Red Sox Sign John Maine

MLB Trade Rumors passes along the announcement that The Red Sox have signed starting pitcher John Maine to a minor league contract. Maine, now 30 years old, was once rated as the 54th best prospect in baseball by Baseball America back in 2004.  His best major league...

Red Sox Sign Cody Ross

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports had reported, via Twitter, that the Red Sox have signed outfielder Cody Ross. Update: ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports, via Twitter, that the deal has a base salary of $3M and includes performance incentives. Ross made about $6.3M...

Fire Brand turns 8!

Yesterday on December 31, 2011, Fire Brand of the American League turned eight years old. On December 31, 2003, I was still smarting from the pain of Aaron Boone’s heart-wrenching home run and felt I needed a forum to put my rantings. The blogosphere had yet to...

Red Sox Acquire Bailey for Reddick

MLB Trade Rumors has announced that the long-rumored Andrew Bailey to the Sox trade talks have finally come to fruition. The Sox acquire the Oakland closer in exchange for former top prospect and 2011 big league contributor Josh Reddick. More details to come…...

Happy Holidays!

On behalf of everyone at Fire Brand (Evan, Charlie, Troy, Alex, Scott, Justine, Tim, Paul, and myself), I wanted to wish everyone a happy holidays!  We’ll back to our regularly scheduled writing starting tomorrow!  Enjoy the day with your families and friends!...

Turning Two: Sox Sign Punto

In a move that takes some time to absorb, the Red Sox came to terms with Nick Punto on a two year deal worth $3.5M. I will be the first to admit that I was a bit irritated by the news that Ben & Co. felt the need to sign the grittiest and scrappiest player that...

Sox Did Not Bid on Yu Darvish

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports, via Twitter, that the Red Sox did not place a bid on Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish. Of the 313 votes cast on this weeks poll, 63 percent voted in favor of the Sox placing a bid on Darvish....

Rumors: Papi, Bailey, Pitching

Here are some rumors from Tuesday’s winter meetings… Update #3: ESPNBoston.com, through ESPN Deportes, reports that David Ortiz is likely to accept arbitration, which will give him a raise in salary for 2012, but no commitment beyond that for the Sox....