Doug Mirabelli

Breaking Jason Varitek’s psychological hold on the Red Sox

What does the return of Varitek mean for the club? Does it mean "more of the same?" No, I don't think it does. The actions of management over the last year have shown that the club is intent on shaking the psychological hold that Varitek holds over the team.

Varitek is a great leader, "The Captain," renowned for his hard work. But no one can defeat time, and if the Sox are to weather the transition from Varitek into another catcher, the team has to be weaned off 'Tek and how much he means to the club.

February 2, 2009 evan brunell

Boston Red Sox

The Varitek Signing Aftershock

When comparing Varitek to similar catchers of his caliber and taking todays economy into effect, this is just bad management on the Sox part. However, this is no longer here nor there, and I think every rational Sox fan agrees with this. The real question now is, how do the rest of the catchers stack up after this?

Not to belabor an already conspicuous thought, but with the games played incentive that was so generously added by Mr. John Henry & Co. and Tito Francona's persistence on sticking with his veterans, one can safely presume that Varitek will get the vast majority of the at-bats coming from the catching position. So now the question becomes even more interesting, who gets the other fraction of the at-bats?

February 1, 2009 daniel rathman

Jason Varitek

Varitek returns to Red Sox

Word on the street via Jon Heyman has Jason Varitek accepting the Red Sox's offer of one year plus a second year with a mutual option. The race to find a catcher of the future can wait.

January 30, 2009 evan brunell

Fireside Chats Podcast

Fireside Chats #32: Where a Keurig machine is our answer to greenies

Paul and Tim discuss the merits of the Keurig coffee machine, the contracts of Kevin Youkilis and Jonathan Papelbon, and look at the early returns from the infield in the 2009 "For Better or Worse" series on Fire Brand of the American League. Oh...and how could we forget banging our heads against the Varitek wall a few more times before a final decision is made.

All that and more on Episode #32 of Fireside Chats on MVN!

January 27, 2009 tim daloisio

Jason Varitek

‘Tek gets $5M offer

Rob Bradford of WEEI.com is reporting that the Red Sox have made an offer to Jason Varitek. This offer would pay Tek $5 million in 2009 and include a team option for 2010 at another $5 million. Varitek can also exercise a $3 million player option if the team declines their end of the option. Varitek has been clear in that he wants a multi-year contract, so this may satisfy both parties. The Red Sox have given Varitek an unknown deadline of when to accept the offer.

January 25, 2009 evan brunell

David Ortiz

Using xBABIP and IF/F to predict some Sox’s 2009 numbers

A month ago, Chris Dutton and Peter Bendix collaborated together to come up with a new statistic -- xBABIP. For batters, a .300 BABIP is not a reliable benchline (as it is for pitchers), nor is there one standard benchline across all batters. They have to be personalized, which Dutton and Bendix did.

David Ortiz looks to be in line for a monster regression to the mean... except in this case, regression is a good thing. You can expect a .300 average as a reasonable forecast next year for Big Papi.

Check out the numbers behind the reasoning for Big Papi, plus some interesting numbers on Jason Bay, Julio Lugo and others...

January 7, 2009 evan brunell

Brian Schneider

All’s quiet on the Western front

For all the build up heading into Las Vegas, the 2008 Winter Meetings has started off with more of a whimper than a bang.

There seems to be more posturing than action at every turn, and maybe that's to be expected in a market that shows more signs of mirroring the overall economic climate than the continued bonanza that free agents were hoping for.

Take for example Rafael Furcal and Francisco Rodriguez, who both turned their backs on lucrative contract offers because they expected more to be out there this winter.

December 9, 2008 josh lacey

Jason Varitek

Sox set to sign Baldelli, Bloomquist?

The Red Sox have been hotly linked to two players: Seattle's Willie Bloomquist and Tampa Bay's Rocco Baldelli.

December 8, 2008 evan brunell

Jason Varitek

Varitek to decline arbitration

Jon Heyman is reporting that the Red Sox's longtime catcher, Jason Varitek, will decline arbitration. He was theorized to possibly accept, as he would have received a raise over his current $10.4 million salary and possibly rebuild his value for the free agent market next year.

Either Varitek (or really, Scott Boras) feels he will be able to get Varitek a multi-year deal worth significant money or there is already such a deal on the table.

December 7, 2008 evan brunell

C.C. Sabathia

The Truth is Out There

While the truth may be out there, it's awash with a sea of misinformation deeper than any Mulder and Scully had to wade through.

Buster Olney provides the latest fodder for the Red Sox rumor mill in his links column on ESPN Insider.

December 5, 2008 josh lacey