"Top Billin'" (Audio Two)

"Josh gets $30M deal", eh? Was anyone going to tell me I'm rich?

The Josh Beckett signing, or extension actually, particularly since they were going to have control of him through 2007 one way or another, seems wise on a day when my namesake pitched 8 shutout innings, even if it was against the Royals. That's thinking really short-term. Long-term, this keeps a very good pitcher with a real possibility of greatness at Fenway for the same money Kris Benson got a couple years back. That's a good signing all the more so because the pitching market is always prone to oddity. See Burnett, A.J., one of the last pitchers in the world deserving of a five-year deal.

I'm happy with the Red Sox, although this seems likely to be one of those years where a very deserving American League team is left out of the playoffs, maybe two.

I'm hoping those teams are the Yankees and Twins; the Twins seem to have too much ground to make up even with the pitching staff they ended up with this year. (The A.J. Pierzynski trade with San Francisco has quickly become one of the worst of all time: Liriano, Nathan, and a man named Boof all for an irritating if fairly talented catcher that lasted all of a year before the Giants tired of his shit.)

But the Yankees have the potential to make it a two playoff team AL East yet, and will not go unnoticed by the Yankees until we clinch the pennant. Yeah, I said it.