More Matsuzaka

No hot rumors here, but I wanted to point everyone toward my latest article on The Hardball Times about Daisuke Matsuzaka.  One of the things I looked at was the impact that the Red Sox bid could have on the free-agent market, particularly Barry Zito and Jason Schmidt.  It’s interesting that the team that won the bidding wasn’t one of those that was strongly going after Zito–in other words, the Red Sox set a staggeringly high market price for an ace pitcher, but by winning the bid, didn’t shrink the market for Barry. 

I also noticed that the high-end starting pitching market is just as strong as it was last year, despite all the talk of this being a "weak" market.  I mean, who would you rather choose from: Zito, Schmidt, and Pettitte, or Burnett, Millwood, and Loiaza?  Take a look at Tim’s Top 50 list from last offseason; it’s eye-opening.

Also, I was interviewed for a segment this morning on NPR’s morning edition.  It’s aimed toward a general audience who hasn’t been following the Matsuzaka sweepstakes for months (or even days), but if you think it’s cool that a blogger managed to get their voice on NPR right after Peter Gammons (I sure do!), you can check that out here.

By Jeff Sackmann