News, Views, Links and more from the Red Sox Wire.


SURVIVING GRADY THE JOYS OF BORAS From today's Globe:

For all the positive vibes generated by the dinner, negotiations on a contract may yet take on a different tenor. Neither side is willing to discuss publicly the course talks are taking, but it should not be considered a fait accompli that Matsuzaka will be in a Boston uniform next season. Do the Red Sox want him? Absolutely. Does the player want to play in the major leagues? No doubt.

Are there considerable obstacles to a deal? Yes, the primary one being a difference of opinion in how Boras believes his client should be paid and how the Sox calculate his value. Boras is expected to seek a contract similar to that given the elite pitchers in the majors today, which means at least eight figures a year, and he probably will want a clause making Matsuzaka a free agent after just three years, perhaps four at the most.

"A difference of opinion in how Boras believes his client should be paid and how the Sox calculate his value"? Go figure! READ MORE!

...IN PINSTRIPE TERRITORY THIS IS BOSTON, NOT L.A. Apparently we've shown Daisuke around Boston. The L. A. section. I guess it's like when Chan's parents "come to visit" from Hong Kong and they only go as far as California and Chan has to meet them out there. READ MORE!

BOSOX WEST SOX HOT STOVE IS COOKIN’ Rolling the Dice
First, the offseason. The big splash has already been made with the Sox paying $51.1 Million just to speak to Daisuke Masuzaka and his miasmic agent Scott Boras. The media has made a big stink about the expenditure, especially in NY, and have tried to whip up an anti-Sox frenzy by calling this a crazy over-spend. It is not. It is a perfectly sensible, market-rate to below market-rate spend in the 2007 free agent world, even with the Sox overmatching the Mets' next-best bid by $10 Mil.

JD and Julio
By all accounts, the Sox are major players for both of these guys. Sadly, the Cubs are too, although why any player would sign for a team that will destroy their careers is beyond me. If ever a team were truly cursed, the Cubbies are that team. READ MORE!

RED SOX CHICK CONGRATULATIONS, JUSTIN MORNEAU! Your American League MVP.  Definitely a choice I can support!
I still think Papi should have won, let alone NOT come in third, but Justin had a great year, no denying it. READ MORE!

GYS NETWORK MOURNEAU. MVP. Nice. Very nice. READ MORE!

SAWX BLOGMORNEAU WINS AL MVP - DAVID ORTIZ GETS THIRD I will take this time to congratulate Morneau and take slight solace with the fact that Jeter didn't win the MVP. I do think however that the AL should really look into banning the DH. I'm saying this all slightly bitter taste in my mouth, but I mean come on. Why (in my not so humble opinion) is the AL so much better then the NL to watch? The DH. That and the fact that the 7-9 hitters aren't over glorified AAAA players.

A lot of people's arguments are that the DH isn't a "real" position, and they don't play the whole game, blah, blah, blah. So why have it is my question. I'll tell you one thing, ask any pitcher in MLB who's real and they'll tell you David Ortiz.

In the past 4 years of MVP voting he's one of the players who's always there in voting.

2003 - 5th place just ahead of two Red Sox, and he didn't even start the whole year.
2004 - 4th place just behind another Boston teammate.
2005 - 2nd place. Totally robbed here, no way A-Rod should have won this.
2006 - 3rd place. His offensive number were the best of any Red Sox ever... READ MORE!


FIREBRAND OF THE AMERICAN LEAGUE THE ANNUAL ‘TRADING MANNY’ ARTICLE It’s that time of year again. It’s the “trade Manny Ramirez” column from Fire Brand! (2004, 2005, Zach’s parody of a roundtable of experts discussing a trade) The difference here is that it’s the first column where its widely believed that it could happen without much of a problem. In past years, a trade would be discussed, but it was always such a long shot. Is it a long shot this year? Manny Ramirez is due $36 million over the next two years, with two concurring club options for two years after that, both at $20 million. Two years with $36 million on it doesn’t seem that obscene, especially with Alfonso Soriano, 31, signing for eight years at $136 million (Manny signed for eight as well, for $24 more million at 28 years of age). It doesn’t seem like a long shot. As a matter of fact, it seems like we could get some actual value in return. READ MORE!

YANKSFAN V. SOXFAN BIG MONEY Alfonso Soriano's contract is the fifth-largest in baseball history. The Top 5, with the first year of their new contract and their age during that season:

Alex Rodriguez, 10 years, $252 million (2001, 25) Derek Jeter, 10 years, $189 million (2001, 27) Manny Ramirez, 8 years, $160 million (2001, 29) Todd Helton, 11 years, $141.5 million (2003, 29) Alfonso Soriano, 8 years, $136 million (2007, 31) READ MORE!

