… Lowell: I feel like Theo made a good-faith offer; while lowballing Lowell to some extent, word in the air was that he’d take a hometown discount… can’t blame him for testing the waters. Money is money.

Posada is locked in and, oddly, Rivera isn’t.

You’ll all think I’m eating cannabis for lunch, but I’ll throw out the idea that Rivera and A-Rod end up here. Not saying I like it, I’m just looking at things… (I’m not saying I even expect it, I’m just saying that even though it’s way out, it is out there). I know it’s not even on the radar, and I would be surprised, but not stunned if the Sox make a run at Mariano Rivera. I know, he’s a closer; not just a closer, but the all-time prototypical HOF closer. But ever since Mariano smiled that time he was introduced to the Fenway crowd (after a rare blown save in NY their previous meeting), I feel like he could be an 8th inning pitcher here for a longer time - with more even pressure distributed among other pitchers - than he could be a closer elsewhere (wherever else he goes, he’s the guy for the next four years, with little to no safety net. I would argue that at this stage of Rivera’s life as a whole, he’d be happy to be a large but not the only cog in a fire-breathing machine). And he could be the other stellar closer when Paps isn’t available.

If things remain the same, I think we’ll have Shill, Dice-K, Lester, and Clay pitching an average of 6 innings per game. Then, Okey 7, Rivera 8, Paps 9. Allowing for pitchers’ rest, the Sox could probably set up about two-thirds of all games to go that way. Four out of six pitchers is two thirds of the rotation (you see how I just assumed they will go with a six man rotation - there’s one of many glaring flaws in the discussion to begin with, but whatever).

The Rivera notion has more holes than swiss cheese, but I do think it points to the direction the Sox will go — instead of worrying about stretching their pitchers out to do more innings, they will not just have 8 & 9 inning stoppers, but a queued up 7, 8, & 9 stoppers. I’m not sure they’re comfortable with a 7th inning rotation of Timlin and the Bullpen Percussion Orchestra to provide the lights out 7th they want.

A-Rod is another story - the reason I could see him coming here (ugh), is that the Sox would rather drop the money, as opposed to trading hot prospects in any kind of Miguel to first, Youk to third move. If they just drop the boatload of money (although I think it will end up being for less yrs and less $ than A-Borad is talking about), they keep all the up and comers, lock in third base for the future, and keep the Gold Glove at first. Oddly enough, if A-Borad ever happens, I would like our chances less to go on to the WS.

The thinking behind all of this is that with lights out pitching, all you need is above average hitting. Since the Sox can afford even better than above average hitting - and I think they are trying to make a serious dent in baseball history, they will try to add A-Borad (did I say ugh?) to the dugout.

While I hate to admit it, it seems like Boston is the center of the sports world nowadays, and probably for the foreseeable future. So, to that end, Vigilante Sports is proud to bring into the fold, the Beast from the East, T.H. Murray. He will be bringing us his Bostonian perspective on sports in Boston and general sports knowledge as well. When referencing his posts, I will try to refrain from using any geographic cliches (you’re welcome). Be nice to him, you know those Bostonians have pretty thin skin.

Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen… T.H. Murray.

Jacque Jones and Craig Monroe are gone. Daryle Ward is coming back. The Cubs pick up Omar Infante in a trade with the Tigers for Jacque Jones. This is a good move. Jacque Jones contributed some key hits over a stretch this summer. But, since the Cubs brought him in, he’s been a disappointment. He’s a strike out looking for at-bat. He plays moderately good defense, but overall he wasn’t a great addition. Omar Infante is a solid, young utility infielder.

Shipping Craig Monroe to the Twins couldn’t have happened soon enough. Not that he wasn’t ok, but the Cubs already have a crowded outfield. They don’t need Monroe to crowd it even further. The deal with the Twins was for a player to be named later, and frankly, it doesn’t matter who it was. Hopefully they’ll pick some young farm hands while the Twins grab some insurance for possibly losing their All Star centerfielder Torii Hunter.

A tale of two halves. In the first half, Michigan State repeatedly shot itself in the foot with penalties, and Michigan absolutely shut down the Spartan rushing attack. In the second half, Michigan couldn’t move the ball on offense and got run over by Javon Ringer, and Jehuu Caulcrick. Chad Henne rallied the troops and scored 14 unanswered points to take the lead for good.

With all of my wrong, or just plain bad predictions, I have to say that I was pretty damn close on my prediction for this game. But I won’t break my arm patting myself on the back.

The most remarkable play for me was Javon Ringer’s 72 yard run in the third quarter. Yeah, it was a nice run by Ringer, but the impressive part was the guy that mad first contact with ringer, Shawn Crable, ended up making the tackle, 75 yards later. Of course, Crable should have wrapped him up for the 3 yard loss, but the fact that he got off his ass, and busted it down the field to stop Ringer from scoring really gives a glimpse of this team. I was definitely on the Fire Lloyd bandwagon earlier in the season. But I have to say that Lloyd and his coaching staff have impressed me by coming back and making this season respectable. Hell, we’ve seen what’s happened to Notre Dame, and Nebraska when their seasons went into the tank. Nebraska got 76 point hung on them today. Michigan reeled it back in. A game too late for National title hopes. But they haven’t quit and there is a real chance that they will see Oregon again, in the Rose Bowl. Redemption??

Popular sports site Sportsline.com (the site for CBS Sports) was different today when I pointed my browser there. They redesigned. This is not the first time they’ve done so in the last couple of months.

They moved away from the 1998 look a couple months ago towards something a bit more refined. Some gradients and drop shadows. But throughout the whole site you still had a strong sense of where you were. There was a strong royal blue header and background. Now, just some white and light grey.

I’ve got nothing against understatement, or white and grey, but it’s just out of place on a sports site. ESPN has the strong red and black color scheme, Yahoo! Sports has black as it’s featured color. Sportsline used to have blue, but no more… it’s gone. For shame.

Recently Sportsline has lost my business with regards to their fantasy sports products, I wonder now, if they might lose me as a regular, and frequent visitor to their site?

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