The Red Sox have come to an agreement with closer Jonathan Papelbon avoiding arbitration in 2010. The right-hander will be paid $9.5 million in 2010. Papelbon told local media that he would like to end his days playing in a Red Sox uniform likening his ideal career to that of his Yankee rival Mariano Riveria. The Baton Rouge hurler has been one of the best closers in the game in recent memory and it would be a shame should the Sox lose him after next season. Nevertheless, Papelbon’s desire to remain in Boston will hopefully make it easier on management after next season. Here’s to hoping “Pap” stays a Sox for a long time.

Not only was Mr. Pedroia injured this week in the WBC, but also Youkilis was injured while on the team too. It’s getting to be a big issue for the team, because if you lose two players during the process of games that don’t matter for the actual MLB world. The Red Sox really wanted to burst out of the gate this spring when the season actually begins, but they are also in a bit of a tough situation, because they will be starting out only with some backup players in the field. Neither of their injuries seem to be really bad nor long-lasting, but it’s going to be annoying not to start off the season without the full team in place. It’s going to be a rough time for them but they will try to start off as well as possible otherwise.

In terms of pitchers, one of the most consistent that the Red Sox has is Brad Penny. He’s been having shoulder trouble recently though, so the team is hoping that he’ll be ready for the beginning of the season, or possibly even sometime over the course of spring training. The pitching coach, Jon Farrell, said that he has been pitching on a secondary part of the field, rather than a regular mound. Putting him down on regular ground, rather than on the raised mound, is better for him, says the pitching coach, because he ends up getting more of his lower body involved in the throw, relieving some of the pressure on the shoulder. And he hasn’t reported any real pain in the shoulder since he started that. Hopefully he can keep that up and stay healthy.

The AL East is going to be one of the hardest divisions this year. Of course, we have our great Red Sox ready to play. But we also have our normal rivals, the Yankees, who have been trying to improve their team this year. They can’t improve their fans, but they can improve the team. And then there are the runners-up for the World Series last year. The Tampa Bay Rays are very threatening this year too. This is going to be an exciting year. Too exciting, really, but we’re going to have a lot of fun watching these teams this year. Last year, they were neck-in-neck, though New York wasn’t nearly as good as usual. I certainly preferred it that way, but that’s the way it goes in this division. Keep an eye on those teams!

John Blake, Red Sox Vice President in charge of Media Relations, announced yesterday that he was moving back to work for the Texas Rangers.  He had been in Boston since 2006 and will now take the helm in Texas as the team vice president in charge of communications.  In this role, he will oversee player-media relations, as well as relations with broadcasting and the press.  He had previously worked with Texas from 1984 to 2004 and appears to have liked it enough to go back.  He has been well regarded in Boston during his tenure and is widely expected to do very well in his new position.  We wish him the very best!

The Red Sox think tank has a lot of work to do to spice up the sagging shoulders of the players as the team came up with yet another disappointing display of baseball against the Angles last Wednesday night. This win on Wednesday helped the Angles to make a clean sweep of the series against the Red Sox and one of the recent upset stories of Major Leagues. The batters were not able to do anything about the pitching tactics of the Angles pitchers. The Red Sox ace pitcher Josh Beckett was hit to all corners of the stadium by the Angles hitters and he recorded 11 hits and 8 runs in the game. This result is sure to bring down the ticket sales of the forthcoming Red Sox games drastically.

The Red Sox opened their ten game road trip account with a thumping 6-1 win over the Houston Astros last Friday night. The Red Sox fans were excited to see their ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzuka come back to form after serving in the disabled list and also lauded the three run homer by slugger J.D. Drew. Matsuzuka was happy with his display last Friday and is hoping to do further damage to his opponent teams during this road trip. Daisuke Matsuzuka walked three, struck out four and allowed two hits in his five shutout innings. The Red Sox fans will be all geared up to buy tickets for the forthcoming road games.

The Red Sox fans must be pretty pleased with  the way their team rallied from behind to seal a 5-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks last Tuesday night to equal the series at one a piece. It was the batting prowess of Jason Varitek in the eighth inning that saved the face for the Red Sox team in front of thee capacity home ground. A total of six runs were scored by the Red Sox in the eighth inning. The rain delayed match provided some enterprising baseball play from both the teams and the fans who had bought tickets to witness this game would feel that they have really got their money’s worth.

The Red Sox team’s ace pitcher Curt Schilling was undergoing a rehabilitation program to correct his pitching shoulder problems. The things did not fall in place according to the Red Sox management’s plan and the end result is that Curt Schilling will be undergoing a shoulder operation to set things right on Monday. This operation will be a season ending one for the 41 year old Curt. He is undergoing this medical procedure in order to be pain free for the rest of his life. Curt thanked all his fans and well wishers for supporting him all through his baseball career. The Red Sox fans with tickets for the forthcoming games will not be able to see the great pitcher pitch for the remainder of this season.  

The Boston Red Sox team is currently on a form slump and this was clearly evident from the way they played in the 5-4 loss to the Orioles last Tuesday night. The defeat at the hands of Orioles meant that the Red Sox have dropped out of its first place for the first time since May 1st. None of the top Red sox players were able to play their natural aggressive game against the Orioles and Ramirez could not add to his tally of 498 career home runs. The Red Sox have now lost five of their last seven games and will need to come up with an appealing good game next time around in a bid to satisfy their die-hard fans.