Nice. Not Naughty. Nice.

$52 million over six years. An outside shot at getting to $60 million. That's what the Sox ended up committing to Daisuke Matsuzaka for his pitching services. Let's ignore the posting fee for a second. That $52 million is about HALF of what Jason Schmidt is getting from the Dodgers, on a per-year basis. That's less than the Sox are paying Josh Beckett. That's just a tiny bit more than the Sox are paying Matt Clement. That, after all the sturm und drang and gnashing of teeth and cursing the name of Scott Boras, is a really good deal for the Sox. After the media had been crucifying Theo and the front office for letting Boras walk all over them and drive the bus on these negotiations, I think that no one is doubting, at this point, that the Sox made out VERY well in this deal. Of course, Matsuzaka's arm could fall off in March, but right now, this is a good thing.

Now let's look at the posting fee for a second. John Henry was on the radio yesterday afternoon, debunking the popular notion that the Sox could immediately make back the $51 million through t-shirt sales, etc. Apparently, MLB itself will see the benefit from that, and the Sox only get 1/30 share of the total baseball merchandise sales. Too bad. I still think that the Sox will find a way to make this work for them- NESN broadcasts in Japan, specialized advertising at Fenway, etc. Over the life of the contract, $51 million's not impossible to recover.

But even if you see that fee as part of the whole deal, that brings Matsuzaka's number up to $103 million over six years. That's a Carlos Lee number. That's probably less than Barry Zito will command within the next week or so (I'm looking at you, Omar Minaya and Tom Hicks). Ask yourself- would you rather have 26-year old Matsuzaka or 28-year old Barry Zito for the next six years? How about if only half the cost counted against the salary luxury tax? Right. Me too.

Oh, and while we're talking about would-you-rathers...here's a really good little piece about J.D. Drew vs. Johnny Damon. For all of you lovers of Johnny who still curse the Sox for throwing huge money at Drew that they denied Damon, take a good look at the numbers. If Drew is healthy (a big if, I know), there's not much question who is more valuable.

In other news, the Sox re-signed Tim Wakefield's security blanket to a one year/$750,000 deal. I like Doug Mirabelli. I like how he catches Wakefield. I like his attitude. I love the fact that he still refuses to put on batting gloves. I like the fact that we're getting a good backup catcher for less than a million. What I don't like is that we're giving about 150 AB to a guy who has NO bat speed left. Maybe you can hope that he'll catch a few mistake pitches and crank 8-10 homers. Maybe you can figure on having him limited to Wakefield's 35 starts and take him out for a pinch hitter after six or seven innings. Maybe you're hoping for enough pop from the rest of your lineup to spackle over that hole. But it's a hole. Make no mistake. It's a hole.

With the signing of Mirabelli and Matsuzaka (the M & M boys?), the last major item on the Sox shopping list is a closer. There are still rumblings about Chad Cordero from the Nationals, Mike Gonzalez from the Pirates, Brian Fuentes from the Rockies, and some others. Coco Crisp and Kevin Youkilis are possible trade bait. Aubrey Huff is considered an option should the Sox trade Youk. This is all still out there. I may have to cave and subscribe to ESPN Insider to find out what else is being talked about. I told myself I'd never do that, but, like the Sox, there comes a time you have to go for it, and if you're in for a penny (or $51,111,111.11), you might as well be in for a pound ($52,000,000).