SawxBlog

Martin Scorsese Finally Wins Oscar, with a Little Help From Boston

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From all of us at SawxBlog and in Boston, congrats Martin on winning picture and director of the year for the Boston based film, The Departed (an awesome movie by the way).

Much like the Red Sox of '04 sometimes a long wait is worth it, god knows you could have easily had it sooner then this with the likes of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas. I guess those can be looked at as your '46, '75, and '86 in a way.

Congrats again Mr. Scorsese, you've been making some great movies for a long time now.

(Click here to read original SawxBlog Departed post)

Gerald Green Wins 2007 Slam Dunk Contest!

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In what's been the bleakest of years to be a Celtics fan (Except for maybe the Dino Raja years...)this week has been pretty good for the green. The Celtics broke their 19 game losing streak on Valentines Day of all days (which was predicted by yours truly), and now Gerald Green Wins 2007 Slam Dunk Contest. If you're a Celtic fan you have to see the silver lining in this season, Green shows the youth and athletic talent of our team, that's just oozing with potential.

Hopefully the next thing the Celtics win is the Lottery draft pick, with a Mr. Greg Oden right behind it.

Gerald's homage to Dee Brown was completely classic. Earlier in the day I was talking with my friend Zac about how much i loved Dee Brown, and even broke out my old away Brown Jersey. Seeing Green do the same hours later was awesome and helped make this year a little more easier to endure.

SawxBlog is going into full fledged Spring Training mode, but I had to blog about this, I'm just itching for the Celtics to return to glory in a few years, and think this can tide me over for a bit :-)

Congrats Gerald!

Happy Valentines Day!

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Happy Valentines Day to all of Red Sox Nation! On this day of love there's a lot to like:

• The Dice-K era has officially begun (The rapid-fire clicks of more than a dozen camera shutters capturing every movement made it sound like a den of rattlesnakes had just been disturbed along the outfield warning track of the practice field at the Red Sox [team stats]’ minor league complex yesterday afternoon.)
• J.D. Drew is finally officially on our Roster (Cross Lenny DiNardo off your list of potential Red Sox closers for 2007 because he's headed for Oakland.)
• Pitchers and Catchers are reporting (From "free beer!" to "all you can eat," objectively speaking, there remains absolutely, positively no better phrase in the English language than "pitchers and catchers report.)
• Mariano wants out of NY (Sitting in his car outside Legends Field yesterday, Rivera was asked by The Post if he could be Boston's closer next year. "You never know," said Rivera)

Heck...the Celtics may even win tonight! Love must be in the air.

At Least We Still Have A-Rod

Congrats to Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, and the Indianapolis Colts on representing the AFC well in their SuperBowl victory.

The end of Super Sunday now brings us that much closer to Spring Training and the real sport that matters, baseball.

Mooninites Invade Boston! War of the Worlds, but it's 2007!

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Well today was a pretty embarrassing day for Boston...

All I have to say is that if it takes our city officials and state government that long to realize they're blowing up light-brights all around Boston and not fighting Al Queda, then I need to seriously consider how safe I really am.

The major media and our elected officials should be ashamed...

Helton Stuck Between A Rockies and a Hard Place

Well it looks like the Todd Helton era was over before it started in Boston. I don't blame anyone for this deal not getting done, and like I wrote yesterday, this isn't a deal the Sox needed to have happen. If anything the Rockies were the ones that would have benefited most from this because of the salary they would have alleviated. (Helton's contract is 30% of the Rockies total payroll).

The Rockies and Red Sox, no matter what you're reading in the papers, must have bad blood now. We all know about the botched Larry Bigbie deal a couple of years ago, and how the Rockies and owner Charles Monfort handled this latest event didn't do too much to smooth the road over.

We all know the easiest way to get things effectively done (trades, etc.) is to have it done behind closed doors. Once the media and fans get a hold of something the only positive someone can get out of it is jockeying for position, which was never needed here. Why Monfort felt the need to leak Lowell and Tavarez's names is beyond me and seems like some very bad business on his part. The Sox now have to do a little massaging where it wasn't really necessary (with Mike and Julian), they were trying to make a business deal, and if the Godfather taught us anything, it's that business is never personal.

