his work in 2004: he was the true MVP that season.

Nice to see there is plenty of Red Sox news for Hazel Mae on NESN to chat about after she crams herself into another one of those skin-tight shirts for the Red Sox week in review.

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