YankeesRedSox.com

The Red Sox are finally going to play a game at a reasonable hour.  Tonight marks the first game in which I'll be able to watch most, if not all 9 innings.  6AM starts, 10PM, 3:30pm (on a weekday).  Please, I am fairly grumpy that I have had to wait until game 5 to see a regularly scheduled Red Sox game.

I've been finding it difficult to post of late, so I'll try and dump as much in to this one as possible (difficult b/c I'm spending most of my time surfing the channel line-up looking for Red Sox games which start at 6AM...).

MLB announced payrolls for 2008 and the Red Sox are in 4th place with $133.4mm, behind the Yankees - $209.1mm, The Tigers - $138.7mm and the Mets - $138.3mm.  Individual salaries for the Red Sox breakdown like this (taken from the Boston Globe):

Manny Ramirez -- $18,929,923
J.D. Drew -- 14,000,000
David Ortiz -- 13,000,000
Mike Lowell -- 12,500,000
Jason Varitek -- 10,442,031
dl-Josh Beckett -- 10,166,667
Julio Lugo -- 9,250,000
Daisuke Matsuzaka -- 8,333,333
dl-Curt Schilling -- 8,000,000
Coco Crisp -- 5,083,333
Tim Wakefield -- 4,000,000
Julian Tavarez -- 3,850,000
dl-Mike Timlin -- 3,000,000
Kevin Youkilis -- 3,000,000
Alex Cora -- 2,000,000
Hideki Okajima -- 1,275,000
Javier Lopez -- 840,000
Kyle Snyder -- 835,000
Sean Casey -- 800,000
Jonathan Papelbon -- 775,000
Dustin Pedroia -- 457,000
Kevin Cash -- 450,000
Jon Lester -- 421,500
Manny Delcarmen -- 421,000
Jacoby Ellsbury -- 406,000
Bryan Corey -- 405,000
David Aardsma -- 403,250
Clay Buchholz -- 396,000

Bartolo Colon had a 5 IP, 1H s, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K outing last night in Pawtucket's home opener.  I said it before, and Peter said he hoped for it too, that I think Colon will settle in as the #5 (and eventually be the 3 or 4) sometime this season.  The Globe reported that his fastball topped out at 96mph and his last pitch of the night hit 95mph.  Colon was the Cy Young winner just 3 seasons ago and if he is healthy, he could be a significant contributor.  No knock against Clay Buchholz, but I want the best option in there.  It can't hurt Buchholz to spend some time in Pawtucket this year.

Fenway Park, set to host the Red Sox home opener this coming Tuesday, has had some work done.  Along with a tummy-tuck, it also underwent an "enhancement" shall we say.  Wait, what am I talking about?  With the addition of 975 seats and standing room only tickets, the Red Sox now have an official capacity of 39,928.  Wow, almost at the 40k figure.  Gone are the giant Coke bottles and in their place is an old-timey Coca-Cola sign.  Visit RedSox.com for more details on all the changes/improvements.

Ok, one last item.  Coco Crisp.  I think I wrote something similar last year, but I have no faith in him right now.  He just seem to take weak cuts at the plate.  His defense is not an issue, in fact it is great, but his offense is just non-existant.  Such a major disappointment since his arrival.  Time to send him packing and call up Bobby Kielty or Brandon Moss.

Kevin Cash catches Tim Wakefield tonight in Toronto.  It's about time we get to see some primetime Red Sox coverage.