The Boston Red Sox have won the rights to talk to much-hyped Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka with a $51.1 million bid. This is the same team that couldn't/didn't want to afford resigning Johnny Damon last year. But after this year's 3rd place finish, drastic measures are necessary. They have 30 days to work out a deal with DMat, or they get the money back.

But even if they sign him for, say 3 years 39 mil, or 5 years 60 mil, is he worth it? Let's take the 3 year estimate. With the bid, that would total 90 million dollars for 3 years spent on DMat. That's 30 million a year. What kind of numbers would he have to put up for the Sox to justify spending that kind of money, especially when they have a lot of other holes to fill? What will this do to the free agent market? Everyone desperately needs pitching and there aren't many available this off-season. Barry Zito is the biggest name out there. Somewhere he's laughing, knowing his price just went up many millions of dollars.

But back to DMat. If he is the real deal, and can anchor the Sox' staff for the next decade (he's just 26), than it will look like a good deal. Especially with Curt Schilling on his last leg (or should I say ankle?). Boston went out and got Pedro years ago, after mistakenly writing off and dumping Roger Clemens. And he worked out great, helping them to the championship in 2004. But there are no guarantees. DMat still has to come here and face real hitting, especially the longball American League brand. And Fenway's a shoebox. Let's see if he can adjust. Yankees fans still have the bitter memory of Hideki Irabu arriving to much fanfare, only to turn out to be a "fat pussy toad."

One good thing at least will come from this. Boston can't complain about the Yanks spending money anymore, can no longer call us the evil empire. They're on the verge of laying 100 mil on an unproven commodity.