Yankees Never Wanted Crawford And His 18 Steals, Just Wanted The Red Sox To Pay Out Of Their Ass

ESPN - New York Yankees general manager Brian Cashman admitted Thursday that he feigned interest in Carl Crawford last offseason to drive up the price for the Boston Red Sox to sign the free agent.


"I actually had dinner with the agent to pretend that we were actually involved and drive the price up," Cashman said. "The outfield wasn't an area of need, but everybody kept writing Crawford, Crawford, Crawford, Crawford. And I was like, 'I feel like we've got Carl Crawford in Brett Gardner, except he costs more than $100 million less, with less experience.' "


Surprisingly, one could argue that Gardner has had a better season than Crawford. Gardner is batting .261 and leads the league with 46 steals. Crawford never got going in Boston and is hitting .259 with only 18 steals, the fewest he's had since his rookie season.


Going into the season, Cashman said Red Sox GM Theo Epstein, who also landed Adrian Gonzalez, "kicked my a-- in the offseason."


How does he feel now after winning the division?


"What I said was accurate: The Red Sox had a great winter, and I had a bad winter," Cashman said. "But as it turned out, I had a better winter than anybody would've expected, including myself."


And it cost the Red Sox.

Listen, do I think Cashman is being honest here? Absolutely not. But who cares? Shit is hilarious. You wanna talk about playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers, look at my man Brian here. I can just see Theo Epstein flinging shit around his office like a little pussy boy about his terrible $142 million dollar purchase. Seriously look at those stats, Brett Gardner playing like a $150 million dollar outfielder just leading the league in steals no big deal. Of course Cashman looks like the genius he is, holding onto our stud catcher who will be in All-Star by next season. We got Nova who can't lose a fucking game if he tried on his way to taking home Rookie of the Year. Cashman will get GM of the year, Girardi manager of the year, and the team will get to take home that gigantic trophy when the World Series ends sometime in the middle of November.

Red Sox Doing Their Best 2007 Mets Impersonation

ESPN - Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon spends most of his time giving signs.

On Thursday night, he went searching for one.


"You're always looking for signs, man. You're looking for signs from the baseball heaven and the baseball gods," he said after the Rays followed a fluke play with a three-run homer and beat the Boston Red Sox 9-2 to cut their deficit in the AL wild-card race to three games. "They've got to throw you signs once in a while. They've got to give you something to further the belief."


Evan Longoria hit a three-run homer and B.J. Upton and Casey Kotchman each hit two-run shots for Tampa Bay, which had trailed the Red Sox by nine games in the wild-card race on Sept. 3.


The Red Sox dropped to 3-11 in September to fall from first place in the division to 4½ games behind the New York Yankees and into a race with the once-dismissed Rays for the wild-card. Boston and Tampa Bay play three more times at Fenway Park this weekend.


Game notes The Boston fans gave a cheer when former Red Sox star Johnny Damon was hit by a pitch in the sixth. ...


Pretty typical Boston fans, cheering the man who was the main reason they won a World Series. Class acts up there with there frat boy Boston hats, faded t-shirts, flip flops, shitty accents and Sweet Caroline.

But this little slide they're on is pretty funny. Not even a month ago everyone was saying the Yankees would barely get the Wild Card and the Red Sox were World Series bound. Yeah, gonna be tough to make a run at the World Series from your couch. I smell a sweep for the Rays this weekend. The repurcussions of that would be remarkable. I think this would set the franchise back about 100 years if they get swept this weekend and get bounced from the playoffs.

Talk about clutch, 3-11 in September. Pedroia finally lost all of his hair. Guess Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford weren't really smart moves, huh? Spending a bajillion dollars on free agents just to collapse in clutch spots - how's that feel Boston? I'll tell ya what, Yankees would never do something like that.

Odds Red Sox miss the playoffs:

1 star = Damon will switch uniforms and help the Red Sox not suck shit

5 stars = No shot they make it, Rays will sweep them at Fenway and then bang their wives