Dan Gould

Well, I can see George's ego getting in the way, but I'm not at all sure Zito is a number one to begin with. Looks to me like you'll be adding another number 2 to go with Moose and the Taiwanese guy whose name completely escapes me. One other thing about recouping the money - you may very well be right that interest in NESN broadcasts will be less since he is a starting pitcher - but there are other marketing opportunities, starting with apparel. You'll see a lot of cross-promotions with the Red Sox and Japanese partners. A whole nother factor isn't so much recouping the investment but establishing a presence in Far East baseball. They've spent a lot of money in Latin America and particulary the Dominican, due to Pedro, Manny and Papi. Now they're looking to establish themselves in the other major baseball market. There's a third baseman who was posted last week, I think the results will be in on Friday. Supposedly the Sox were in on him, too. He's won Gold Gloves, and bats .300/30/100 for the last couple of years. Would be interesting if they sign this guy, too and offload Lowell, and now it would be doubly interesting if they bring him on to give Matz a friendly face to hang out with. Would instantly solve the problem of Varitek trying to communicate on the mound, and from this player's stats, he sounds like he is Lowell's equal in the field and better at the plate. I'm hoping they went for him, especially since Lowell's comeback year established that he's still got something left.

Well that's one way of looking at it. I think that Boras is still in a very good position. Here's why - Yes, he can only negotiate w/ the Sox - this year. If they don't cough up the money for him Boras can always say,"Hey let's try again next year" He already did that once before with, ahem, J.D. Drew A countervailing influence is the fact that there is pressure on the Japanese player to make a deal so that his (former) team gets the money - that's a cultural thing. its also true that Boras could lose out entirely. He's signed for this negotiation. There's nothing that says he'll go with him again a year from now, and then Boras loses out entirely. Another factor that can get a deal done without an enormous salary: The deal goes for, say, three years/36 million. He gets paid a huge amount, and becomes a free agent at the age of 29. You don't think he'd accept a lower salary in exchange for earlier free agency? Now, I'm not convinced that will happen - the Red Sox have been looking at recent contract negotiations with young players like Coco and Beckett as an opportunity to sign people long-term for reasonable salaries, in anticipation that by the end of the contract, the dollars will look very fair or even cheap. So I expect them to do at least a four year deal. BTW, I don't remotely understand your belief that if the Red Sox sign him, then Zito goes to the Yanks and not the Mets. How does taking the Red Sox out of that equation mean that the Mets won't go to the mat for Zito now? They apparently bid second highest, I don't doubt at all that they will go whole hog in for Zito having missed out on Matz. In fact, NY press (I think the News but I'm not sure) were arguing that the Yanks aren't really impressed with Zito and would rather go relatively cheap with a second tier starter that allows them to bring Hughes along slowly. I strongly suspect that Zito goes to the Mets, where he gets his old pitching coach, the bright lights and big city that this future "actor" craves, and easier NL lineups to face.

Well, clearly Matthew signed up now knowing what bit-torrent is, or what type of file is being downloaded.

this isn't accurate, at least when it comes to Dime. You are most likely downloading FLAC files, which are not lossy like MP3s. You need a program like Flac Frontend (free) to conver FLAC files to burnable wav files. If I was converting to MP3s, I would use my Goldwave software to save those files to MP3 format, though I am sure someone knows of an easier way to convert them. couw? Edit: I just realized that Goldwave handles FLAC files, so I wouldn't even have to use FLAC Frontend to convert to wav files first. I could open up the FLAC files and then save as MP3s. Some Dime concerts are encoded to SHN files. Winamp will burn SHN files direct to CD, then an audio editor program should be able to extract those files to a format that can be turned into MP3. As far as download rates, its partially dependent on whether you are broadband or not, but its also dependent on how many people are in the "swarm" downloading the particular concert. If there are only a few people, download rates can be pretty slow. I've also gotten into swarms where there were 80 seeders and two leechers, and I'd be getting things at 200 KBPS or more.

