- Well there is no sense in poo-pooing this one. If the Yanks land Randy Johnson, regardless of what it does to the long-term health of the Bombers, I would say it quickly catapults them to clear favorite status in the AL East and I am not sure there is a move the Sox could make to counter it. The one hope would be that this would be the year that the party ended for the Unit and that’s a possibility. One of these years, age will catch up to Johnson and he will just plain suck. I think there’s about a 15% chance of that happening this year.

- All the Red Sox have guaranteed themselves in signing Edgar Renteria is a shortstop that will most likely perform above the league average for the life of the deal. Nothing more. Offensively, it appears as though Renteria’s off-the-charts 2003 was a real anomaly and any expectations that Edgar will return to such levels are probably unwarranted. His defense is a question mark. UZR has him rated quite well while Baseball Prospectus’ defensive metrics show Renteria as a decidedly poor fielder. But Renteria won’t hurt the Red Sox and I suppose there is something to be said for that.

- Another Hall voter without the first clue of how to evaluate a baseball player. I particularly liked this extract:

“A slap-hitter at a power position, Boggs was a classic one-dimensional ballplayer. Although very good at that dimension – he won five batting titles – he had nowhere near the impact of his former Boston teammate, Jim Rice, who inconceivably keeps getting overlooked by my Baseball Writers Association of America colleagues.”

Boggs had a career OPS+ of 130, Rice’s was 128. Boggs played third, Rice left. Boggs had a career RC/27 of 7.03, Rice 6.32. Boggs could play defense, Rice could not….I could go on. Bear in mind that this guy also referred to Andre Dawson as “a great run producer” in the same piece. Yes that Andre Dawson of the .323 career on-base.

Sigh.

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