King Kaufman's Sports Daily

Could baseball's profligate spending be good for busines? Plus: Anti-doping exposé. And: Thursday night NFL.

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Dec. 14, 2006 | First, an update. It looks like the Boston Red Sox and Daisuke Matsuzaka have a deal and the ace pitcher won't be returning to the Seibu Lions. Not a surprise. Matsuzaka flew to Boston Wednesday evening and took a physical, and the Red Sox set a press conference for 5 p.m. EST at Fenway.

The Associated Press reported that the six-year contract will pay the 26-year-old right-hander $52 million, with incentives that could make it $60 million. That's about half of what agent Scott Boras opened with last month.

Second, a correction. It was shortstop Julio Lugo, not outfielder and Boras client J.D. Drew, whom the Red Sox introduced Wednesday.

Third, an observation. Baseball owners are moaning about the overheated free-agent market this winter, and a lot of fans are turned off by the huge contracts going not just to stars like Alfonso Soriano or potential superstars like Matsuzaka, but to journeymen like Gary Matthews Jr. and Jamie Walker. The words "throw up" were uttered in this column's letters thread Wednesday in regard to the millions being flung around.

But.

Isn't this boiling-over hot stove the best thing that's happened to the baseball off-season since they thought up spring training? Am I the only person who usually more or less ignores baseball during this stretch of the calendar who's obsessing over it now?

Am I the only one who's usually thinking about the NFL in December who now finds himself driving to the store and asking himself, "Is Vernon Wells worth $120 million?" or "What should the Dodgers have done instead of throwing $44 million at Juan Pierre?"

The answers, by the way, are probably and count to 10. And what do you mean you think about things other than sports sometimes?

For all their whining about operating profit or loss, owners, or at least the smart people they pay to tell them what to do, know that the real dough in owning a team is in the escalating value of the franchise. The owners are paying through the nose for non-superstar talent this off-season -- Soriano and Carlos Lee are not superstars -- but I wonder if baseball spending in the late fall and winter at or near the top of the news won't pay off on the back end.

Me being a reporter and everything, I could talk to some economists about this question, but I just thought of it about 20 minutes before deadline. Since these are the internets, I figured I'd throw it out there and we can talk amongst ourselves. We'll bring in some experts next week.

Next page: A devastating critique of the world and U.S. anti-doping agencies. Plus: Thursday night football