(AP)

Alex Gonzalez was probably sitting at his Thanksgiving table on Thursday, when he received the call that he would be leaving Boston.

On Turkey Day afternoon, Gonzalez was signed to a one-year, 2.75-million dollar deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. His club option would be worth $2.5 million if exercised, according to an AP report.

The 32-year-old hit .284, with five home runs and fifteen RBI for the Red Sox in 44 games, after coming to Boston from Cincinatti.

Who wouldn't love a guy that gets a standing ovation?

Alex Gonzalez is coming back to Toronto. Okay, okay not that Alex Gonzalez. A day after signing Johnny Mac to a two-year, $3 million deal, ESPN.com is reporting the Jays have also agreed to a one-year, $2.75 million contract with the other Alex Gonzalez, who hit .238 with eight homers in 112 games with Cincinnati and Boston last year.

Like his namesake, Gonzalez is also a shortstop, so his signing all but ends the Marco Scutaro era in Toronto, which, as I implied yesterday, is fine by me. Don’t get me wrong — Scutaro is cool and all, but at age 34 and coming off a career-year, he’s due to get waaaay overpaid. I’ll gladly let someone else do that.

Gonzalez will be 33 on Opening Day, having kicked around the majors since breaking in with Florida in 1998. He hit 23 homers in 2003 and added a walk-off in the World Series, which the Marlins won that year, and hit 16 and .272 as recently as 2007 before missing all of the following year with a broken kneecap. Since leaving Florida in 2006, he’s had a pair of stints in Boston and spent two seasons in Cincinnati.

Also of note (and kind of sadly), Gonzalez has a three-year-old son in Miami that’s been in a coma for two years. That really, really sucks. Anyway, all the best to the new man in town, both on and especially off the field.

The 2009 Red Sox were pretty good. They weren’t great, but they did make the playoffs only to flame out in ALDS versus the Los Angeles Angels (which, incidentally, translates to The Angels Angels, right?) Since 2004 and 2007, the blow of such events has been greatly lessened for me. Sure, I was not pleased with their performance and the eventual crowning of the hated Yankees as champs, but by no means was I heartbroken/crushed/unable to eat or sleep for days as it was before the Sox return to glory. The Sox didn’t win, but hey, you can’t win every year (and I still can’t imagine what 2003 me would think if he knew that 2009 me would be writing that calmly, lucidly and soberly.)

Anyway, this is not to say that I don’t want the Sox to succeed. Of course I do, that is why I’m a fan. I love my Red Sox no less than I did in 2004 and I still can’t stand to listen (yes, I tend to listen to the Sox) them lose any game. So, with the Yankees not getting any weaker and the Rays likely to bounce back, what can the Red Sox do to keep pace in 2010? Let’s see …

The roster (as of 11/23/2009) – starters in italics when there is an appropriate starter

• C: Victor Martinez; Jason Varitek
• 1B: Kevin Youkilis*/Mike Lowell*; Casey Kotchman
• 2B: Dustin Pedroia
• 3B: Kevin Youkilis*/Mike Lowell*
• SS: Jed Lowrie
• RF: J.D. Drew; Jeremy Hermida
• CF: Jacoby Ellsbury; Brian Anderson
• LF: Jeremy Hermida
• DH: David Ortiz
• SP: Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Tim Wakefield
• CL: Jonathan Papelbon
• SU: Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima
• MR: Ramon Ramirez, Dustin Richardson, Manny Delcarmen
• LOOGY: (none)
• MU: (none)

* According to some things I’ve read, Youkilis might play third and Lowell might move to first, which could make sense in terms of defense. I’ll list them at both of the hot corners.

So, what is needed? A shortstop, a left fielder, a starter and some relievers. Sounds about right, and mostly in that order. What to do?

Shortstop: Am I the only one who thinks signing a 34-year-old after a fluke year is a bad idea? That idea’s name is Marco Scutaro. Now, trading for either Stephen Drew or Brandon Phillips is a good idea. Drew will cost more and Phillips costs more money, but either at short would be just fine. Additionally, I’d sign Khalil Greene to a minor league deal.

