Top News:
Sports Illustrated:
Done deal — Red Sox, Matsuzaka agree to six-year contract — Daisuke Matsuzaka has reached a deal with the Boston Red Sox for 6 years, $52 million, SI.com's Jon Heyman has learned. The deal contains escalator clauses that could bring it up to $60 million.
Discussion:
Extra Bases, New York Times, Boston Herald, Clubhouse Insider, A Red Sox Fan …, WELCOME TO, Baseball Musings, Boston Sports Media Watch, Canyon of Heroes, Cursed To First, Sports and Music Blog, Sports Scope, Pinstripe Alley, Blogging Baseball, Camden Chat, MLB Trade Rumors, Bucs Dugout, Lone Star Ball, A New Pirates Generation and Can't Stop The Bleeding
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Associated Press:
Sox, Matsuzaka reach preliminary agreement — BOSTON (AP) - The $51.11 million the Red Sox offered to pay for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka was enough to get the Japanese ace across the Pacific Ocean. — It took that much again, and a little more, to fly him the rest of the way to Boston.
Gordon Edes / Boston Globe:
Matsuzaka, Red Sox agree to terms — Results of ace's physical awaited to make 6-year, $52m deal official — Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital will have the final word, but assuming Daisuke Matsuzaka passes his physical, the best young pitcher in Japan will be pitching for the Red Sox next season.
Discussion:
Surviving Grady
Nick Cafardo / Boston Globe:
Matsuzaka deal appears imminent — Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and agent Scott Boras, philosophically worlds apart in the Daisuke Matsuzaka negotiations, put aside their differences at the 11th hour and are near completing a multiyear deal for the coveted Japanese pitcher.
Discussion:
ESPN, Basegirl, Keep Your Sox On In Brooklyn, Sports Law Blog and El Guapo's Ghost Rambles …
Nick Cafardo / Boston Globe:
This decision goes to Sox, not Boras — If they were fleeced by Scott Boras in giving J.D. Drew a five-year, $70 million deal with no other teams bidding, the Red Sox have evened the score with Daisuke Matsuzaka. — The Sox did two impressive things during negotiations with Boras …
Discussion:
Baseball Musings
Boston Herald:
Dougie back in the fold: Mirabelli inks new deal — While the Red Sox [team stats] were flying across the country with Daisuke Matsuzaka in tow yesterday, the team filled another of its lesser needs by agreeing with incumbent backup catcher Doug Mirabelli on a one-year contract.
David Picker / New York Times:
Blood, Sweat and Type O: Japan's Weird Science — In the end, the Red Sox apparently decided to spend more than $100 million to get the Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka in a Boston uniform for the next six seasons, a daring financial outlay for an athlete who has never thrown a pitch …
Barry Svrluga / Washington Post:
Nationals to Trade Vidro for Prospects — The Washington Nationals took a major step toward freeing room on their future payroll and breaking loose a logjam in the middle infield, agreeing to trade second baseman Jose Vidro — who has spent his entire career with the Montreal-Washington organization …
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Bill Ladson / MLB.com:
Nats to trade Vidro to Mariners — Snelling, Fruto to join Washington, pending physicals — The Nationals are expected to trade second baseman Jose Vidro to the Mariners for outfielder Chris Snelling and pitcher Emiliano Fruto, according to Vidro and a high-ranking baseball official.
Howard Fendrich / Associated Press:Mariners, Nationals have tentative agreement on Vidro deal
Discussion:
Lone Star Ball
Geoff Baker / Seattle Times:M's acquire Nationals' second baseman Vidro
Discussion:
The Frinklin and Fred Show
Troy E. Renck / Denver Post:
Rockies ship their workhorse — Ace Jennings traded to Astros for center fielder Taveras and two young pitchers — In the end, the Rockies insisted it wasn't about contracts, agents or an owner's comments. They traded their homegrown opening-day starter Tuesday because they felt it made them better.
Discussion:
Purple Row
RELATED:
Derrick Goold / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Wainwright appears more likely to be penciled into the rotation — Tony La Russa came to St. Louis brandishing what he argues is an impromptu legal document that binds the biggest name left on the free agent market to the Cardinals' unfinished pitching rotation. — It works only if "signed" is used loosely.
Discussion:
Viva El Birdos
Kevin Baxter / Miami Herald:
New free agents might be sought — Unable to find a trade he could make or a free agent he could afford in the first two months of the offseason, Marlins general manager Larry Beinfest awoke to a changed landscape Wednesday, which he hopes will prove more fruitful.
Discussion:
FishStripes
Marc Topkin / St. Petersburg Times:
Rays, Iwamura confident as deal nears completion … ST. PETERSBURG - Owner Stuart Sternberg isn't sending a private plane like the Red Sox did for Daisuke Matsuzaka, but the Devil Rays appear close to landing their own promising Japanese import, infielder Akinori Iwamura.
Discussion:
DRays Bay
Ken Davidoff / Newsday:
He sounds like Zito's agent — Randolph sings lefty's praises, but GM says 'it has to make sense' — The Mets held their annual holiday party at Shea Stadium yesterday, which made it a fine time to assess their offseason wish list. There's clearly one item that everyone in orange and blue still wants.
Discussion:
MetsBlog.com
Paul Sullivan / Chicago Tribune:
Broken wrist to broken dreams — My 2006: Paul Sullivan — The Tribune's Cubs reporter Paul Sullivan looks back on his 2006. — The Cubs season obviously didn't provide many positive stories, though Jim Hendry's off-season spending spree and the philosophical change Cubs management has had has been fascinating to cover.
Discussion:
GROTA
NY Daily News:
Bombers mull pitch for Pineiro — The Yankees already have Andy Pettitte in the fold, they likely have Kei Igawa on the way and they still have Roger Clemens in their sights whenever he decides about next year. — But a person familiar with the Yankees' thinking said the team …