Here are the relevant facts: Pitched in the majors or not, he is the undisputed number one available arm and he is 26 years old. Zito has declining peripherals (particularly BB and K rates), and has shown a career-long inability to beat the Yankees. He's a non-starter as an option. Schmidt is older, has a history of elbow trouble and pitches in the NL. Both are going to get huge dollars - $75 million is my low-end guess. Compared to a total of $100 mil for the Japanese pitcher, it doesn't look so bad. Another important consideration is that the Red Sox have no competition to sign him. Boras can't say "I've got a 17 million dollar a year offer" because no one else has the right to negotiate. Boras can say that when he negotiates for Zito, and it will create pressure to over-pay. Another factor: Let's say they sign him for 13 million a year (which I think is pushing it, they can probably get it done for 10-11). After this year, Schilling's 13 million comes off the books. The reality is they are paying for two aces for just one season, and then Matz gets ace dollars, and the remainder (Beckett, Papelbon, hopefully Lester) are all inexpensive (Beckett, to me, is cheap at 6 million a year; Paps and Lester are salary-controlled). Overall, starting in 2008, the Red Sox are situated to have one of the best rotations in the majors and all things considered, it will be a cheap one. The money spent on this pitcher will not impact what is done for the bullpen. My guess is that they take a long look at trading for Lidge, or signing one of several closers who are coming off of injuries. Next, not only are the Red Sox keeping Matz away from the Yanks, which is wonderful enough, but it is crucial after last season to send a message to the fan base that they are very serious about fixing things. Yes, they have sell-outs, so he can't really increase ballpark revenue, but this will get the fans raring to go. Last thing I'll mention is that there are opportunities to recoup the investment by taking advantage of Japanese interest in this player. That starts, but hardly ends, with licensing NESN broadcasts in Japan. NESN broadcasts would have Japanese sponsors, obviously, and any deal would call for sharing of ad revenue. There's still money to be made with Matz on board, and that is going to reduce the overall cost of this contract in a way that a deal for Schmidt or Zito never could.

Now MLB is saying that they and the Lions will make a joint announcement Tuesday at 8 pm. The good news is that Buster Olney finally has company in reporting that the Red Sox made the high bid. Gammons says that the bid was $42 million, and "far exceeded" the other team's bids. What, no incremental bidding like eBay? Orestes Destrade, who spent a lot of time playing in Japan and maintains good contacts, says the bid was "over $50 million". Glad that John Henry makes that kind of money in a day ... or maybe it takes him a week. Now I'm going to sleep a little easier, since it really looks like the Sox will get their man. Scary news from the Globe is that the Sox may have already made an offer to JD Drew. Say it ain't so, Theo.

I was hoping for more B.B. concerts - the one they have has been offered on Dime - but there's some amazing stuff there, that's for sure. Thanks for kicking me in the butt to actually investigate the site.

The Boston Globe is reporting that the Seibu Lions will meet and discuss the sealed bid at 8 PM ET tonite and that an announcement will be forthcoming shortly thereafter. In fact, the Japanese press is reporting that they will hold a press conference at 8 pm, which suggests the decision will be made before then. Finally, some info is released. I've been sick and tired of checking websites and ESPNews to see if something has broken. Now I can drop that routine and just wait til 8 pm to find out. Please let it be us!

I just had a terrible vision: What if Nomar ends up with the Yankees? I've read that the Yankees are planning on Giambi being their full-time DH next year, which makes sense if Bernie retires and Sheffield is gone. The Dodgers have good young talent if they don't want to meet Nomar's price, and otherwise, with the Cubs signing A-Ram, they have no need for him. Its an obvious match up, and there are some sportswriters who've already predicted Nomar will sign. What a horrible sight, if Nomar returns to Fenway wearing pinstripes.

Here's a funny Mel Torme story from my interview with Eddie Higgins:

80.6, but that still puts me in the same category as the illustrious Phil Kelly.

Not official yet, but pretty much every NY paper is reporting that the Yankees are about to trade Jaret Wright to the O's, for a mid-level prospect or possibly a member of the 25 man roster. Who it turns out to be will determine whether the Yanks pay 4 million of his 7 mil salary. Apparently the idea is to pay what would have been the buy-out amount while getting something in return. For being the king of 5 inning stints, Wright wasn't a terrible pitcher last year in ERA, and it certainly puts more pressure on Pavano to show up and perform, but I guess with Hughes on the doorstep, they figure they can do better than Wright. The funny thing is that when this market shakes out, the seven million he's getting will probably look like a huge bargain. ********************************** Just what the heck is going on in Japan??? I've heard that a meeting may be taking place Monday morning, which would be this afternoon here, so maybe the long wait will be over. I will say this: After Olney's big announcement, it will hurt even more if it turns out the Yanks won the bidding after all.

Why are we reporting what British tabs are saying? since when do they report the truth? I'm not discounting the possibility that Brit doing the nasty may come to a video store or website near you soon, but I'd be more inclined to believe any of it if it comes from a slightly more reputable source. Like, say, People. Or Us Weekly. And Britney trying to hold on to her "innocent" image is just laughable. She didn't french kiss Madonna by accident, you know. She's moved beyond the tweeners and the lecherous old men that were her fan base at the start. She'd survive a sex tape just as Paris did (given how her "career" took off after, I believe the distribution of that tape was engineered by her) and just as Pam Anderson did.