BOSTON GLOBE HENRY, THEO, TITO MEET DICE-K Red Sox GM Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona were spotted on a plane coming back to Boston from Los Angeles yesterday by a Globe reporter, and refused to confirm the obvious: They were on their way back from a visit with Daisuke Matsuzaka. READ MORE!

JOY OF SOX GET OUT THE VOTE Ryan Howard wins the NL MVP in a race (388-347) that was not quite as close as I anticipated. (AL MVP announced this afternoon.) Also, today is the last day of Round 1 to vote for me for Best Sports Blog in the Canadian Blog Awards. ... Let's do it! Yeeeearrgh! READ MORE!

YANKSFAN V. SOXFAN LOST IN THE DICE-K/DJ/SORI SHUFFLE Mike Mussina's degree in economics from Stanford means he knows a lot more about money than I ever will.  It also means he probably knew a good deal when he saw it and yesterday re-upped for two years and 23M.  Glad to have him, and at a discount; it's only 2M more per year than what NY pays Pav... READ MORE!

BOSTON GLOBE PITCHER GETS A TASTE OF THE U.S. From the team that made a working dinner out of Thanksgiving (Curt Schilling) and conducted high-wire negotiations on a Dominican airport tarmac (Pedro Martínez) comes news of another potentially portentous meeting with an ace pitcher, one in which the Red Sox rolled out all the top brass for their first face-to-face with Daisuke Matsuzaka. READ MORE!

BOSTON GLOBE THE TRIO PLAYED WELL While there was no official exit polling of American League Most Valuable Player voters, there was the occasional "Who did you vote for?" aimed at baseball writers in general. If I had to guess how the voting would turn out today based on that informal exercise, it would be 1. Derek Jeter, 2. Justin Morneau, 3. David Ortiz (and if ... READ MORE!

BOSTON GLOBE THERE’S NO DODGING L.A. OFFER Six-time All-Star Nomar Garciaparra and the Dodgers agreed yesterday to an $18.5 million, two-year contract. READ MORE!

BOSTON GLOBE MARKET FAVORS A RAMIREZ DEAL The list of possible trading partners for the Red Sox in a Manny Ramírez deal shrank by another team yesterday, even as an exploding market makes the remaining $38 million on Ramírez's contract appear a relative bargain. READ MORE!

BOSTON HERALD SHOW MANNY THE DOOR We may never know why he wants out of a city that worships him, warts and all, but if you’re the Red Sox, you don’t waste time asking questions. You pull the trigger before he changes his mind. The Sox catch a break, for a change.... READ MORE!

BOSTON HERALD MATSUZAKA HAS TALKS WITH SOX The Red Sox’ courtship of Daisuke Matsuzaka began in earnest this weekend, when the Red... READ MORE!

BOSTON HERALD NOMAR RE-SIGNS WITH DODGERS Six-time All-Star Nomar Garciaparra and the Los Angeles Dodgers agreed yesterday to a two-year,.. READ MORE!

BOSTON HERALD ANOTHER SHORT STORY With Alex Gonzalez reportedly agreeing to a three-year, $14 million contract with the Cincinnati Reds Saturday, the Red Sox... READ MORE!

HARTFORD COURANT SOC WOO MATSUZAKA, COULD SHOP MANNY The Daisuke Matsuzaka negotiations with the Red Sox are in full swing. Are Manny Ramirez trade talks far behind? READ MORE!

PROVIDENCE JOURNAL JAYS CEO QUESTIONS SOX’ THINKING Paul Godfrey, the Toronto Blue Jays' chief operating officer, says he and others were stunned at the Red Sox' $51.1-million bid for the rights to Japanese ace Daisuke Matsuzaka. READ MORE!

News, Views, Links and more from the Red Sox Wire.

BOSTON GLOBE Red Sox owner John Henry, GM Theo Epstein and manager Terry Francona flew out to Los Angeles to meet with Daisuke Matsuzaka on Sunday.
"I was surprised to have a dinner with them," Matsuzaka said, according to a translation provided by Japanese reporter Gaku Tashiro. "Meeting the Boston owner, GM, and the manager is the most impressive thing during this trip. I feel close to becoming a major league player." Matsuzaka is returning to Japan today without having visited Boston. That should come later. READ MORE!

