Red Sox Continue GM Search, Make Offer To Damon

Atlanta's assistant GM Dayton Moore will not be coming to Boston:

This was the most difficult thing I've had to face. It really and truly came down to family considerations more than anything else. ... I felt extremely comfortable [at the Sox interview] and felt a lot of chemistry between Larry Lucchino, Tom Werner and myself. They were terrific to me and this could have been a great atmosphere for me, but the timing of this is such that I'm better off staying in Atlanta.

The Red Sox will soon conduct second interviews with both Jim Beattie and Jim Bowden. ... Tony Massarotti says this whole situation is a mess.

Johnny Damon:

I definitely owe Boston a lot. People know who I am now. Despite putting up good numbers over the years before Boston, people now know about it. ... It's just a matter of us starting to talk about numbers.

Damon is looking for something like 7/84 -- which is laughable, but, hey, I wish him well if he gets it. Boston apparently made an offer around 3/27, with (maybe) a fourth-year option or vesting option. They shouldn't go any higher or longer than that.

The Yankees might be interested in Damon at about 4/44. (New York has also expressed an interest in Mike Myers.)

In his story about the inclusion of amphetamines in baseball's new drug-testing policy, Chris Snow quotes a veteran player:

I'd say 75 percent of the league uses amphetamines in some way, shape, or form. I'd say 40-45 percent use them regularly. Regularly means on a daily basis. There are guys who can't play without amphetamines. I can't wait to see what happens. If you have guys using amphetamines for their entire minor league career, major league career, and relied on this for 12 years, boy, are you going to see some statistical changes.

Bill Madden of the New York Daily News notes that the Red Sox face "daunting challenges" this winter. However:

The Yankees should be drooling with envy at all the quality young talent on the way to Fenway. Unfortunately for them, the Tampa player-development department has reaped zilch out of the last 12 drafts since Derek Jeter in 1992. That's something like 800 players not to have any impact with the major league club ... [It's an] incredible run of impotence ...

The Herald ran a lot of quotes from various MVP voters, explaining why they voted the way they did:

Ken Davidoff, Newsday:

I really did vote on the basis that the Yankees won the division.

Mark Saxon, Orange County Register:

I spoke to a number of pitchers and a lot of them told me that Ortiz was the one guy in the American League they wouldn't like to see up, over A-Rod, in a close and late situation.

Gordon Wittenmyer, St. Paul Pioneer Press:

Over the course of the year, when the game was on the line in clutch situations, [Ortiz'] numbers were off the charts. As far as the DH rule goes, that's not his fault. If he was in the National League, he'd be playing first base and nobody would say anything.

Boston added righthanded pitchers Jesus Delgado, Harvey Garcia, and David Pauley, lefthanded pitcher Jon Lester, and outfielders Brandon Moss and David Murphy to its 40-man roster.