Big (S)Chill

Red Sox management elected to freeze out 40 year-old ace Curt Schilling from a one-year extension as GM Theo Epstein adopted an "I'm from Missouri" position. The onus is now on the big righthander to have a healthy and productive season and earn the opportunity to cash in again.

On the Boston Globe website, their poll is running 5 to 4 in favor of Sox management over Schilling and a hypothetical one-year 13 million dollar extension. The Sox have rolled the dice a few times, winning with Mo Vaughn, losing with Roger Clemens and Johnny Damon so far.

The Manny Ramirez saga continues with the righthanded slugger absent with authorization, with the usual variety of possible excuses. I guess that falls into the 'from each according to his ability and to each according to his need' rule. Or is it the Golden Rule? "He who has the gold makes the rules."

I always liked baseball practice...AND for the professionals, Spring Training happens in tropical climates, not the frozen tundras of Middlesex or Suffolk County. You got to play a game, with your friends, and experience all the socialization that is baseball. It's not like football where as Bruce Armstrong says, "you beat hell out of 22 of your closest friends." But Manny probably isn't that big on small talk.

If you could have a sit down with anyone on the Red Sox, players, coaches, or management, who would it be? For me, it would be easy, because John Henry could tell me about commodity trading, trend qualifiers, mean reversion, derivatives, 'The Greeks' (option trading parameters), and I'd share some of my theories with him. Trading, not baseball. Baseball and trading aren't so different. Establishing the advantage and execution are everything.

Ultimately, we have to hope that the majority of the Sox squad stays healthy, and that they have enough favorable statistical synergy to reach the playoffs.