Tim Wakefield says he’s completely recovered from offseason surgery to repair a herniated disc and plans on reclaiming his spot in the Red Sox’ starting rotation during spring training.

“I don’t,” he told a television interviewer in New York, where he was to receive the annual Bart Giamatti Award — given to the player who “best exemplifies the compassion demonstrated” by the late commissioner for excellence in the community — when asked if he anticipated a change in his role in 2010.

With the acquisition of John Lackey, the Sox now have six starters for five rotation spots: Lackey, Josh Beckett, Jon Lester, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Clay Buchholz and Wakefield. But Wakefield says he plans to step back into his old position as one of the five starters.

“I feel great,” he said. “I finished my rehab a couple of weeks ago [and I'm] right back on schedule as far as my offseason conditioning and throwing program [is concerned], and I feel like there won’t be any setbacks when I go to spring training.”

This is interesting. Obviously everyone around here loves Tim Wakefield and would love to see him become the all time wins leader in Red Sox history, but who does he expect out of Lester, Beckett, Daisuke, Lackey, and Buchholz to be left out of the starting five? It obviously isn’t going to be Lester, Beckett, or Lackey as these guys are essentially 1, 1a, 1aa. It would be foolish to try and block Buchholz from continuing his rise after he has showed pretty consistent improvement over the last 18 months; and Daisuke was arguably our best pitcher in September; not to mention the financial commitment they have made to him or the fact that he had an 18 win season and a sub 3 era under his belt that last time he was healthy.

I see Wake going into the season as the spot starter/long relief man out of the bullpen. It isn’t a glorious job, but when you are 43 and coming off back to back to back seasons where you had to hang up the cleats early due to injury then you take what you can get in terms of a job. Regardless, this is hardly a bad problem to have. Every year the Sox go into the season with “too much pitching” and by July 31st they are always mixing it up trying to add another starter before the deadline.

- Chris

It was a hard battle, and the rest of the team did all that they could, but in the end, the Vikings couldn’t overcome the inevitable truth that Brett Favre (with quite a bit of help from Adrian Peterson) would crumble and blow it all when the final horn sounded. In the biggest game of the year, Favre went 28/46 for 310 yards a score and two picks, the second in the final minute of the game. It was a perfect example of what NFL realists have been trying to explain to the rest of the world for some time now. What Favre worshipers call “gun slinging” in reality is nothing more than being irresponsible with the football. Already in field goal range, Favre, who mind you was hurt during the third quarter, passed up what would have been an easy ten yard scramble instead to throw across his body to the opposite side of the field and into the hands of the defense. While Favre was far from the sole culprit in this embarrassing loss, had he simply thrown the ball out of bounds for once in his career they would have won the game. Instead, the Saints win the coin flip and easily drive down the field to kick the winning field goal.

Before this weekend I was still undecided who the best team in the NFC was, but after watching this game it became clear to me that the Vikings were the the cream of the crop. They had talent at every position with play makers on both sides of the ball. However, you can’t win in the playoffs when you turn the ball over. On top of two interceptions by Favre, the Vikings fumbled the ball six times, losing three of them. Two of the fumbles were by Adrian Peterson, hands down a superstar, but likely vanished to the bench on a Bill Belichick coached team. Despite what seemed like a turnover on every drive, the Vikings still managed to almost pull it out. But in the end, Favre came back to bite them, just like I knew he would.

Many people are now asking what’s next for Favre. It seems to me like he has a pretty consistent track record. He will debate for months whether or not he should retire, then he will leak stories all spring about maybe coming back, then finally he will announce his final comeback with a team to be determined in the future. It seems pretty obvious to me, no?

And one more thing to take note of, if this was indeed Brett Favre’s last game with the Vikings he will have thrown an interception on his final pass attempt for every team he has played on. Fitting if you ask me.

- Chris

He has to be, right? He makes literally every field goal during the regular season and then once the pressure mounts during the playoffs all he does is fold. Not only this year either, he has consistently sucked after week 17.

2005 – Missed a 40 yard game winner in the Wild Card game

2006 – Missed a 50 yard game tying field goal against the Patriots

2007 – He missed two field goals

2009 – Three, count them, three field goals in the 17-14 loss to the sixth seeded Jets this past weekend.

Of course this happens against the Jets too, really a slap in the face to all Patriots fans. Fucker.

- Chris

Just one day after the MLB Players Association came out publicly accusing the Florida Marlins of not spending enough of their cash received from revenue sharing, the team signs young stud Josh Johnson to a four year extension worth $39 million, $1 million more than the deal Zack Greinke signed prior to his 2009 Cy Young season. The deal calls for Johnson to earn $3.75 mm in 2010 and $7.75 mm, $13.75mm, $13.75mm in the following three years.