FIREBRAND OF THE AL OTHER SHORTSTOP OPTIONS On Saturday, Peter Gammons reported Alex Gonzalez had signed with the Reds for 3 years and 14 million. The defensive wizard has earned a raise after posting an outstanding year with the glove, but Wayne Krivsky might have found himself another Royce Clayton. After a horrendous start, Gonzalez managed to get his average up to a respectable .255, but the OBP of .299 and lack of power worried many teams looking for a shortstop, like Boston. I’m sure they had a one or two year offer on the table, which I supported, but 3/14 is a bit much for a guy with his bat. Now the Red Sox find themselves with, well, not many alternatives.

One is obvious- Mr. Julio Lugo. Evan outlined his strengths on Friday. It shows he’s not the below average defensive player many of us labeled him as, but rather middle of the pack. It did fail to point out that Lugo is still erratic at short, especially with his throwing arm, and he may have to adjust to the position after playing everywhere in LA. His second half in LA was horrific for the most part and led to his benching. I still don’t trust him. Investing four years and 32+ million into a 31-year old question mark who posted a .545 OPS in the second half last season is not my ideal scenario. Does Theo even have a choice? READ MORE!

FRAGILE FREDDY’S NEWS & NOTES - Justin Speier, Angel. Argh. Obviously this is not the news we were rooting for, but the four year deal is a little much. As with Soriano, the problem with this deal is not so much the dollars but the years of the contract. Two, even three years would have made some sense, but four years is just a little much for a guy who is 33 years old and has had arm problems in the past. All that said, this is a blow for the Sox who could have really used him in the bullpen. Soon enough we’ll know what Plan B is.

- J.D. Drew was supposed to be signed, sealed and delivered four days ago. Now, there is talk about four years, $60 million. I was marginally OK with 4/48, I was OK with 2/30, I am most assuredly NOT okay with 4/56 or 4/60. Theo Epstein should drop out of this one if these numbers are for real. READ MORE!

RED SOX TIMES MATSUZAKA MAINLAND Red Sox management, John Henry, Theo Epstein, and Terry Francona, met in L.A. with potential Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka and his agent Scott Boras over the weekend. Matsuzaka took in a Laker game and visited with fellow country mate Kaz Matsui of the Rockies before heading back to Japan. READ MORE!

EMPYREAL ENVIRONS AULD LAND SYNE Gone, Baby, Gone
When rumors of his signing were first leaked, there was confusion as to which “Alex Gonzalez” was in negotiations with the Red Sox. It turned out it wasn’t the Alex S. Gonzalez drafted by the Blue Jays in 1991 but rather it was the undrafted All-Star from the Florida Marlins. READ MORE!

CALL OF THE GREEN MONSTER EPA CALLS COLLECTIVE BAD BREATH OF YANKESS FAN AN “EPIDEMIC” There is a fog that settles over Yankee Stadium just before game time.  It could be the most sunny, blue-skied day ever, and yet the fog is there.  Dark, cold, depressing—like most Yankees fans.  And when you step out onto the field, and breathe in the air around you, an overwhelming, dizzying, nausea hits you like freight train.  Opposing players have grown to expect it, but no one ever really grows accustomed to it.  One could travel to the deepest bowels of the earth (which, many would argue, is Yankee Stadium) and not experience such a foul stench.  Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency has labeled the collective bad breath of Yankees fans to be an epidemic, and have said that action must be taken before there is an environmental crisis. READ MORE!

SURVIVING GRADY AUF WIEDERSEHEN Something tells me we're gonna miss the Great Gonzo.

And on top of it, we miss out on Soriano, who had long been at the top of my personal wish-list.

Happy f--kin' Monday. READ MORE!

RED SOX REALITY CHECK TODAY’S EYEBROW RAISER Frank Catalanotto has been a Red Sox killer, and apparently he has signed with the Texas Rangers for about thirteen million dollars for a three-year deal. He is a 'classic' Moneyball player, with good on-base-percentage (.297/.362/.454/.816), generally mediocre defense, and at this point in his career does not run.

His best season he hit .300, and had 83 runs scored, 13 homers, and 59 RBI. Do you want that for your corner outfield, DH, or first baseman? At second base his range factor (in limited appearances) is poor, 2.97 compared to a league average of 4.33. READ MORE!

