AGRI Biz

The outlook isn't brilliant for the Local 9 these days. The Sox have weathered a first month of the season filled with injuries, ineffectiveness, and all other manner of "suckitude," and have surprisingly come out of it with an 11-12 record. They have beaten up on the dregs of the AL—thank God for doormats—going 9-4 against the Royals, Jays, O's, and Rangers, while running up a less than impressive 2-8 record against ...

The rumors are true. And so are the reports from SportsCenter, USA Today, and every single Boston-based sports page known to the net. Nomar Garciaparra signed a one-day minor-league contract with the Boston Red Sox and then retired. This likely is somehow associated with the criteria to have your number retired at Fenway, but I call that a long shot. In a vacuum, I think it's pretty cool. He always said, ...

This Column Originally Published atáGetOutofMyBallpark.com We all know how it works. As soon as you get comfortable, you realize there is a whole crapload of stuff that you still need to do. It's the same even for Theo Epstein, whose arrival at spring training isn't the end of his winter's work, just a change in location. Other than deciding on the two or three spots on the bench and in the bullpen ...

á This Article Was Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com With pitchers and catchers reporting TOMORROW (as well as many of the guys already in camp), it's time that we take stock of what has happened to the Red Sox in the past few months and accept some realities. Jason Bay is gone. He's a Met now. The Sox let go of a guy who hit 36 home runs and had 119 RBI and replaced ...

This Column Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com Over the past few weeks, listening to what Theo, Tito and others who know what is up (Perter Gammons chief among them), I've softened on the whole Mike Cameron thing. I still think it is a bad idea to trade away both Ellsbury and Buchholz for anyone, even Adrian Gonzalez (though either one of them along with a package of top end prospects is cool ...

This Column Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com Over the past few weeks, listening to what Theo, Tito and others who know what is up (Perter Gammons chief among them), I've softened on the whole Mike Cameron thing. I still think it is a bad idea to trade away both Ellsbury and Buchholz for anyone, even Adrian Gonzalez (though either one of them along with a package of top end prospects is cool ...

This Column Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com This offseason can go either one of two ways: Triumph, or tragedy. That's not hyperbole, and it might not be seen which way it'll go for three or four years. Today was non-tender day in the Major Leagues (also known as the day that the Twins gave up David Ortiz for nothing), and things have started to roll. Hopefully it will pick up like a ...

á This Column Originally Published At GetOutofMyBallpark.com With only a few days left until the Winter Meetings (my favorite non-baseball season week of the year), nobody really has any idea what is going on with the Red Sox. Last year we all knew that they were going to go hard after Mark Teixeira and that the Yanks were going to sign CC Sabathia. In the weeks since the end of the season, there have ...

I'm not a great eugooglizer, but bear with me. I'm only going to reference the giant kick to the testicles administered to me a few days ago by the now defunct 2009 Red Sox once. I will say that it was a good, if extremely frustrating season, one that could just as well have ended up in the garbage heap along with 2002, 2006, and pretty much the entire decade ...

This Article Originally Published at GetOutofMyBallpark.com I don't think I've ever felt so little pressure on the day of a Red Sox playoff game before. Nobody expects anything, but everybody hopes for something. There was a time, back before Theo, Tito and all the rest, when there were no hopes for October at all, and anything we got past that final weekend of the regular season was gravy. Then over the last ...