It’s hard not to look at this deal and then the Marlins opening day payroll over the last four years (’06 $14.9 mm, ‘07 $30.5 mm, ‘08 $21.8 mm, ‘09 $36.8 mm) and wonder how on earth they are going to keep both Johnson and Hanley Ramirez on the team past the 2010 season. Hanley is set to make $7 mm in 2010 and then $11 mm, $15 mm, $15.5 mm, and $16 mm over the next four years. Combined, Johnson and Hanley will command $18.75 mm in 2011, $28.75 mm in 2012, and $29.25 mm in 2013. These totals exceed what the team paid in total payroll in 2006 as well as 2008 and take up the majority of the 2007 and 2009 total payrolls as well. Based on the Marlins past history and reluctance to spend any money, there is  reason to believe that neither of these players will become permanent fixtures of the Marlins franchise. Odds are they will both be traded for a plethora of prospects whom the Marlins will pay next to nothing to put a serviceable team on the field.

Obviously the odds of the Red Sox landing either of these players via trade, let a long both of them, is slim. But we all know how much Theo Epstein loves Hanley Ramirez. And you can bet your ass a young pitcher like Johnson would really tickle their feathers as well. I will likely have to settle with owning both on my 2011 fantasy baseball team, but hey, a guy can dream, right?

- Chris

It’s that the fucking Jets somehow are still in it. Sure, they out played the Bengals and certainly deserved to win last weekend, but in no way did they deserve to even be in the playoffs. Lets recap the previous few weeks.

December 20, 2009 – The Jets lose at home to the Falcons 10-7 and fall to 7-7 on the season. Though still mathematically in contention for a playoff spot, the odds were not in their favor. Rex Ryan takes the podium for his post game press conference and says the following:

We’re obviously out of the playoffs, and that is unfortunate.

December 27, 2009 – The Jets travel to Indy to face the undefeated Colts. They battle tough through the first half but the Colts still are on top. Then, the Colts decide to fold their cards and rest their starters while giving away any hope for an undefeated season. The Jets end up winning 29-15 and the playoffs look to be a definite possibility just one week after big Rex had written them off.

January 3, 2009 – With nothing on the line for the Bengals, the Jets put 37 on the board and shut out Cincinnati. The Bengals were not trying from the get go. Knowing that the Jets could be a likely first round opponent they were simply going through the motions as to not give away anything when it didn’t matter.

Lets recap, needing two straight wins against far superior teams along with numerous losses by the rest of the league, the Jets wiggled their way into the playoffs just as you would expect from someone like Rex Ryan.

Moving on, before their week one playoff win at Cincinnati Ryan was asked about his thoughts on the 50:1 odds Vegas had placed on them to win the Super Bowl. He replied with this gem as taken from ESPN.com

“I wasn’t aware of that,” he said, “but to me, we should be favorites, so that’s fine.”

Ryan then was asked to clarify if he meant the Jets should be favored to beat the Bengals on Saturday in Cincinnati.

“I mean in the whole tournament,” he said. “You know the way that I feel.”

That’s right. The guy who mistakenly thought the Jets were eliminated from the playoff picture after losing to Atlanta three weeks ago believes his team can win it all.

“I think we have the best defense, I know we do,” Ryan said. “I know we have the best rushing attack. Those are two huge factors in our favor. With a couple of exceptions on our staff, myself probably, I think we have a great coaching staff.”

Honestly, there is no team in the NFL that I hate more than the Jets. In my opinion, in the NFL, you need to go out there and do your job and keep your mouth shut, but this is in no way the Jets style. Arrogance pisses me off even more. People say that Belichick is arrogant because of the way that he conducts himself but the Jets are way worse. And the thing that makes it even worse is that I think they have a good chance to beat the Colts this weekend. The only time the Colts have had any playoff success was in 2006 when they were a wild card team and had to fight there way into the playoffs. Every other year when they shut it down in the end after a hot start they were never able to come off the bye and fire the engines back up. I would not be surprised at all if they come out flat this weekend and end up losing the game.

- Chris

Just a little rookie hazing

While we are still about a month away from pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training, Twelve Red Sox rookies are getting a head start this week. Pitchers Randor Bierd, Felix Doubront, Casey Kelly, Ryne Miller, Junichi Tazawa, Kyle Weiland; catcher Luis Exposito; infielders Jose Iglesias, Yamaico Navarro; and outfielders Ryan Kalish, Che-Hsuan Lin and Josh Reddick all reported to Boston Monday to begin partaking in the Red Sox annual two week rookie program. The purpose of the program is to emphasize conditioning and strength training with two daily workouts. Along with getting in shape for the season the players will attend numerous seminars in an attempt to get them acclimated to life in the big leagues both on and off the field. Speakers include Peter Gammons, sports psychology coach Bob Tewksbury, Doc Rivers, Terry Francona, Theo Epstein, Larry Lucchino, John Lackey, and Kevin Youklis.

I honestly have no idea whether or not this is common throughout major league baseball, but regardless, there is no denying that this is a great program to have. There is nothing worse than a prospect who has all of the talent but gets to the big leagues and can’t handle it. It is also a great way to keep these kids focused on baseball during a time where they could take their signing bonuses and jet off to somewhere warm and guzzle booze and eat pizza until the season starts. Kudos to whoever came up with this idea because based on recent years, whatever they are doing to develop minor leaguers seems to be working.