RED SOX REALITY CHECK HIGH PRICE OF MEDIOCRITY Some wag once said the problem with free agency wasn't paying the stars but the high price of mediocrity. I'd say there's a bit of both. Alfonso Soriano apparently gets 'Derek Jeter money' and we've yet to hear whether Nomar Garciaparra, who spurned 15 extra large per year for four years will get anything close to that in Dodgerland.

Meanwhile, Alex Gonzalez parlayed his defensive excellence into almost five million dollars a year, which certainly makes signing Alex Cora at two million a year seem like chicken feed. Actually, the commercials are pretty short corn futures, so maybe chicken feed will come down. I'm sure that Mr. Henry would be able to give me a better answer on that. READ MORE!

GYS NETWORK FUN WITH NUMBERS Courtesy of Joe Borowski, who reports "I think of the 30 closers in the league, 99.5 percent of them have better stuff than I do. But my attitude, my heart, my desire, and my knowledge in how to get hitters out gets the job done. "

I'm guessing Joe was not a math major at Rutgers. Joe must have been saying that every closer has better stuff than him. Either that, or he watched Todd Jones this season, he realizes that Armando Benitez still sucks or perhaps he was watching the Tribe during the week they tried the Fausto Carmino experiment, which means he really should have said "I think of the 30 closers in the league, 96.5 percent of them have better stuff than I do." But that probably does not make as good of copy. READ MORE!

At home in field and stream
At 88, baseball Hall of Famer Doerr retains passion for fishing
by Jeff Barnard, The Associated Press

llahe, Ore. - Bobby Doerr eases the bow of his boat onto a rock to steady it in the river, then plays the silvery jack salmon into an eddy, where he gently guides it into a net.

At 88, the Hall of Fame Red Sox second baseman is still a master at his second-favorite sport, fishing the Rogue River for salmon and steelhead with a fly.

It's a love affair that started 70 years ago, when he was a kid from Los Angeles playing for the Triple-A San Diego Padres. The river led him to his wife, a country girl from Oregon.

"The trainer of the ballclub, Les Cook, had been coming up on the Rogue River for years," recalled Doerr, leisurely casting a fly into a riffle within sight of his rustic cabin while running a 65-horsepower outboard to keep the 21-foot boat steady in the current.

"Every day after batting practice in San Diego I would go into the training room and talk to Les Cook because he had all these pictures on the wall of fishing and hunting. Some way or another growing up in Los Angeles I felt I always had a little country in me."

Cook invited Doerr to come to Rogue River country with him, and Doerr jumped at the chance. He even bought a bamboo fly rod on a road trip to Sacramento, Calif., to take with him.

"There was no roads in here at the time," Doerr said. "We had to get a boat at Gold Beach and take the boat up the river to Agness. In Agness, we put our stuff in a little pickup truck and hauled it up to Illahe, which was 8 miles above Agness.

"It was like turning a clock back 100 years. There was no lights here. Wood cook stoves. Kerosene lamps. Outdoor toilets. Big wash tubs we took our baths in. I still thought I was in heaven."

Illahe was a backwoods community where folks rode out the Great Depression by scratching a little gold out of the creeks and a little food out of the bottomlands. A boat brought the mail. A pack train brought in groceries. The Cooks stayed at a homestead near The Ford, where the river was shallow enough to ride a horse across. Doerr stayed in a little cabin nearby.

That first winter, Doerr met Monica Roseman Terpin, the teacher in the one-room schoolhouse, at a dance at the Civilian Conservation Corps camp. He lost her three years ago following a stroke.

"One Saturday night we didn't go down to the CCC camp," Doerr said. "The neighbors across the river invited us to go to a card party and a little dance. The neighbor rowed us across the river.

"'Chapel in the Moonlight' was a famous number at that time. They had a little phonograph. We danced to that."

On the way home, the night was so cold that the boat seat was iced over, and Monica took off her coat so he could sit on it.

"I thought, 'Boy, oh boy, that was the greatest thing to ever happen," Doerr said. "I think that was the time when I fell in love with Monica. That was the winter of '36. In 1938, we got married."

Doerr was called up to the Red Sox the next spring, two years ahead of Ted Williams, who had been with him on the minor- league Padres. Except for the 1945 season, which he spent in the Navy, Doerr returned from Boston every winter to a 160-acre homestead he bought in Illahe for $2,250.

In 1951, a bad back forced Doerr to retire from baseball, and the next year he moved his family to Junction City, his wife's hometown, so their son, Don, could go to middle school. They kept the place in Illahe.