Leftfield: Everyone seems to think this should be a question of Jason Bay or Matt Holliday. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both fine players, but I just feel a lot of enthusiasm towards signing either to the big, long term deals they will want. Sure, if you can get either for 3 years, do it, but thats not happening. So, if the Sox don’t sign either? Well, how about a platoon of Marlon Byrd/Rick Ankiel and Jeremy Hermida? I’d also be tempted to sign Rocco Baldelli or Austin Kearns to minor league deals if possible. Or lets think waaay outside the box: Miguel Tejada in left? Maybe Conor Jackson?

Starters: The Sox have 5 guys who should be good to serviceable (when averaged over all 5). If you look at the top three, the rotation should be quite good, and if Daisuke can get his act back together, they should have a decent top 4. However, as last year showed, you can never, ever, ever have too much pitching. So the Sox really need to go out and sign some reclamation projects to shore up the rotation. Ben Sheets? Rich Harden? Eric Bedard? Justin Duchscherer? Kelvim Escobar? Brett Myers? Chien-ming Wang? There are a lot of options. This all being said, 2010 is a year of decision for the Sox – can they compete for a championship, so should they wait until it all comes off the books (well, Beckett, Lowell and Papi) in 2011? If they think they can win, they should go all in for any of the aces that could be dealt: Roy Halladay, Josh Johnson, Roy Oswalt, someone like that. It will be pricy, but that would definitely shore things up.

Relievers: OK, way too many to go through for potential relief help through free agency or trades, but … how about kicking the tires on guys like Joaquin Benoit, Kiko Calero, JJ Putz, Takashi Saito (again), Ron Mahay (as a LOOGY) or Chan Ho Park. Potential nontenders worth examining might be Jeremy Accardo, Taylor Bucholz, Matt Lindstrom or Seth McClung.

Wild card ideas: What if the Sox bring in a big 1B and just cut/trade Lowell or Papi – maybe acquire Lance Berkman for a bevy of prospects to the rebuilding Astros? Or what about signing Garrett Atkins as a free agent if he is nontendered? Or even get Tejada to play 1B?

My ideal 2010 Red Sox roster

Batting

1. Jacoby Ellsbury CF
2. Brandon Phillips SS
3. Dustin Pedroia 2B
4. Kevin Youkilis 3B
5. Victor Martinez C
6. Miguel Tejada 1B
7. J.D. Drew RF
8. David Ortiz/Mike Lowell DH
9. Hermida/Ankiel LF

Starters

1. Josh Beckett
2. Jon Lester
3. Clay Buccholz
4. Daisuke Matsuzaka
5. Justin Duchscherer

Relievers

• CL: Jonathan Papelbon
• SU: Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima
• MR: Ramon Ramirez, Kiko Calero, Ron Mahay
• MU: Tim Wakefield

Bench

1. Jason Varitek C
2. Casey Kotchman 1B
3. Khalil Greene SS

Enjoy!

Looks like Johnny Mac is gonna be back for another go-round

Here’s some good news for Jays fans shocked and hurt by the imminent Roy Halladay trade: ESPN.com’s Buster Olney reports the team is close to bringing back some standout shortstop named John McDonald on a one-year deal worth $1.5 million.

With contending out of the question for the next 47 years, re-signing Johnny Mac makes sense. With a host of young pitchers, why not get the best defensive shortstop in the world to make their lives easier? Of course, a Mac signing also makes it less likely Marco Scutaro won’t be back in black in 2010, leaving another team to grossly overpay him. Fine by me — I’ll take the draft picks (just make sure you sign them, Alex Anthopolous Ricciardi Jr.).

Meanwhile, in Halladay news, ESPN also reports the Red Sox are aggressively pushing for his services, saying they’re “putting on a full-court press” and hope to get a deal done before the winter meetings get rolling Dec. 7. Not sure if it’s the best idea to deal Doc within the decision, but a package including Clay Buchholz and Josh Bard might be the best we see. Let’s see what happens!

In other MLB news, Miguel Cabrera could potentially be on the market this winter.  The Detroit Tigers are hemorrhaging money and have already put Curtis Granderson and Edwin Jackson on the block.  Cabrera has a huge contract and some off-the-field issues and there is some whispers that he may be available.  If I were the Red Sox, I would do everything that I can to get this guy.  The Boston Herald mentioned this in a story today.   I know I just wrote about them making a run at Halladay but Cabrera can be a guy that makes just as big of an impact.