Has anyone ever asked MC about this series? I think it would be interesting to hear from him on the questions of: How did the LT series get approved? Was it practically a "stealth" operation hardly meant to call any attention to itself? What about the art direction and design? Was this part of the 'stealth' campaign, were pictures chosen randomly or with a serious consideration of the artist or album title? ********************************* Jim, I certainly understand the way you describe the feelings these engendered at the time of their release, but there are so many of these covers that don't have any apparent connection to the content that it leads me to believe that your connecting Grant Green and pool hall jukeboxes is like people "hearing" a message from beyond in white noise. You know, people making connections where none exist. or sometimes they decided to do something intelligible with a cover and other times, they just couldn't come up with something or ran out of time. Or they were working with a limited number of these photographs and it was up to the art department to find somethng that might be connected to the reissue and if they didn't, oh well. I happen to have two LTs sitting under my desk waitng for me to find some time to do a CD transfer: Stanley T's In Memory Of and Mr. Natural. Now, In Memory of shows a pile of rocks in the foreground of a desert landscape. Theoretically, this might be a grave marker, hence "In Memory Of". On the other hand, Mr. Natural shows a footprint in sand, lit with a diagonal of sunshine and spruced up with a green leaf. "Mr. Natural"? I'm not feeling it. Maybe it would help to hear or see a compendium of LT covers with commentary on what "works" and what doesn't make a damn bit of sense. The only other one I can think of that was evocative of the title was Thinking of Home because it depicted total desolation, so you could imagine someone being in such a place and "thinking of home".

Jesus. I hope that Theo's inbox is loaded with emails from people sending that article to him. I had no idea that was the kind of person he is. I just knew him as the guy who never seemed to produce because he always got hurt. If the guy truly prefers to disappear than he can't be stupid enough to come to Boston. I hope. If the Dodgers want a stand-up guy who loves to play and get dirty, they should give Trot Nixon a call.

there's just no way you won't enjoy this. Its prime time for some superior musicians, and there's no way this will disappoint.

I don't see Sheffield having a big problem with that park. He hit 35+ playing half his games in the Bronx, which isn't exactly friendly for RHs.

Life goes on, Comrade-in-arms. And you're another year older, so ...

I've never heard a King pressing but I've always assumed that they were superior masterings or at least superior pressings to the "Rainbows".

What Chuck said.

Ex-zack-ta-mundo on this one. I don't see Sheff add too many positives to a club that had very good chemistry, (if that means anything nowadays) and his power might not transfer too well in his new home. I thought Detroit was a launching pad now? Amazing how fast the worm turns. Had Sheffield not gotten injured, he would have surely hit 35 homers/100+ RBIs/.290 and the Yankees would have had no reason to make the Abreu trade and would have surely picked up the option if not signed him to a longer deal, and Yankee fans might have worried about his age but otherwise would have been perfectly happy. No one was bitching about Sheffield's clubhouse presence until he started squacking about his contract status. Now, after a few weeks of his grousing, its "good riddance" and "they'll hate him in Detroit soon enough". Seems to me that Sheffield has two moods: Serious, all-business baseball player or if you've pissed him off or especially if you've "disrespected him", angry selfish egotistical asshole. I don't think the Tigers will have any problem with Sheffield so long as he is in the lineup and produces. Their only problem will arise if his skills deteriorate such that his production wanes and they can't keep him in the lineup. Otherwise, they've got a very dangerous bat in their lineup, precisely what they needed.

Oh hell Dave don't worry about the prospects. The Yanks will eventually trade them and take on somebody's inflated salary-maybe JD Drew. Well that's just plain silly - the reason they had no room for Sheffield is that there is no room in the outfield. So I don't think they're going after Drew. As for the prospects - turns out the most impressive guy, the one who split his season between AA and AAA, has something of a history of arm injuries. So on top of not getting a major league player, they agreed to take a high-risk/high-reward kinda guy as the centerpiece.

Details on the pitching prospects the Yanks received: Realistically, its the first one who can be regarded as a legit prospect and impact arm, being that he's progressed to Triple-A. The others look impressive, but we all know its a long way from Single-A to being a successful major leaguer. I'd be more impressed if the Yanks had gotten two Double-A or above prospects rather than one strong one and two guys who haven't gotten past Single-A.

And the award for All-Time Greatest Non-Sequitor goes to:

The dude on ESPN (who I've never seen before, I think he just writes for Insider) is saying that its a good deal for both teams, that the Yanks got high quality arms. But I agree they should have gotten major league talent. And the other thing is, why pull the trigger now? It seemed like everyone agreed that it would make sense to hold out and see where Soriano and Lee go. Certainly whoever misses out on those two would pay more than they're currently offering for Sheff, right? So it doesn't make sense from at least two perspectives. These guys better be impact arms, Papelbon, Bonderman, Liriano types, or this is a fantastically bad trade.