Funny Because It Just Is

The Red Sox Are Chumps

That high pitched sound you hear is the collective whine of the city of Boston as Scott Boras really twists the arms of the Red Sox Front Office.

Either Matsuzaka pitches for the Sox next season, at a reasonable price, or he can straighten his seatback and put his tray table in the upright and locked position.
It’s either Hello, Boston . . .
Or Sayonara, Daisuke.
Fifteen million a year? Please. If Matsuzaka and Boras are still asking for that today, the Sox have one choice and one choice only. They should help Matsuzaka pack his bags, call him a cab, then drop him off on the street corner before they board owner John Henry’s private jet back to Boston. Matsuzaka can go back to Japan, back to the Seibu Lions, who paid him roughly $2.75 million last year to dominate a second-rate league.
Somehow, somewhere along the line, a funny thing happened in these negotiations between Matsuzaka and the Red Sox: the tail started wagging the dog, the Red Sox started acting like the the ones that had something to prove. Boras is a brilliant negotiator and a master at leverage, and the Red Sox somehow came to believe that it was their responsibility to convince Matsuzaka to pitch for them.
The truth, of course, is that Matsuzaka is the one who has yet to prove a damn thing; if he goes back to Japan, it will be at least another year until he proves anything at all. For all that has been said during these “negotiations” regarding Japanese codes like honor and tradition, the irony is that Matsuzaka has spit in the face of Major League Baseball and the Red Sox.
Boras may be in the middle of these negotiations, after all, but he works for Matsuzaka.
Seriously: At what point does this madness stop? At what point does a team just say no to someone who has never thrown a pitch in the major leagues, yet demands to be paid as if he were a young Pedro Martinez?
At what point does an athlete offend our sense of what is just, solely because he has an agent who can manipulate the system?
When?
Let’s rewind here for a moment. The Red Sox did not create these rules. They simply have played by them. Through agreement between baseball officials from Major League Baseball and Japan, the Red Sox competed in an auction for Matsuzaka’s rights. They won that auction. They have since engaged in discussion with Boras, who wants to treat Matsuzaka as if he were Barry Zito.
More than ever, here is what the Red Sox need to realize: They truly have nothing to lose here. If Matsuzaka does not pitch for them, he will not pitch for another major league team next season. No baseball observer in his right mind will point to Matsuzaka, like we pointed to Bronson Arroyo, because the Chiba Lotte Marines simply do not qualify as legitimate competition.
For all of the problems that have plagued professional sports and, in particular, baseball over the years, this much has remained true: players have had to perform, on the biggest stage, to earn their money. No major league player is eligible for arbitration until he has reached three full years of service; no player is eligible for free agency until he has reached six years. You don’t get into the Hall of Fame just for showing up.
Matsuzaka? He looks like a unique talent with a gifted right arm. On the other hand, so did Robinson Checo. Now Matsuzaka wants a seat at the big table, but he wants someone else to bankroll him, too. He wants to win big. He wants to risk nothing.
And if that’s the way this man works, do you really want to give him the ball, at Yankee Stadium, with something on the line?

Heh. It's funny because it's happening to Boston. If it were happening to New York, I wouldn't be writing this up with a smirk, I tell you. I'm kind of over the disappointment of D-Mat going to the Bosox and their stupid 51.1m bid - at least I keep telling myself that so I can sleep at nights.

All the same, all this hullaballoo is in stark contrast with the near-silence of the Yankee-Igawa talks that are proceeding. There has been a comment made by agent Arn Tellem that he thinks the agreement should be done by around the 20th of December. It would be really funny if the Yanks secured Igawa without a hitch and the Bosox really screwed the pooch on Matsuzaka, sending him back to Japan. Watch Boston fire up their blamethrowers then... and just that anxiety is probably driving Boston nuts already.

Go Scott Boras, you go screw with their heads right and proper, old chap. I'm sure Matsuzaka is going to be perfectly fine facing the Yanks as a Bosox; or facing the Orix Blue Waves as a Seibu Lion; and Igawa is going to be perfectly fine facing the Bosox.