I know that he has weight and character issues – but the guy is an elite hitter, a guy you can build a lineup around.  He could make a Mark Teixeira-type impact that the Sox were looking for last winter.  I have been open about saying the Sox need to rework the everyday lineup considerably to compete with the Yankees.  This is a way to do that, almost instantly.

There are some potential hang-ups – what is Detroit looking for in return?  The Sox may not have to give up as much as they would for Halladay because of Cabrera’s contract (6 years and $126 million left on it).  Could the Sox assume the entire contract and give some lesser prospects?  Detroit would have a tough time selling that to their fans but if they are really in serious financial trouble, they may not have a choice.

Could they acquire Cabrera, Halladay, and sign Bay/Holliday in free agency?  That would add around $50-$60 million onto their payroll and they may not be willing to do that.  If it happened though, they might as well fire up the duck boats now because there is no one – not even the Yankees – that could compete with a roster like that.

The New York Daily News is citing inside sources and saying that the Red Sox are making a hard push to acquire Roy Halladay.  I imagine that Toronto will ask for a package starting with Buchholz and Bard – they may even push to include Sox top prospect Casey Kelly.  If I were the Sox, I would push to get this done, and get it done quickly.  Although I think all three of these pitchers that the Sox would potentially have to give up will be very good down the road, Halladay is a game changer.  The Sox would have the best rotation in baseball BY A MILE with three Aces leading the way.

Plus the Sox need to do something this offseason to reshape this roster – as it stands now, I think this is an 85-90 win ballclub and that won’t be enough to keep the Fenway Faithful happy next summer.

That’s the gist of a post on ESPN.com right now. The Red Sox are going after Blue Jays starter Roy Halladay. I hate to break the news to them, but no sh!t. We all know the Red Sox are going after Roy Halladay. It’s what the Red Sox do. It’s what makes them so loathed nation-wide among non New England ex-pats. “You hate the Yankees? You are the Yankees!” When you can’t afford your players, we take them.

I have mixed feelings about this. I like seeing the Red Sox win but I don’t like seeing smaller-market teams losing their best players because they can’t afford to pay them. In this case, it’s on priciple, because Toronto can go f*ck itself (that’s another story). At least in the world’s other great uncapped sports leagues—European soccer leagues—there’s an element of teamwork that’s incumbent for overpaid players to learn playing together. In baseball, it’s as simple as calling for a fly ball so you don’t knock heads; otherwise, just do what you’re going to do. There’s very little chance for a team to get any element of “teamwork” down to overcome their enormous disadvantage. It’s either shrewd management or luck. Usually the second one.

That being said, my favorite thing about watching the Yankees win this year was Mark Teixeira. That guy knows how to play defense, which is refreshing for an AL first baseman. Not knocking Kevin Youkilis, who’s also very good, but Tex made a few plays that I’d never seen anywhere else. Sometimes it’s nice to see that if you pay for the best you do get it, and there is some sort of aesthetic reward for those who get to watch. Most modern iterations of the “buying the championship” team aren’t as lively and obviously multitalented as these Yankees are; such is the result of the wild card and the resulting “two great pitchers and you win” ethos.

Blah, blah, blah, baseball. That’s how I feel about Roy Halladay stories on ESPN.com. Let me know when there’s actual news.

So yesterday I rambled on about the Sox and how they’re shopping Lowell and are looking to bring in a power hitting, Gold Glove winning first baseman in Adrian Gonzalez. I wrapped up the article in saying that a Causeway Day trade announcement like the Schilling one of 2003 Causeway Day would be outstanding.

Well my wish for a Causeway Day miracle may have been answered. Just not in the way I was hoping.

News this morning on ESPN.com is that the Red Sox are aggressively going after Toronto ace Roy Halladay. Now this would solve one of your problems on the team. It would solidify your rotation. Having Beckett, Lester and Halladay as your front three, you’re going to mow over the division and the rest of baseball.

Now what needs to be clarified is the asking price. If it’s Bard and Buchholz and a slew of your other minor leaguers that’s going to leave the farm system kind of bare if they’re looking to pull off a trade for a bat like Gonzalez. After this past season I’m reluctant to give up Bard in a deal seeing that Papelbon has lost a step (not saying he sucks or anything, he’s just not as good as he was).

