Report: Red Sox Offering Drew 4/48

Philadelphia Daily News:

The Red Sox aren't through yet. Multiple sources say they are set to sign free-agent outfielder J.D. Drew, the Phillies' old amigo, for a 4-year, $48 million deal.

The Herald adds that more than a dozen other teams are interested in Drew.

With reports of Alfonso Soriano and his career .325 OBP commanding as much as $20 million per year and Frank Thomas signing with Toronto for somewhere around $10, snagging Drew at $12 per year is not only pretty good, it's a steal.

Drew needs to stay healthy, but his numbers are much better than what we've been used to from right field.

OPS+   Nixon  Drew
2000    108    122
2001    129    162
2002    114    110
2003    149    133
2004    123    158
2005    112    148
2006     98    125
Career  117    133

Reading Matsuzaka's comment that he is "most looking forward to facing Ichiro Suzuki", SoSHer Noah writes:

It's waaaaay to early to speculate on which game he'll start, but I'll do it anyway. Let's say Schilling starts the season opener in KC on Monday 4/2, and Matsuzaka starts the second game on Wednesday after the off-day. That would put Matsuzaka on schedule to start the home opener on Tuesday 4/10. It would also give him 5 days rest (an extra day) going into that second start. And Ichiro would be the first guy to the plate in the top of the first. That's too awesome for them not to do it.

Matsuzaka Watch includes info on all of his 2006 starts (some video also). Here are some of his stats from Seibu:

Year  W  L   IP     H   ER  BB   K   ERA WHIP
1999 16  5  180    124  52  87  151 2.60 1.17
2000 14  7  167.2  132  74  95  144 3.97 1.35
2001 15 15  240.1  184  96 117  214 3.60 1.25
2002  6  2   73.1   60  30  15   78 3.68 1.02
2003 16  7  194    165  61  63  215 2.83 1.18
2004 10  6  146    165  47  42  127 2.90 1.42
2005 14 13  215    172  55  49  226 2.30 1.03
2006 17  5  186.1  138  44  34  200 2.13 0.92
    108 60 1402.2 1140 459 502 1355 2.95 1.17

Johan Santana was the unanimous choice for the AL Cy Young. Chien-Ming Wang (15 second-place votes and 6 third-place votes) was second, followed by Roy Halladay (12 and 12).