Schilling To Red Sox
 

Mike and the mad dog are reporting that Schilling is going to the Red Sox for Casey Fossum and a couple of prospects. This all hinges on the Red Sox agreeing to give Schilling a 2 Year/15 Million dollar deal. Apparently Shcilling has 3 days to work out a deal with Boston and if they dont come to terms than he can veto the deal, odd circumstances.

Wow.

Can you hear the ticking noise coming from Steinbrenner's office?

EEP

Actually I'm picturing him screaming at Cashman right now.

Apparently he wants 2 Years, $15 Million a year from Boston.

Another side note they brought up is that he really wanted to go the Yankees and was willing to sign with them for 2 Years $12 Million a year.

What it amounts to is that Boston has traded for his rights and has 72 hours to reach an agreement with him, after that, if Schilling and Boston don't agree to a deal he can veto the trade.

ESPN is reporting this now too. Said a few other things:

Schilling should find out in the next 40 minutes if this will happen or not..


And Schilling to the Yankees was never going to happen...

At least that is what ESPN is reporting.

Gammons is now reporting that once the deal is done that the red sox will ship Fossum to Milwaukee for Sexson.

The Red Sox or the D-Backs?

That's all the Brewers could score for Sexson?

Awful. Just awful.

That is terrible. He's the right handed version of Thome.. lots of HR's.. lots of K's.

He is also fairly expensive. It seems more like a salary dump, and they get a pretty good young arm in return.

Yeah, arizona will ship fossum to milwaukee for Sexson, my bad, i just woke up.

Brewers would be getting a good prospect in exchange for a good hitter with a big contract. Fairly standard these days. They could have gotten more, but would have had to eat some of his salary.

Yay! My favorite player will not go to the Dark Side!

Too bad he's not headed back to Philly :(

...or back to Houston. :(

Of course, the Astros are still in the Petitte sweepstakes. That makes me happy... :)

Casey Fossum is an interesting case. He has most of the underlying fundamentals that make the number-head types get all excited -- he doesn't walk too many guys, he gets a fair number of strikeouts, and so forth. But to date, he really hasn't put all that much together. The market for him, basically, is really one of speculation -- many analytical types think that he could develop (possibly very soon) into a very solid starter, maybe even more than that. But it's not like he has a nice 14-win, 3.10 ERA season to bolster the enthusiasm.

Boston needed a tough year in 2003 to be pried loose of him (recall the various offers they had for him last off season), and they are still getting more in market value than one might think he's worth. Curious case, in my mind. There are more "proven" guys who have less market value, it seems, than this guy who has yet to prove very much of anything.

Wow, I'm not sure which is more troubling here, the comparison to Thome, or the apparent lack of respect for Thome - especially coming from a Phillies fan.

Thome also draws 100+ BB every single season, which Sexson has yet to do (he came close in '03 with 98). Thome's career OPS is 100 (70 in OBP and 30 in SLG), points higher than Sexson's and Sexson's career high OPS (again set in '03) is still 50 points lower that Thome's career average.

Despite the number of K's he puts up, Thome is an outstanding hitter. Maybe not worth $12MM, but solid nonetheless. Sexson is decent, but nowhere near Thome's level yet. That's not to say he won't ever be, but Sexson is only 4 years younger than Thome.

He's left-handed, like you said, he can get strikeouts with a small number of walks and, well, he has a pulse. Scouts goes goofy over guys like these and "tools" guys. I think it's a CYA thing because these are the supposed ingredients for success so, if they don't pan out, they didn't really go on a limb and nobody will think they were dumb for it. Just like there're still a number of GMs who thought the Phillies made the right move to draft Jeff Jackson on 1 year of success and "tools" (there was a story a bit back about gambles in the MLB draft) when a 1B from Auburn name Thomas was still on the board, even though he showed that he could hit in high school then showed again that he could hit in college.

i guess ESPN radio is reporting that Kelly Shopach and Fossum are going to the Brewers from the Red Sox. I suppose this means that the Red Sox will try to lock Varitek up long term as Shopach was supposed to be the catcher of the future for the Red Sox.