In his 14 seasons with the Red Sox, Doerr batted .288, had 2,042 hits, 223 home runs, 1,247 RBIs, and was named an all-star nine times. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Red Sox retired his No. 1 jersey in 1988. His teams only got past the Yankees to the World Series once, in 1946, losing to the St. Louis Cardinals.

"In the last week of the season the Yankees were always ahead eight or 10 games and I just couldn't wait to get back home" to Illahe, Doerr said.

In 1960, Doerr sold the old homestead and built a cabin on a hill overlooking the Brewery Hole, named by the late ballplayer Lefty O'Doul for the white foam floating in the eddy. It's the hole where Doerr caught his first steelhead in 1936 and where he still catches most of his fish.

There are no trophy cases in this cabin, which is heated with wood Doerr splits himself, and the windows sometimes are smeared by the paws of a black bear. A commemorative Hall of Fame bat is slung in a gun rack next to a couple of rifles, a pile of mail asking for autographs is on the kitchen table, a blanket depicting Fenway Park is draped over the couch.

"The Baseball Encyclopedia" sits in a bookcase next to "McClane's Standard Fishing Encyclopedia." The one thing Doerr said he would make sure to save in case of fire is a framed set of flies tied by his father.

Seventy years of fishing the Rogue has not dampened Doerr's love for it. Larry Mullinnix, who used to be caretaker at the nearby Winkle Bar cabin owned by the late Oakland A's owner Walter Haas, recalls teaching Doerr a new technique: lobbing a heavily weighted fly upstream and watching the line for a twitch signaling a bite.

"I came home that night and I get a telephone call," Mullinnix said. "He sounded like some 12-year-old who got into the candy jar. He said, 'I can't believe it. I hooked two fish and got them in the boat. I cannot believe it."'

Red Sox teammate Dom DiMaggio, who still sees Doerr regularly and fished the Rogue with him last year, recalls "legendary" stories of Doerr fishing in Florida for tarpon with Williams.

"Bobby threatened he'd never go fishing again with Ted four or five times," the 89-year-old DiMaggio said. "He'd say to me: 'Dommy, I was so insulted, I felt like a real small individual the way he yelled at me in the boat. I made a little noise and he jumped all over me. I caught a fish and it made a turn and I lost the fish and he gave me some more abuse. I'm quitting him.' Ten days later they were fishing again."

Doerr never held a grudge, and today fishes with a graphite fly rod prototype designed by Williams that has yet to go into production. When Doerr retired, he picked up a bamboo fly rod made to Williams' specifications and named in Doerr's honor - a rod that Doerr still had to pay for.

Williams came to the Rogue twice: in winter 1961, when they were rained out for two weeks straight, and in fall 1987, when they took a three-day float trip down the Rogue for steelhead, holding a debate about hitting while pulled up for lunch at Tate Creek on the last day.

"At the lunch stand you always had three or four hours to pass the time, to wait for good shade in the afternoon to get the good fishing," Doerr said. "Ted Williams is a .344 lifetime average hitter and I'm a .288 lifetime average hitter. You can imagine who won that hitting clinic debate."

News, Views, Links and more from the Red Sox Wire.

BOSTON BLOOD SOX CORA, GONZALEZ, MANNY, MUELLER, WINTER LEAGUES The Red Sox extended infielder Alex Cora's contract for two more seasons. The deal is worth $4 million total. Cora will most likely remain a bench player backing up a guy like Dustin Pedroia. Cora is far from an offensive threat, but he can play short-stop, third base, and second base effectively. He's a solid utility middle infielder.

Speaking of effective short-stops, Alex Gonzalez has just signed a three year deal with the Reds worth somewhere around $15 million. READ MORE!


EL GUAPO’s GHOSE 2007 IS ONE OF THE EIGHT OR ONE OF THE TWO? "We're trying to build a self-sustaining baseball operation that can get into the playoffs on an annual basis. That was the goal when we took over at the end of '02. We want in eight out of 10 years. And to win a couple World Series during that time."

2006 was one of the two. John Henry called it a “transition year.” If the Sox played October baseball, they would have gotten lucky. What is not known is if the Sox brass see 2007 as another “transition year.” The eventual (it will get completed) multi-year signing of D-Mat will not be an indicator for 2007. The subsequent transactions will tell us the Sox expectations for 2007. And it all begins with Manny. READ MORE!