Then there’s the issue of Halladay having his contract up at the end of the 2010 season. So happens that Josh Beckett’s deal also expires at the end of the 2010 season. After seeing CC Sabathia sign for seven years at $23 million a year, why wouldn’t these guys want to hit the free agent market and get similar dollars. If Sabathia is worth $23 million then Halladay must be worth at least that on the 2010 free agent market. Beckett, not so much. But Beckett at $18 million a year isn’t out of the question given team’s need for good front line starters.

Another rumor I read yesterday was the possibility of Adrian Beltre coming to the Sox. After an All Star type 2004 with 48 home runs, he signed a huge contract with Seattle and never managed to hit more than 26 home runs in five seasons. Rumor is that Theo is in love with him (Theo was also in love with Julio Lugo for reference sake) and with him being a Boras guy this may be the sign of a double signing on the horizon.

The Sox signed Drew only after they had negotiated the Dice-K signing. Well, Boras could be making another back room type deal where the Sox bail on Jason Bay, sign Matt Holiday to an outrageous deal and Boras lets him come to Boston so long as Boston ponies up for Beltre as well.

So maybe my favorite baseball team will get a Halladay on my favorite holiday of the year. Causeway Day. Here’s hoping.

Ron Johnson spent five seasons as the PawSox manager and will become the major league first base coach in 2010. (ProJo file)

The Red Sox announced its revamped coaching staff for the 2010 season yesterday. The new staff will be highlighted by the promotion of DeMarlo Hale, due to the departure of Brad Mills to Houston.

The 48-year-old Hale was promoted to bench coach after spending four seasons as the team’s third base coach. He opened his coaching career as a Red Sox minor league instructor.

Former first base coach Tim Bogar will move across the diamond to third base and will be replaced by one of baseball’s most colorful characters. Ron Johnson will take over as Boston’s first base coach, after ten years in the Red Sox minor league system. Most recently, R.J. spent five seasons as the manager in Pawtucket. He enters his first major league season with a 1,261-1,262 minor league managerial record.

—

The Red Sox will open their 2010 Spring Training with a college doubleheader on Wednesday, March 3. The Sox will host Boston College at 1:05 p.m. and Northeastern at 6:05 p.m. at City of Palms Park. The following day, the Red Sox will begin the seven-game Mayor’s Cup series against the Minnesota Twins at CoPP. The Red Sox and Yankees will not meet in the spring for the first time in recent memory.

Pitchers and catchers will report to camp on February 18, while the first workout will take place two days later.  Position players will report on February 22, with the first full-squad workout two days later.

2009 Team Payrolls
No… Team ………….. Payroll ………………. Average
1. New York Yankees …… $201,449,289 ……. $7,748,050
2. New York Mets ……. $135,773,988………… $4,849,071
3. Chicago Cubs ……… $135,050,000 ………… $5,402,000
4. Boston Red Sox ……. $122,696,000 ………… $4,089,867
5. Detroit Tigers ……… $115,085,145 ……….. $4,110,184
6. Los Angeles Angels …….$113,709,000 …………. $4,061,036
7. Philadelphia Phillies……. $113,004,048 ………….. $4,185,335
8. Houston Astros……… $102,996,415………… $3,814,682
9. Los Angeles Dodgers…… $100,458,101 …………..$4,018,324
10. Seattle Mariners………. $98,904,167 …………….$3,532,292

The difference in payroll has never been larger than it is right now in MLB. When the Yankees can spend more than $65m more than the Mets and Cubs, there is not a level playing field for teams to work within. The difference between Boston and the Yankees is nearly $80M.

The Yankes spent $201,000,000 in 2009 on salarys. That got them 103 wins, the most in baseball. The math on that tells me that each win by the Yankees cost them $195,145. The Mets on the other hand spent $136,000,000 for 70 wins or $194,285 for each victory.

In Boston, Red Sox Nation complied 95 wins, third best in all of MLB and spent $123,000,000 or $129,473 per win. Something has to give. This is crazy. Most families in the US wont make one win worth of salary for a whole year.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer !!