The statement Monfort  released last night was almost laughable, and you know his "franchise" player can't be too happy. He wanted to go to Boston. He wanted to play on a winning team, but now it looks like he may be stuck between the Rockies and hard place for a few more years. By the time Helton actually plays for a winning team it'll be at the twilight of his career, when he'll be a fraction of the player he could be now.

"This is Todd Helton we're talking about," Rockies owner Charlie Monfort told the Associated Press today. "We're not just going to give him up for nothing".

Seriously, Helton's good, but we're not talking about an elite MLB player here. It'll be interesting to see if we ever hear the Sox side on this one, because I'd sure love to hear it.

Does Todd Helton Coming to the Red Sox Make Sense?

To answer the question in this post's subject, yes. This makes perfect sense. Todd Helton is an ideal fit for the Boston Red Sox. He fits the mold as far as the Red Sox philosophies go when it comes to OBP and plate patience. On top of that the guy has a career .333 BA, and a career .430 OBP. Helton would be a double machine in Fenway Park (much like Lowell last year) and his power numbers, inserted in the Red Sox potent lineup, would rise from the slip he's seen the past two seasons.

If all this takes is Lowell, Tavarez, and Hansen then I say we go for it. "Giving up" on younger pitchers is a tough thing to do, but here's where this deal just makes sense to me. Craig Hansen may help the Red Sox get to the postseason and win, Todd Helton will help the Red Sox get to the postseason and win. Hansen has a lot of potential, but would you rather have a potential or proven ballplayer?

The deal he currently has is a lot of money, $90.1 million over 5 years, but if Colorado picks up 1/2 of this then it's looking a lot better for the Red Sox. The last few years may not be the best investment, but if he can help get us another ring in the next three then I think again the Sox should go for this.

Either way we're in the position of power here, and we don't need this, I do like a cherry on top of my sundaes though, and think Helton would look mighty good inserted into our lineup.

Saint Schilling to pitch in 2008

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Well I heard some good news today when I was in the shower listening to WEEI (a daily tradition), Curt Schilling announced that he is not going to retire after the 2007 season. His contract with the Red Sox is up after this year, however he made it clear that he's going to pitch, and that he'd like it to be Boston.

This is obviously great news to hear and I think Curt should still pitch. He obviously still has a heck of a lot left in the tank, and if he's happy doing it, and it's what his family wants, then it seems like a no-brainer.

Obviously I'd love to see him here again in '08, but that just seems too far away to really worry about now. If I had to guess though, nothing will be finalized until after this season. He did say there's no way he'd play for the Yankees, but we've heard that before (cough! cough! Johnny Damon! cough!) For more on this head on over to Boston.com.

More on Todd Helton later today.

J.D. Drew Deal Finally Official

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The nervous members of Red Sox Nation (you know who you are...) can finally stop whining about how the J.D. Drew deal wasn't finalized. Today the Boston Red Sox and J.D. Drew came to terms and have finally hammered down the language barriers that were halting the deal.

In short the Sox have insurance on the last two years of his five year contract. If Drew has shoulder problems that sideline him for a prolonged period of time the Sox have the ability to opt out of the contract. If something happens in the first three years, well, the Red Sox and their fans are SOL.

While long term effects of Drew's shoulder are a concern of mine, his ability to play the game are not. J.D. will have two of the greatest hitters of our generation hitting in front of him, and I see no reason whatsoever why he shouldn't have an absolute breakout season. J.D. seems pretty excited about playing in a baseball city such as Boston too. Boston.com has a great summary of the conference call that was had today, and among other things, Drew had the following to say:

"When you play the game of baseball, you play in front of passionate people. I really enjoyed Atlanta, but sometimes the fanbase... when we played the Red Sox, it was 70 percent Red Sox fans and 30 percent Braves fans. The stadium’s not sold out in the playoffs… we understand the media attention [in Boston] … my family and I are going to enjoy Fenway."

I'm seriously excited to see him start playing, and instead of fussing and worrying about what may happen in a negative way, I'm going to play the underused role of the optimist in Boston, and will expect J.D. to be a pivotal piece in another World Series title in Beantown. Spring Training can't come any sooner.

Sox Cash in for Backup, Backup Catcher in Kevin Cash

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The Red Sox have signed Kevin Cash to a minor league contract to become what looks to be the backup, backup catcher for the club next year. Kevin's stats do nothing to raise any eyebrows and he's only a career .172 hitter in 332 AB with the big leagues.