Quickly

I promised myself that I wasn't going to let this turn in to a blog that would update everytime those idiot self-absorbed Red Sox did or said anything, and I feel like I've kept my word for the most part.  Today, however, I'm actually bringing two pieces of Red Sox news.

The first of which involves the Jays' decision to alter their policy about allowing any of their personnel to seek jobs with other organizations, namely John Farrell and the Red Sox managerial vacancy.  Per the press release on the team's website this afternoon:

Due to the distraction caused by media speculation regarding our employee permission policy, the Toronto Blue Jays have amended their policy and will not grant permission for lateral moves. – Paul Beeston, President & CEO & Alex Anthopoulos, Senior V.P. Baseball Operations and General Manager.

 Or in other words, the Red Sox are a bunch of self-absorbed, know-nothing know-it-alls who are annoying the shit out of us, and you're not going to get our manager, despite the fact that we poached your manager-in-training right around this time last year.  Snooze, you lose.

Secondly, on a more somber note, John Lackey is going to miss the entire 2012 season with bad at baseball syndrome Tommy John Surgery.  Not only does this mean that the Jays won't get to tee off on Lackey everytime he "pitches" against them, but this could also put Boston in to the market for another starting pitcher, if they weren't already.  Roy Oswalt is now a free agent (more on that later), and CJ Wilson, CC Sabathia, and Yu Darvish are all going to be available, though some more than others.  I'm not sure the Red Sox will be in on Darvish, thanks to the big Dice-K fiasco (speaking of whom, Dice-K might just take over Lackey's spot in the rotation to settle everything), but this will probably get them more interested in him.

Related, Lackey has a clause in his contract that gives the Red Sox a vesting option for 2015 at league minimum salary if he misses significant time due to elbow injury from 2010-2014, which changes the contract from 5/82.5MM to 6/83MM, which luxury tax implications if I'm not mistaken.

Elsewhere, Rajai Davis had a kind of historic season, according to people at rotographs.  I'm not a huge fan of the logic used here, and the commenters raise a lot of good point, but it's about Rajai Davis, and he's a Blue Jays goddamnit!

As mentioned, Roy Oswalt is now a free agent, after having his contract option declined by the Phillies.  There's still a strong chance that he re-signs with the Phillies, as I'm sure they're still interested, just not on a 1-year deal for $14MM or $16MM or whatever that option was for.  Oswalt missed time twice this season with back problems, and he definitely wasn't the Roy Oswalt that we all got to know in the early 2000's with Houston, but he was very good as recently as the 2010 season, so it becomes a question entirely comprised of how healthy he is at age 34.  If healthy, I expect him to find a contract of at least 2 years at $10MM per, and expect the Jays to be interested.

I got started on the third and final segment of the Tradeables series, but it's kind of long, and sort of all over the place, so I'll probably revise it with the intention of organizing it a little better, and we'll get that shit up there tomorrow.