In what surely will go down as the most ridiculous case of Scott Boras’ greed, it appears the Boston Red Sox and star Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka won’t be getting together after all. The Boston Herald reported today that negotiations to bring the star pitcher to Beantown are not going well — so much so that a deal prior to the Thursday deadline does not appear that it will happen. Reportedly, the Sox are offering between $7-8 million per year for four years (not bad for a pitcher who has never thrown even one of his “gryoballs” in MLB yet) whereas Boras is asking for $15 per season. If unable to reach a deal, Boston will be off the hook for the $51.1 million fee the team was willing to pay to Matsuzaka’s Japanese team, the Seibu Lions, as compensation. Matsazaka went 17-5 last season with the Lions, coupled with a 2.13 ERA.  

Speculation is rampant that — if talks in fact do not achieve a deal between Matsuzaka and Boston — the team will hand a blank cheque to former Sox hurler (and modern-day mercenary) Roger Clemens. What isn’t known, however, is whether Clemens would be willing to return to a team that cast him aside years ago as a pitcher supposedly on the wane, in particular in that Andy Petitte recently signed for a return to the Bronx.

- The Heckler

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 10th, 2006 at 10:23 am and is filed under Baseball Hotstove. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.