Wade Boggs stood at the hot corner during pregame introductions, tipping his hat to the adoring crowd at Yankee stadium. Thanks to the folks at medical hair restoration, his newfound luscious locks waving in the New York City wind.
    Call me the bitter Red Sox fan, still scarred by the site of that man riding a horse through Yankee Stadium after the clinching game of the 1996 world series. But what I saw tonight was a coward, afraid of getting booed.
    Boggs was inducted to the Hall of Fame as a member of the Boston Red Sox. That is the hat he wears on his Cooperstown plaque. He could have done as Gary Carter did. Gary wore his Expos hat and waved his Mets hat to the crowd. Or better yet. Dave Winfield wore his San Diego Padres hat and waved his Yankees hat to the fans.
    Hell, Boggs could've done something great for the game of baseball and waved his now outdated Tampa Bay Devil Rays hat to the crowd, seeing how he is the only member of the Hall of Fame to have played there.
    Does anyone remember that? Boggs was a pioneer member of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in1998 and 1999. In fact, he hit the first home run in the franchises history. He batted second in one of the most historic lineups in baseball history.
    You might say murderer's row of the 1927 Yankees or maybe the 1997 Cleveland Indians were the best lineups ever. And you would be correct.
    But Boggs combined with players such as Jose Canseco, Greg Vaughn, Fred McGriff and Vinnie Castillo, in a line up dubbed "the hit parade", that featured more career home runs then any other line up ever assembled.
    Were they as productive that late in their career's? No. But history is what it is.
    Wade was put in a unique position tonight. Promote the upstart Rays or pour some gasoline on the fire that is the Red Sox and Yankees rivalry.
    Instead he took the cowards way out and chose simply to appease the hometown crowd. What else would you expect from a man who's afraid to be bald.

Cool Fact- Since the 1940's there have been 3 players to record at least 5 straight 200 hit seasons. All 3 were on the field tonight. The 2 playing were Ichiro Suzuki and Michael Young. The other? The aforementioned coward Wade Boggs.

And just like that it appears the Red Sox brass is at it again. A full sunrise and sunset after GM Theo Epstein predicts a quiet off season, and all of the sudden the Sox are the leading candidates to acquire the services of the best pitcher in baseball.

I previously wrote in a post ( http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/bigsoxfan/20
07/11/23/Is_Another_Twin_City_Star_Coming_To_Shine
_In_Boston) about trading Bucholz, Lester, and Ellsbury for Nathan and Santana, and received mixed reviews. The most common comment was "your giving up the farm." That's to much." "There's to much of an upside for those guys "

Agreed, it's quite a package, but it's the price you pay if you want to make a deal like that. Hey, I love those prospects, but they are just that, prospects. I'll take a proven commodity over a hope any day! If I wanted to watch prospects, I wouldn’t have purchased MLB's extra innings package to watch the Sox. I could've watched the Pirates games for free.

But given the big trade that the Twins pulled off with the Ray's yesterday, the landscape of the deal has been entirely transformed. Now it appears the Sox could pull this off by including 2 major league players (Coco Crisp and Jon Lester) as well as 2 prospects (Jed Lowrie and either Justin Masterson or Michael Bowden). It gets a little more complicated, as most things do, when you break down the financial aspects of the deal as well.

For Minnesota, they receive a quality starting pitcher who many organizations have tried to pry away for so many years (Lester), who they can slot right into the starters role to help fill the void of Santana. They get a tremendous defensive centerfielder at a bargain price in today’s free agent market (Crisp), who's more then capable to cover the carpet departed fan favorite Torii Hunter has left behind.

Now that they've traded short stop Jason Bartlett for Brendan Harris, they would be able to insert Lowry at the short stop position, and move Harris to second base. The position most scouts think he is more suited for. Bowden or Masterson could conceivably be in the bullpen, or spend another season in the minors and be major league ready by next year. Best of all for the Twins, they dump salary so they can focus on resigning Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer and they would still be able to move into that new stadium in 2010, with a contending team.

The Sox side is a little more difficult. Yes they would be getting an ace of diamonds to go along with their ace of ####s Josh Beckett. But, they're going to have to pay the man. Santana is reportedly looking for a 5 or 6-year deal worth in the vicinity of $150 million. A couple of problems exist, the biggest one would be only having a 72-hour window to negotiate an extension. If they failed to do it, Santana would be staying with the Twins for another two weeks before the Yankees came in and made the deal happen. 2004. A-rod. Ring a bell anyone?

Sure the Red Sox have the money but 20-25 million is a lot to invest in a player who can only help you once every 5 days. Injury is always a concern, but consider this. In the past 4 seasons Santana has pitched at least 5 innings in every start except one. The one he didn't was only shortened due to a rain delay 4 2/3 innings in.

He will be turning 29 at the beginning of the season thus entering his prime years. A time when good pitchers become great, and great pitchers become legends.

As I said before, the money is there. Consider he's only due $13.5 million this season, if Crisp goes, essentially your only paying him around $9 million. That my friend's, is a bargain. You won't even find a deal like that at your local flea market. 220 innings, 230 strikeouts, an ERA around 3.00 and 20 wins.

