An Unexpectedly Busy Day On Yawkey Way For The Red Sox In Mid-January

Believe me, the last thing I want to think about at the moment is the Red Sox. The Patriots are one win from another Super Bowl, the Celtics are playing much better (except for last night) lately and the Bruins are set to open their 2013 regular season on Saturday night. Still, I felt that I had to note three items of interest related to our favorite baseball team that came out today.

Outfielder Shane Victorino was named to Team USA for the 2013 World Baseball Classic, Mike Napoli agreed to a one-year deal worth $5 million (up to $13 million with incentives) and catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia avoided arbitration with a one-year deal worth $4.5 million.

Outside of the Pro Bowl and preseason NFL games, I'm not sure if there is a more useless sporting event in America these days than the WBC. Nobody watches it or cares, it's during spring training when attention is rightly on March Madness plus the NHL & NBA regular seasons. With that said, if I do find myself watching it for a second this time around, at least I'll have someone in particular to root for. Victorino is the only Red Sox on the team while local guys Tim Collins (Royals reliever from Worcester, MA) and Steve Cishek (Marlins reliever from Falmouth, MA) are also on manager Joe Torre's squad that features some MLB stars (Ryan Braun, David Wright, Mark Teixeira) but also a bunch of randoms (Willie Bloomquist, Glen Perkins).

Alfredo Aceves (Mexico) along with prospects Jose De La Torre (Puerto Rico) and Xavier Bogaerts (Holland) will also take part in the World Baseball Classic for their respective countries.

As for Napoli, I think we can all agree that while the wait (over 6 weeks) between him originally agreeing to a deal (3 years, $39 million) with the Red Sox and now was ridiculous, the end result was well worth it. Giving him that kind of money seemed crazy at the time and that was before we knew about his hip issues. With this contract, he can try to put together a good 2013 season and actually earn that type of money for the next few years. What a concept!

Signing Salty in this case was basically a formality but nothing has changed the fact that Boston has a logjam of catchers on its current roster: Saltalamacchia, David Ross, Napoli (at times) and Ryan Lavarnway. Ross will probably be the backup-that's why they signed him-so I'd expect Lavarnway to get sent back to Pawtucket or possibly traded. That will definitely be one of the key positions to focus on when boring old Spring Training starts in a month in Florida.

Now back to your regularly scheduled Patriots, Celtics and Bruins related programming.

UPDATE 1/18: Jacoby Ellsbury ($9 million), Andrew Bailey ($4.1 million), Joel Hanrahan ($7.04 million), Aceves ($2.65 million), Daniel Bard ($1.8625 million), Andrew Miller ($1.475 million) and Franklin Morales ($1.4875 million) all agreed to one-year deals today, avoiding arbitration. Craig Breslow is the only arbitration-eligible guy that didn't agree to terms yet for the Red Sox but apparently he and the club are only $50,000 apart on what they want.

UPDATE 1/19: Today, Breslow received a two-year deal worth $6.25 million from the Red Sox. The contract includes an option for 2015 and it could max out at $10.15 million.

UPDATE 1/22: Along with officially announcing Napoli's deal today, the Red Sox designated pitcher Chris Carpenter (aka Theo's compensation from the Cubs) for assignment.

UPDATE 1/24: Haha today to make people look away from Terry Francona's tell-all book, the Red Sox hired Pedro Martinez to be a special assistant to GM Ben Cherington. That's the same figurehead job handed to Jason Vartiek in September. Oh joy. Hey remember 2004, wasn't that fun?

UPDATE 1/25: With Ryan Kalish needing shoulder surgery, the Red Sox signed Ryan Sweeney to a minor league deal as insurance. You'll remember him as the dope that punched a dugout door last season and broke his hand, thus ending his first year in Boston.

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Red Sox Continue To Fade Into Irrelevancy & Summer's Only Just Begun!

When did it come to this? The Boston Red Sox have transformed into that awful class you had to take in high school or college. All you can think about is when it will all be over and you can move on with your life. That pretty much sums up where fans of this team feel these days.

Beginning their interleague series at Marlins Park tonight, the Red Sox (29-32, 15-13 away) fell 4-1 to the Miami Marlins (32-29, 17-16 home). It was Boston's fourth loss in a row and seventh in its last eight games overall. Miami snapped a six-game losing streak and it's all thanks to the fact that they opened the roof-something they rarely do in rainy/steamy South Florida.

You have to give the Red Sox credit for one thing: they seemingly invent new ways to piss people off on a weekly basis. The latest chapter is their constant complaining about balls and strikes. It's an epidemic that starts at the top with manager Bobby Valentine crying about umpires every chance he gets. Still lacking leadership or flat out intelligence, the players see that and buy in for some reason like a bad Little League team.

For instance, Kevin Youkilis struck out (swinging) to end tonight's game yet he was barking at the umpires as he went into the dugout and up the tunnel. Suddenly a hateable team that's borderline unwatchable becomes even worse. Amazing.

Oh yes, the game. Well Josh Johnson (4-4) shutdown the Red Sox' depleted lineup for seven innings and handed it over to an equally stingy bullpen (for this game at least). Johnson allowed one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and a walk.

For the sixth straight time, Josh Beckett (4-7) went seven innings but Boston is only 3-3 in that time span. Don't think I'll let the Texas Toughguy off the hook that easily though since he handed the Marlins a 4-0 lead by the second inning, thereby ruling out any chance the Red Sox had of winning before it had even really started. Beckett allowed four earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and a walk. He was great after the second inning but will anyone remember that?

Before Miami's typically late arriving crowd had settled in, the Marlins posted three runs in the first. Donovan Solano had a sacrifice fly, Logan Morrison stepped away from Twitter for a second to hit an RBI double and Gaby Sanchez added an RBI single.

Solano had a sacrifice fly in the second inning to give Miami a commanding 4-0 lead which felt like 10-0 with the way Boston is hitting at the moment.

Adrian Gonzalez provided the Red Sox' only run as he drove in Scott Podsednik (3 hits, stolen base) with a sacrifice fly in the sixth.

Falmouth High alum Steve Cishek worked the eighth for his seventh hold of the season and Heath Bell struck out the side in the ninth (second game in a row that's happened to Boston) for his 13th save of the season.

Mark Melancon had a 1-2-3 eighth for Boston which is huge news for him since the last time he appeared in a Red Sox uniform, he got lit up on April 17 vs. Texas (6 earned runs, 4 hits). He's been lights out in Pawtucket so let's hope he can continue to be that guy and not the April version of himself.

As an added bonus, this game was only two hours and 35 minutes long which gave the Miami "fans" plenty of time to hit the clubs and overpriced restaurants earlier than usual.

Clay Buchholz (6-2) will look to snap the Red Sox out of their latest funk tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) when he faces former White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle (5-6).

UPDATED 6/12: Outfielder Marlon Byrd was released today by the Red Sox.

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