KEVIN HARRIMAN

CBS Sports Material used

Thanksgiving is a holiday that all Americans, regardless of culture, ethnicity, religion and politics seem to rally behind. I decided to put this notion to a test.

A couple of years ago, I decided to run a small social experiment during the Thanksgiving season. At the time I was CEO of UPOC. I invited members from several diverse groups into a special “What are you thankful for…?” – mobile chat group. The idea was to have everyone give a “shout out” of thanks. The experimental part of this mobile chat group was the source of the member groups that were invited.

These groups included: Christian Fundamentalists, Atheists, Communists, Hassidic Jews, Muslims, Anarchists, Right to Lifers, Republicans, Druids, Democrats, Red Sox Fans, Yankee Fans, Reform Jews, Blacks, Asians, Gays, Lesbians, Hispanics, Satanists, Israeli and Palestinian, Young and Old.

Yes! I even invited Red Sox fans!

I tried to get the most diverse group of individuals I could possibly imagine that had open chat profiles. In the end I invited about 5000 people and got about 500 to join.

In the week leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, I was careful to hide the sources of the groups of the members.

Different Cultures, Religions, Ethnicity, Sexual Preferences, and Sports Affiliations. None of the differences were obvious, just the similarity of giving thanks.

Leading up to the holiday, the expressions of thanks were heart warming. Many gave thanks for Family, Friends and God. Some expressions of thanks were deeply personal including being thankful for a second chance with a loved one, being paroled from jail, having recovered from an illness, having the opportunity to see a loved one for the holiday, etc. The expressions of introspective appreciations knew no boundaries of culture. If you hid the chat handles from the messages you would have had a very difficult time identifying the group that a specific message had originated. It seems that people are really just people.

Everyone has their share of joy and “meshugas”

The second unexpected part of this experiment happened after the long Thanksgiving weekend. The expressions of thankfulness stopped and biases and bigotry emerged.

By the end of the week the word had gotten out to the participants who some of the other members of this group really were. That’s another side of social networking, its tough to keep secrets.

Right and Left Wingers began to spar, Fundamentalists started to try to save the Satanists, Hassidic Jews were condescending of Reform Jews- And the Red Sox and Yankees fans – it was just too ugly to repeat…

Stripped of their diverse background identifiers, people of vastly different cultures have very similar things to be thankful about.

Once the identity veil was lifted I was thankful that everyone in the group was in cyberspace and not really in the same physical room. I removed the group a week after Thanksgiving to avoid potential bloodshed.

Maybe there is something we all can learn from this social experiment in this season of Thanksgiving.

It was a heck of a year, 1918. The War to End All Wars finally ended. The greatest tragedy of the 20th Century was finally over. Communism solidified itself in Russia. The Red Sox won the World Series, something that wouldn’t happen again for over 80 years.

Much of the 1916 team was gone. Ed Barrow, who would later get to the Hall of Fame as architect of the Yankees dynasty, was manager, Former A’s player Stuffy McInnis was at first base, both Larry Gardner and Duffy Lewis were gone. But the big change was that Barrow had figured out what to do with Babe Ruth. Now Ruth split time between the outfield and the mound playing 59 games in the field and 20 on the hill. He went 13-7, getting a decision in every game he pitched, and led the league in home runs and slugging percentage, the first Red Sox to lead the AL in the latter category.

The Sox beat Cleveland and Tris Speaker by 2.5 games and went into the World Series against Chicago as a favorite. They won in 6 games although being outhit by the Cubs .210 to .186. There were no home runs and a Cub win in game 6 by a 3-0 score was the closest there was to a blowout. Ruth in Carl Mays both won 2 games, including a 1-0 game one matchup between Ruth and Hippo Vaughn. The Cubs finally brought Ruth’s consecutive scoreless inning streak to a close in the 8th inning of game 4, but lost 3-2.  In one of those quirks that makes baseball so intereesting, in 6 games no player managed to have more than 2 RBIs, with 5 players doing so).

The Sox fell to 5th the next year and began to dismantle the team. By 1922 almost all the dynasty players were gone to places like New York (Ruth, Mays, Bush, Sam Jones and Scott), Chicago ( Hooper), Cleveland (McInnis). The next time the Red Sox would win a pennant, Ted Williams would be in Left Field.

