Red Sox vs. Minnesota Twins 1:05 pm City of Palms Park - Ft. Myers SP: Tim Wakefield tv/radio: NESN - MLB.TV - WRKO

The Twins and Red Sox meet for the third time in 3 days- and the battle for the Mayor's Cup continues. Wakey will take the mound for the Sox, Livan Hernandez will toe the rubber for the Twins.

Use the comments to this entry as your own personal Gameday open thread. These open threads have been fun so far - so I'll keep 'em up as long as y'all are interested in having them.

Sunday brought the first Red Sox defeat since, well, the third game of the ALCS back in October. On a day where the Sox brightest pitching prospect looked mighty shaky, and the Sox recovering sleep apnea patient/pitcher looked shaken apart... all you can do is laugh. And so I give you... LOLSox.

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First, there was the Cookie-Off.
Then, there was a rematch in Cookie-Off, Round Two.
And now, finally at long last... Cookie-Off, Part The Third.

God bless you, Dan Roche, for all you do for us. Although I have to agree with Youk - your puns need some work.

All that's missing is Bronson and his plaintive guitar strumming.

You know I adore you. Really, truly I do. The crazy antics, the dancing, the Bud Light case on your head, the bullpen band, the Scrabble, the goggles, the arguments over spelling, the Friendly's Scoop segments, the absolute lack of any kind of real filter on what comes out of your mouth and the great sense of clubhouse camaraderie you help engender. And obviously, most of all, the phenomenal lights-out pitching you deliver (especially during last season, and most especially during last year's postseason). I can't imagine the Sox bullpen without you- and I am quite serious about that.

But we need to talk.

As much as your lack of a verbal filter entertains me, this is one situation in which you really, really need to just bite your tongue. I have no doubt that you are just venting some frustration, and that most (if not all) ballplayers feel like you do during their contract negotiations.... but: talking about all this money that you "deserve", and comparing yourself to veteran Mariano Rivera (who is hands-down the best closer to ever play the game), and generally being petulant and whiny? You've got to stop.

I'm not saying you're not worth more than they're paying you. I'm not even saying you're wrong for feeling that way. But you have just two years service time - two years! - and that means, unfortunately, that what you are "worth" and what you "deserve" are two very different things.

Fair or not, the major league baseball system basically results in underpaying rookies and new guys for their first two or three years of service... and then basically overpays them from there on out. Yes, that means you have to "suffer" through a couple of years at $400-500K a year, but you'll be making seven figures from year 4 on forward.

Also, I know you'd like to make the $900,000 Ryan Howard did after his second year - but (a) he won NL Rookie of the Year his first year, (b) he won the National League MVP award in his second year, and (c) he racked up 31 win shares that same second year. You were phenomenal, no doubt about it - but you had 12 win shares to his 31. Your value as a closer who saw 58.3 innings of work is just flat not the same as that of an everyday player and league MVP. You and Ryan Howard are not equivalent for salary purposes-- it's apples and oranges.

One player who is comparable to you: Bobby Jenks. He is a closer at very nearly the same service level, with 65 innings of work last year and 14 win shares. Your ERA and WHIP lines beat him out, but his overall value to his club is higher than yours by about the same margin. He made $450,000 last year, and is quite contented with his raise to $550,000. That's who you need to be making comparisons to, not Ryan Howard.

And I wouldn't argue at all if you felt you deserved to make even a little more than Jenks -- baseball has (ridiculously) started tying "respect" to salary, and I get that. You're the reigning World champ, I'd support a $575,000 payday. But you've got to stop with the thinking that you're somehow entitled to a near $1 million dollar paycheck after just two years (one of which saw you shut down with an injury). It's unrealistic, and if it leads to you getting offended by a half million dollar offer from the club... it could be potentially toxic to your working relationship in the future.

The Red Sox adore you, Boston adores you, the fans adore you - and everyone will totally back your giant payday that will most certainly be your due. But only after you finish up your third year and maintain your health and value. Even though you're priceless to the fans, that doesn't mean you "deserve" a million dollar salary at this moment.

And I say that with nothing but love.

