How Much Money Did Scott Boras Cost Jason Varitek?

Go to about 3:20 of the video.

Hot stove smoke.

Scott Boras may be the best at what he does, and as the joke goes, his ethos of the 95% (of lawyers) makes the other 5% look bad. He played the Red Sox to a point and got Mark Teixeira megabucks. He's off the speed dial in Atlanta after stabbing the Braves in the back with Rafael Furcal. But then he showed Derek Lowe the money getting the erstwhile philander and righthander a four year deal with the same Braves.

But Jason Varitek remains on the outside looking in. The Sox offered Varitek arbitration and he was not likely to get a significant pay cut with that route. But the Varitek-Boras alliance has not found willing suitors (or market) and both will get a pay cut, although in Varitek's case, he's the one to suffer not Boras. Of course, Boras will think (but not say) "it was your decision to test the market, Jason." "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

Plenty of high priced talent remain out there. Manny, Bobby Abreu, Adam Dunn, Andy Pettitte, and Ben Sheets continue to pound the pavement, evidently wondering where their next ten million dollars comes from. Poor babies.

The Sox traded David Pauley (we hardly knew ya) for Randor Bierd of the Orioles, which registered at 0.02 on the Richter scale.

The Sox have done an excellent job of staying under the radar, while getting a lot done. They've locked up Pedroia and Youkilis, and acquired Penny, Smoltz, Baldelli, and Bard for (in baseball terms) short money and short contracts.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Papelbon and Javier Lopez approach arbitration. We're definitely talking apples and oranges here. Of course, Lopez will only make about twenty times the average family in my community. Tough noogies, eh?