Funny, looking back on my first column on the blog and it was just two years ago that I was saying the Sox needed to bring back Mike Lowell. In fact I laid out the terms I was acceptable to as well:

Now Mike turns 34 in the Spring. For the Sox to sign him to a 4 year deal would mean the Sox would be paying a 37 year old to play third base. They need to seriously look at what’s out there and weigh their options. I say a 3 year guaranteed deal in the neighborhood of $39-$42 million with a mutual option for the fourth year is as far as I would take it if I were Theo.

This coming season is the third year of that three year 37.5 million contract he signed after the 2007 season and his body is breaking down. Not to say that he has sandyvagititus like Maroney or anything. In fact the exact opposite. There were days that he could barely walk (never mind run or field) that he was still in the lineup.

Alas, the Sox are rumored to have him out there for someone to pick up. Thanks for the great years of service, the 2007 World Series MVP performance, but we’re done with you so pack your bags. Funny that he was rumored to be out of here last year when the Sox were pursuing Teixeira only to stay here and have an excellent season. He was also rumored on his way out the door prior to the 2007 season even starting.

So take the rumors for what they are, rumors. The general consensus is that the Sox are going to make a strong play for Adrian Gonzalez. Makes sense him over Prince Fielder just because with Big Papi and Mo Vaughn we’ve seen how a big guy is going to be in the later stages of his career. Gonzalez is a horse and gold glove first baseman that doesn’t look prone to the Ortiz/Vaughn type breakdown. If they’re truly going after Gonzalez the easy move is to trade Lowell who is older and slide Youk back to his natural spot at third base.

Gonzalez isn’t even listed in the media guide for the 2010 Padres. You have to assume he’s on his way out the door. Just saying.

Do I think it’s a smart move to trade Lowell, especially if you’re going to pay $6 million of his salary? No. The way I look at it is that you have Lowell who can still hit. If he’s playing a part time role in the field and a part time role as the DH against lefties why wouldn’t you keep him? Unless it’s Lowell saying if I’m not a full time player, I’m not playing for this team. He doesn’t strike me as a player with an ego like that.

So for now we wait and speculate (that rhymed). Hopefully the Sox are burning up the phone lines and we get another Causeway Day trade announcement like the Schilling trade of 2003. Only this time the team is bringing in a Gold Glove winning first baseman with power. Here’s hoping.

There’s been a lot of talk about how (and where) the Red Sox should upgrade their offense.  This visual paints a picture of the Red Sox lineup compared to the rest of the American League.

Clay Buchholz won’t be a one start wonder he probably won’t ever go into a big slump again.  Buchholz should keep getting better every year, next year he will improve the most dramatic in his career.  He should get his ERA way down a contend of the Cy Young.  Him and Lester would be good together.  He should start fooling batters easily and start doing the things he was supposed to, he has so much talent he could be better than expected.  Buchholz should do well in all aspects of the game and he could emerge as one of the best pitchers in the league soon.  He will be better than Joba by a long shot especially if Joba keeps alternating roles.  Buchholz will put up some start better than others but all of his starts should have at least traces of quality.  The Red Sox better not trade him, even for a really good player they will be very sorry if they do, especially if they do in the division.

The Brewers signed lefty John Halama to a minor league deal today. He’s useful depth – can spot start for you here and there and be an extra lefty out of the pen. For a staff that was as bad as the Brewers had last year, he could actually be an upgrade for the back of their rotation. They also re-signed Chris Capuano, who probably won’t do much good this year.

Also, the White Sox finalized their deal with Vizquel, one-year and $1,375,000. Not bad money at his age, but his glove is well worth it.

In Red Sox news, the Red Sox announced DeMarlo Hale is the new bench coach, and Pawtucket manager Ron Johnson has been “called up” to serve as first base coach.

According to FoxSports, Mike Lowell could be on the move out of Boston before next season.  The Red Sox are reportedly willing to pay $6 of the $12 million remaining on his contract.

We’ll see how this plays out but I can see a National League team making a move, especially with the Sox picking up half of his contract.  You would hope that this move would be setting up a bigger move for a power bat that the Sox desperately need in their lineup.