Mr. Matsuzaka

Daisuke Matsuzaka

It's a name we've recently read in all the papers and heard butchered on sports radio (it's pronounced Dice-kay, I think). The reason for all the coverage, however, is great news for us up here in Boston, as the Red Sox have outbid all the other teams in MLB in a blind auction just to have the chance to negotiate with the guy. I keep hearing about how good and informative the Gammons piece yesterday, but it's an ESPN inSider thing, so I can't read it until I subscribe. (yargh)

Say what you will, Yanker fan, but the Red Sox did not outbid everyone else just so that no one else could negotiate. That's just a foolish notion. The guy's unproven, sure (at least in this country), but I sincerely doubt that Theo and company would throw that kind of money around for someone they hadn't thoroughly researched.

So the next question is, of course, where does he fit in the rotation? Might it be:

• Schilling
• Matsuzaka
• Beckett
• Wakefield
• Papelbon

And if so, where is Lester? Who closes?

Mr. Matsuzaka, whether he knew it or not, just threw a really big log into the baseball stove, and it's starting to heat up.