- Chris

Former USC Trojans head coach Pete Carroll speaks to the media after being formally introduced as the Seattle Seahawks' new head coach at a news conference at team headquarters in Renton, Washington, January 12, 2010. REUTERS/Robert Sorbo

With 2009 behind all of us it’s time to look towards what 2010 will bring. There are two people whom I hope 2010 isn’t so good for. It’s not that I wish harm on anyone or anything like that. I just want these two people to fail in 2010. Those two people of course are Pete Carroll and Aroldis Chapman.

Pete Carroll

I want Carroll to fail because I am a fan of USC (so of course I am not being biased, wink wink) and I have seen him struggle in the NFL before and he’s dumb for going back. Back in 1994 Carroll went 6-10 with the New York Jets and was 27-21 with the New England Patriots. He made two playoff appearances with the Patriots, but he feels that he is better suited to be in the NFL a lot more now than he was back then because of the experience he has gained.

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This article was funny I thought. The MLB players union got together with the Florida Marlins and have insisted that their low payroll is violating baseball’s revenue sharing provisions. OK, so now that the Marlins don’t spend enough money on players the union is going to make them instead? 

If the union hasn’t noticed, the Marlins have been fairly successful in the past couple of years while spending hardly any money at all. The team is saving most, if not all, their profits to build a new stadium and the best way to do that is trade for multiple prospects and pay them next to nothing. I hate to say it but I think it’s working, but now they have to spend more money? Why is that fair to a team that practices being smart with their money?

In 2008 their payroll consisted of $21.8 million for the entire team. What was A-Rod paid in 2008? What was it, somewhere around $25 million? I like the fact that the team isn’t overpaying for players who just aren’t worth it and the team is still fairly successful. Hanley Ramirez was paid $5.5 million last season, the highest on the team, and he was considered an MVP candidate (at least in my eyes). Now the player’s union wants the team to pay players more, that just doesn’t seem fair to me. Shame on the player’s union. Shame on them.

(Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Of course not, but according to Michael Lombardi, a well known and respected NFL writer (who also apparently smokes crack), it was the best thing.

“I think the Pats are clearly in a transitional state and I think it was the best thing – if you are a Patriots fan, you should be absolutely delighted that the Patriots lost the game,” Lombardi said.

That seemed to surprise Simmons, who requested an explanation.

“Had they won the game, you and I both know – and all Patriot Nation knows – they weren’t going to win the Super Bowl,” Lombardi said. “If we go to the uncapped year in the National Football League, which all signs indicate we’re headed there, the final eight teams wouldn’t be allowed to sign free agents. They could only replace free agents they lost.

“So it really would have hindered the Patriots offseason, in terms of adding a Julius Peppers, or any other great player out there. They would have been a stuck-in-the-mud team. By losing the game, it keeps them out of the final eight and puts them in position to use all the cap room they have, all the resources they have, and actually spend some money and rebuild the team. I think it was the greatest thing that ever happened to the Patriots.”

1 – Who is to say the Patriots weren’t going to win the Super Bowl? Anything can happen in the playoffs, doesn’t anyone remember 2001? Or the 2008 Cardinals?

2 – Getting a playoff win under the belts of some of these young guys would be huge. Even if they didn’t make it any further than San Diego it would have been beneficial to get a taste of a playoff win and then a road game as well.

3 – The Patriots aren’t going to be major players in the free agent market anyways. They have too many lose ends they need to tie up in house (Brady, Wilfork, Mankins, Bodden, Faulk, Gostkowski) before bringing in an abundance of new players.

Long story short, this dude is crazy, the end.

- Chris

ESPNBoston.com relayed the following quotes from Red Sox GM Theo Epstein:

“Jacoby Ellsbury is a very good center fielder who is going to be a great center fielder,” Epstein said in confirming remarks Francona made to the Providence Journal. “It doesn’t have anything to do with how he plays center field. We’re happy with his center field defense.

“It’s more to do with Cameron’s experience, and Ellsbury’s ability to play a dynamic left field. This is not necessarily a permanent arrangement, or a long-term arrangement. But we think Cameron is still an elite center fielder … and that’s the best way to go for now.”

So according to all the defensive metrics understood by only the stat geeks of the world, Mike Cameron is a far superior defensive player than Jacoby Ellsbury is, I will not argue with this point. However, Cameron is 37, and only here as a two year stop gap. Ellsbury is only 26 years old and presumably here for the long term (although Scott Boras could put that into doubt). Right now Ellsbury is a very good center fielder, and according to Epstein, is going to be “a great center fielder.” But doesn’t moving him to left for two seasons severely hinder that development? If you want to see Ellsbury grow and full fill his enormous potential as a gold glove center fielder than it is silly to take him out of the position for two years. Is your defense better now with Cameron in center and Jacoby in left? Sure, but is it better enough to really make a difference? Doubtful. In my opinion, you lose more in the future my moving Ellsbury to left than you gain in the present by having Cameron in center.

- Chris