Jacoby was featured in a Men's Vogue spread. Josh Beckett retaliated with a cover and spread in Men's Fitness magazine. Jacoby responded this week - he is featured as the "First Person" in Sports Illustrated. What's next in this contest - Josh posing on the cover of Bride's magazine? Jacoby hugging Oprah on the cover of O magazine?

click on the picture for a scan of the article

From the March 10, 2008 issue:

On being a starting centerfielder in the World Series, just 16 weeks after his big league debut, and batting .438

There was pressure, but I figured this is uncharted territory for a lot of guys. Even if you're a five-time All-Star, if you've never been to the postseason, it's new. I told myself there was no reason to back down. I didn't want it to be over and think, Oh, man, I could've gone harder.

On the post-Series parade held in his honor in his hometown, Madras, Ore.

The coolest thing was that it seemed like I knew everybody by first name, my old teachers, my former teammates, my old classmates. Only 5,000 people live in our town, and at least that many were at the parade. A lot of people talked about seeing me on TV running in to celebrate after the last out. They were saying, "You should have seen your face. It was priceless."

On Boston's Coco Crisp, whom he replaced in center during the ALCS

We talk, we joke, but the centerfield job hasn't come up. We know what's going on. He's been great. The day I got called up, Coco took me out to centerfield at Fenway and started telling me, "O.K., if the ball hits [the wall] here, this is what it will do and where you need to be." He spent an hour with me.

On the off-season regimen that helped him gain 15 pounds and improve his considerable speed

I do something called SPARQ. It stands for speed, power, agility, reaction and quickness, and it's about focusing on muscle groups that relate to what I do on the field. One thing I do is swing a [61⁄2-pound] medicine ball like a bat--it generates explosiveness through your hips, abs, legs, upper body. I've never felt more prepared for a season. I've never been this powerful, this explosive.

Red Sox vs. L.A. Dodgers 1:05 pm City of Palms Park - Ft. Myers SP: Tim Wakefield tv/radio: ESPN - MLB.TV

It's Wakey Wake and the Sox versus DLowe and the Dodgers - and the battle will take place live on your television set on ESPN.

Use the comments to this entry as your own personal Gameday open thread. These open threads have been fun so far - so I'll keep 'em up as long as y'all are interested in having them.

I have no idea what that song title has to do with today's Sox vs. Dodgers matchup, but after watching Bobby Kielty goof around in the background while an unaware Jacoby Ellsbury was giving a very serious dugout interview to ESPN... that's just what popped in my head. So I'm rolling with it.

Maybe Bobby is trying to distract us from the stat lines of pitching prospects Hunter Jones (blown save!) and Lee Gronkiewicz (18.00 ERA over 0.1 IP!), but it's not working. Tim Wakefield's three great innings of scoreless work do soothe, though- he looked solid as ever.

Baseball Boyfriend of the Day honors go to Sean Casey - who is batting .444 this spring (!) and had two hits today (!!). He also tumbled ass-over-teakettle in pursuit of a 6-4-3 double play- and any guy who's willing to do acrobatics to get the out always gets bonus style points from me.

Of course, I have video of the Kielty antics. I love that the ESPN team doesn't see fit to clue Jacoby in about Bobby's clowning, and so Jacoby just happily chatters on completely unaware (while several guys crack up in the dugout behind him).

If you're looking for me over the next 11 days, this is where I'll be:

Clearwater, Florida - here I come!

Never fear, I'll be checking in to post regularly-- in between the 9 baseball games. And the beach. And the bars. I'm already dreading coming back... and I haven't even left!

While I'm gone, I'll plan to continue posting open game threads for the televised spring training games. And I'll count on y'all to leave me notes about funny things that happen during the game that you'd like to get video of when I return.

So I'm at the Phillies-Indians game at the Indians ballpark in Winter Haven, Florida, basking in the sun and hating on Ryan Garko (he totally deserves it), when I get a frantic text that says: "Beckett!! Nooooooooo!" Which was very cruel and unkind to do to a person who is at a ballgame and therefore has no idea what is going on and so imagines the worst. So I hop on to the Globe's website, and find:

I blame myself.

Clearly, it is no coincidence that the first day I'm otherwise occupied down here in Florida, Josh goes off and pulls a stunt like this to get my attention back.

It's not exactly as scenic as City of Palms, huh?

Notice that the scourge of the Yankees is encroaching in the lower corner of the photo. Thankfully, he was not sitting anywhere near me - so I didn't have to get up and move away from him.