US$51.1million

Red Sox Win D-Mat Bid
OMG.
The Red Sox outdid EVERYBODY by plonking down a bid for US$51.1million to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka and Scott Boras. That's a lot of money for a team that allegedly couldn't take on Bobby Abreu's contract at the trade deadline. It seems to me that the Bosox and their fans have no business whining about Yankee payroll now; their owner HAS MONEY. That shite is done, my friends.

Then Seibu announced Tuesday night that the actual figure was $51.1 million. Let's just say the news blew Mark DeRosa's $13 million contract with the Chicago Cubs right out of the water.

For sake of reference, the $51.1 million figure is more than the 2006 opening day payrolls in Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Tampa Bay and Florida. Alex Rodriguez couldn't be reached for comment, but our guess is that even he thinks it's a lot of money.

Now it's roll-up-your-sleeves time for the Red Sox, who will begin communications with agent Scott Boras and make arrangements to bring Matsuzaka to Boston on a get-acquainted tour. There's no turning back now.

Without a good faith effort to sign Matsuzaka, the Red Sox pretty much torch their efforts to make inroads in the Far East, at a time when the most visionary and innovative franchises have to think about international growth.

Still, the Bosox have 30 days to come up with a contract with Scott Boras. Let's say it's a 5 year $15m/p.a. sort of deal. That would make he outlay $126.1m over 5 years. That's A-Rod money. This could turn out to be the biggest albatross contract out there, no matter how good D-Mat is going to be; heck, look at A-Rod and the hoopla surrounding his contract and crowd expectations.
D-Mat is going to have to ask himself if he really wants to be shackled with that expectation.

UPDATE: What sort of pitching can you buy for $51.1m?
Here's a look.

Sum of the Parts
For $51.1 million you could have a conversation with Daisuke Matsuzaka (right) ... or you could assemble an entire staff of the best pitchers of 2006, including the top five starters in ERA, the top five relievers in holds, and the top closer in saves with $2.274 million left over for the league's best bullpen catcher:
Player Pos. 2006 Salary
Johan Santana, MIN SP $8.75M
Brandon Webb, ARI SP $2.5M
Roy Halladay, TOR SP $12.75M
Roy Oswalt, HOU SP $11M
Chris Carpenter, STL SP $5M
Scot Shields, LAA RP $2.1M
Joel Zumaya, DET RP $327K
Aaron Heilman, NYM RP $359K
Scott Linebrink, SD RP $1.365M
Juan Rincon, MIN RP $900K
Francisco Rodriguez, LAA CL $3.775M
Total salary -- $48.826M

Well, whaddya know? That's a pretty good 11-man staff. What this says is that the Bosox went and bid silly-money. For my Aussie readers.... You can buy the roster of the Australian Cricket team 3 times over with that money.