OVER THE MONSTER Roster Locks and Hopefuls Here are our holes, so to say:

C - Jason Varitek; 1B - ??? (Kevin Youkilis); 2B - Dustin Pedroia; SS - ??? (Pedroia, Julio Lugo, Alex Cora); 3B - ??? (Mike Lowell); LF - ??? (Manny Ramirez); CF - ??? (Coco Crisp); RF - ??? (Wily Mo Pena, Trot Nixon, JD Drew); DH - David Ortiz

SP - Curt Schilling; SP - Josh Beckett; SP - Jonathan Papelbon;SP - Tim Wakefield; SP - ??? (Daisuke Matsuzaka)

RP - Mike Timlin; RP - ???; CP - ??? READ MORE!

JOY OF SOX AL MVP? The American League Most Valuable Player will be announced on Tuesday.

Derek Jeter easily topped the MVP voting at Baseball Prospectus (from both the staff and public) and he won the Aaron Award as the AL's top offensive player. This gives me a pretty good feeling that he'll also be the favourite of the BBWAA.

Back in mid-September, many scribes proclaimed Jeter as the logical choice, especially after David Ortiz missed eight games with heart palpitations. In mid-September, Bob Ryan of the Globe wrote: "It would be a mockery to anoint anyone else." READ MORE!

*** BOSTON GLOBE ***
Gonzalez to Reds (NICK CAFARDO) Shortstop Alex Gonzalez agreed to a three-year deal worth $14 million-$15 million with the Cincinnati Reds. READ MORE!

*** BOSTON HERALD ***
D-Mat bid unifies Sox (TONY MASSAROTTI) A year ago, of course, the general problem for the Red Sox was that the business operation and the baseball operation could not see eye to eye. That led to the spectacular feud that was the Theo Epstein Affair, a very public mess that had the... READ MORE!

Here is a statistical update for the players that the Boston Red Sox have allocated to the Peoria Javelinas in the Arizona Fall League. You can see each players total College/Minor League/Major League stats by simply clicking on their name. The scouting reports are courtesy of SoxProspects.com.

LHP Leonard (Lenny) Edward DiNardo -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 09.19.1979
Birthplace: Miami, FL
College: Stetson
Height: 6’4” Weight: 190 lbs.
B/T: L/L

AFL Stats:
1-0, 2.70era, 10g, 0gs, 0sv, 13.1ip, 12h, 6r, 1hr, 5bb, 16k, 2.43go/ao, .240avg

RHP Barry J. Hertzler -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 02.15.1981
Birthplace: Providence, RI
College: Central Connecticut State
Height: 6’2” Weight: 215 lbs.
B/T: R/R

AFL Stats:
1-0, 3.31era,11g, 1gs, 0sv, 16.1ip, 15h, 9r, 2hr, 9bb, 17k, 1.82go/ao, .254avg

RHP David Wayne Pauley -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 06.17.1983
Birthplace: Longmont, CO
College: N/A
Height: 6’2” Weight: 185 lbs.
B/T: R/R

AFL Stats:
0-3, 5.06era, 7g, 7gs, 0sv, 26.2ip, 36h, 15r, 6hr, 6bb, 14k, 1.06go/ao, .333avg

RHP Kyle Orin Jackson -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 04.09.1983
Birthplace: Nashua, NH
College: St. Petersburg JC
Height: 6’3” Weight: 192 lbs.
B/T: R/R

AFL Stats:
6-0, 6.23era, 11g, 0gs, 0sv, 17.1ip, 21h, 12r, 2hr, 10bb, 11k, 0.67go/ao, .304avg

C Dustin (Dusty) William Brown -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 06.19.1982
Birthplace: Orange, CA
College: Yavapa JC
Height: 6’0” Weight: 195 lbs.
B/T: R/R

AFL Stats:
.239/.338/.328/.666, 67ab, 8r, 16h, 3xbh, 1hr, 6rbi, 22tb, 10bb, 14so, 1sb

3B Charles (Chad) Joseph Spann -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 10.25.1983
Birthplace: Americus, GA
Height: 6’1” Weight: 195 lbs.
B/T: R/R

AFL Stats:
.268/.341/.390/.731, 82ab, 11r, 22h, 7xbh, 1hr, 12rbi, 32tb, 9bb, 21so, 1sb

OF Jacoby M. Ellsbury -- (Scouting Report)
Born: 09.11.1983
Birthplace: Madras, OR
College: Oregon State
Height: 6’1” Weight: 185 lbs.
B/T: L/L

AFL Stats:
.276/.342/.371/.713, 105ab, 18r, 29h, 7xbh, 0hr, 3rbi, 39tb, 8bb, 16so, 7sb