Ted's Army: The Voice of Red Sox fans

Why are the Sox being so conservative all of a sudden?

Bobby V has been the biggest acquistion...too bad he can't pitch. (Photo: Getty Images)

John Henry has been called many things during his tenure as prinicipal owner of the Red Sox started in 2002. Some of them nice and many of them have been negative but the words "cheap", "thrifty", and "frugal" were usually nowhere to be found. But after reports came that the Red Sox would have to move players in order to acquire free agent Roy Oswalt, those were some of the gripes that people had against Henry and the rest of the ownership and that his new shiny toy across the pond in Liverpool is sucking up all of his funds.

It sounds incredibly preposterous to call Henry cheap when he has made it rain on players. Since 2002, the Red Sox have spent a little over $1.2 billion in salaries and $18.7 million in luxury taxes. He has spent a minimum of $100 million a season on payroll for all but one year when he spent $99,946,500 in 2003. This is the same ownership that has helped draw the ire of all the small market teams as both the Sox and New York Yankees we're having their own personal bidding war.

Your Morning Dump...Where the offseason officially starts today

 

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here... highlighting the big storyline. Because there's nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

So Mike Lowell, Victor Martinez and Jason Varitek are now officially free agents. The Red Sox have a five-day window of negotiating exclusivity and that clock is ticking.

Players who have options — a group that includes Scott Atchison, Adrian Beltre, Bill Hall and David Ortiz — have three days for those decisions to be made. That deadline comes Thursday at midnight.

The Red Sox hold options on Atchison (approximately $450,000), Hall ($9.25 million) and Ortiz ($12.5 million) while Beltre holds a $10 million player option.

Globe | Baseball gets down to business

Ah, November 2. A big day, as you may have heard. There are elections. Adam Carolla's new book comes out. Edgar Renteria celebrates his first day of relevance in ten years.

For Red Sox fans, it truly marks the beginning of the offseason. Now we have our decisions to make on Hall (option declined, according to Abraham and common sense), Atchison (accepted), and Ortiz (who knows). Beltre will only be back on a longer-term deal, if at all. Victor is clearly a question mark, as is Varitek.

There's a lot up in the air, but the hot stove should be fun.

To join in the fun, look through the list of free agents and conjure up your own Sox scenarios. Definitely some names of interest among relievers. J.J. Putz? Koji Uehara? Will Ohman? (Just so I can say "Will? Oh, man..." everytime he comes in and crack myself up.)

And congrats to the fans of the San Francisco Giants and that freak-show bunch of players that won the title, including former Sox Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez, Guillermo Mota, Freddy Sanchez, and MVP Edgar Renteria.

Herald | No drought about this | MVP Edgar Renteria bookends title-winning roles | Texas boss rips NY fans | Derek Jeter, Cliff Lee on list of 142 free agents | ESPNBoston | Ortiz deadline Thursday | CSNNE | The offseason begins 

Clutch Edgar Renteria makes my mind explode

 

Edgar F'ing Renteria is the World Series MVP. 

The man we all wanted to murder in 2005.  The man who not only couldn't fill ORLANDO CABRERRA'S shoes at shortstop... he couldn't carry his jock from the locker room to the laundry room.

Edgar mutha-f'ing Renteria came through with the game. ne-SERIES-winning, 3-run home run.

Edgar mutha-f'ing Renteria hit .412 with 6 RBI in the World Series.

What's next?  Julio Lugo 2015 World Series MVP? 

I'm sorry... I can't wrap my head around this. I just can't.  This is too much to handle right now.

I need a drink.