Next year the money could be there as well. Schilling's $13 million comes off the books, as well as Crisps $5 million. Cut your ties with veteran knukleballer Tim Wakefield ($4 million) and I believe you've found your first $20 million right there. And this is assuming that they pick up the $20 million option on Manny Ramirez. We are yet to hear what the deal is regarding that situation.

If the proposed trade goes down, he is even more affordable to the Red Sox because of the young talent they have, at a very low price. The likes of Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Manny Delcarmen, Kevin Youkilis, Clay Bucholz, and Jonathan Papelbon will all be under their control for the next 3-5 years. Hell, Josh Beckett's only do $30 million the next 3 years and they've got Dice-K for 5 more years at $48 million.

It looks good right now. The deal is there. The money is there. The will is there. The only problem is so are the Yankees. If they don't act quickly, New York will most likely try to sweeten their offer. Theo, don't think twice. If they accept this proposed trade as is, you need to make it happen.

Like that 20 something year old kid who finally decides it's time to leave his parents basement, the Rays might be moving out of the one they've been occupying in the AL East since their inception to the league. Don't look now, but the Rays are looking like a franchise that's ready to get serious. Today was a great day for baseball as two small market teams made a huge trade for both sides.

Minnesota and Tampa Bay made a 6 player deal that sends starting pitcher Matt Garza, short stop Jason Bartlett, and AA right-handed pitcher Eduardo Morlan to the Gulf Coast in exchange for Rookie of The Year candidate Delmon Young, shortstop Brendan Harris and outfielder Jason Pridie. This is a great deal for both sides.

This came as a surprising move to me given the plethora of young outfield talent Tampa Bay has assembled. I thought that they would try to move Rocco Baldelli. Perhaps Minnesota was interested in Baldelli's services, but feared that the oft-injured center fielder would not hold up for an entire season playing on the artificial turf of the Metrodome.

In Young, Minnesota picks up a right-handed bat (albeit he does come with more baggage then just a suitcase) capable of replacing departed centerfielder Torii Hunter's spot in the Order. Only entering his second season, Young hopes to build on a rookie year in which he put up some very impressive numbers. Young started all 162 games for the Rays; batting .288 with 13 home runs, 93 RBIs and 10 steals. He is also blessed with an absolute cannon for an arm, which helped lead him to 16 outfield assists.

Minnesota can also use Jason Pridie in centerfield if they cannot make a deal for Boston's Coco Crisp, or fill the void through free agency. Pridi is a youngster with a positive upside.

Now onto the Tampa Bay side of the deal. Yes they did give up a very promising player, but they are getting what they need the most in return, another solid starting pitchier. The Rays can slot Garza (who projects to be the kind of pitcher capable of 15-18 wins with an ERA under 4.00) into the third spot in their rotation behind the blossoming James Shields and last years strike out leader and future Cy Young contender Scott Kashmir. Following in the four and five spots in the rotation would appear to be Andy Sonnanstine and Edwin Jackson.

Jason Bartlett is a good defensive short stop who is both unknown and underrated. Hopefully he will be the kind of defensive upgrade that will help the Rays finsh somewhere other then last place in fielding percentage.

Remember last year at the trading deadline the Rays management said they were looking to solidify their bullpen. They traded Ty Wigginton to the Astros for reliever Dan Wheeler, who will be returning for another season. Couple him with one of last years best surprises, closer Al Reyes, and the back end of the pen looks like they might be able to hold some leads. It is rumored that the Rays have interest in bringing free agent Troy Percival on board. One can only assume that Percival would want a closing job and Reyes would become a setup man. It remains to be seen if the newly acquired Morlan will be major league ready at some point during the 2008 season. If he is, look for him to jump into a middle relief spot. 

Don't forget the Rays can hit.  Out of the 30 teams in MLB they were 15th in runs scored last year, 16th in hits, 15th in batting average, 10th in slugging percentage and ranked 12th in OPS. As a team they also recorded 131 steals, good for third in the AL. Sure they rank in the middle of the pack in the Major Leagues but there are at least 15 other teams that would like to be ranked where they are. Keep in mind this is still a young team that can only get better.

When you break down their projected lineup it actually looks pretty scary 1-5. With one of the most overlooked players in all the game leading off, Carl Crawford is a solid defender and an absolute terror on the base paths. Last year Crawford posted a career best .315 average, and swiped 50 bases for the 4th time in his 6 seasons. The versatile B.J. Upton should follow him. Last season Upton was the proud owner of a .300 average and slugged .508.

Behind them there is the resurgent Carlos Pena. Who if he hits anywhere near the way he did last year (46 homers, 121 RBI, and .411 OBP) will certainly strike fear into the opposing pitching staff. Johnny Gomes has the kind of power capable of hitting 30+ homeruns. Akinori Iwamura will be entering his second season and will hopefully build on his rookie season in which he had to overcome the changes from the Japan leagues, and adjust to the ML schedule, traveling, and culture. He still hit .285 with 7 dingers and 35 RBI primarily from the lead off spot.

The rest of the lineup should be rounded out by Rocco Baldelli (if healthy), Dioner Navarro, Jason Bartlett, and youngster Evan Longoria.

No, they are not ready to overtake the Yankees or Red Sox this year, but as of right now I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they finished third in the AL East. But my hat goes off to the Rays management. On the same day they announced their plans to open a gorgeous waterfront stadium with a retractable roof capable of holding 34,00 people, they might have given people a good reason to fill it.