In what has been a busy offseason for everyone it seems the Red Sox have held back

http://espn.go.com/boston/mlb/story/_/id/7570133/david-ortiz-boston-red-sox-agree-deal-arbitration-source-says


Besides their move to get a closer with the departure of Jonathan Papelbon to the Phillies in free agency the Red Sox have had almost no movement in this offseason which has been surprising to say the least with the moves of Puljos, Fielder, Reyes, Buehrle, Wilson, and Papelbon all to teams that were in the backround in many sports insiders minds. 


Finally, the sox at least spend the money to retain the producing but aging ever youthful David Ortiz after his solid play at the plate for the last year and a half. We just have to hope and bank on the fact that he's going to continue to put the work in to stay in shape and healthy enough to play out this new deal at least around the pace he has played at during the last solid period of time. 


Initally the Red Sox had wanted to pay around $12.5 million and Ortiz had asked for $16.5 so paying $14.5 is a meeting of the minds as they say and everyone gives up a little to keep the big man in Beantown. With new manager Bobby Valentine excited about the new season I hope the team is ready to go because his style is going to be much more intense then what they were accustomed to in Franconia. 

Yankees making another solid move it looks like

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7567849/new-york-yankees-pittsburgh-pirates-work-aj-burnett-trade-sources-say




Since acquiring Hiroki Kuroda in free agency and Michael Pineda via trade the Yankees have had to gauge the prospect of who fits best at the end of their rotation. Kuroda is a quality arm with a proven track record and will bring stability to the rotation from the 3rd or 4th spot while Pineda  comes in with up and down results in the majors but plus pitches and a live arm combined with his young age of 22 have the Yankees in a good position to watch him grow up the guidance of CC Sabathia and Phil Hughes.


Weird, were having all of this Yankees pitcher talks and not a word about uber-inconsistent A.J. Burnett??? That's because after the trade talks sputtered each off season the last 2 years and even the talk of him being left off the playoff roster all-together, once again the Yankees are looking to move "wild thing". Someone may want to let him know that Charlie Sheen got fired after being demoted in Major League 1 and unlike the movie the Yankees WILD THING ain't going to be helped by glasses.




This is all a product of Burnett's frustrating inconsistency that has been his trademark combined with his flat out inability to win for the last 2 months of last season. His inept pitching struggles last season were one of the biggest problems the yankees faced in constructing their playoff roster and even making their run to get in much closer then it should have been. 


Now that the Yankees have more then enough solid pitching it's finally time to throw in that extra few million of his contract and hope they can find a trade partner for the veteran. It's looking like they have more then enough suiters with the Pirates holding the top spot so far though.


For all the Sox fans out there with me let's just hope that somehow the Yanks get stuck with him, at least as long as were stuck with our own overpaid overvalued, crybaby in Lackey.