Kuzul

This article by Beth Healy at Boston.com isn’t good news.

Healy‘s article details that principal Boston Red Sox‘ owner John Henry “has shut down his investment firm in Florida after a period of poor performance.”

In Healy‘s report it states about the firm: “its assets have declined from more than $2.5 billion to less than $100 million.”

Wow. That doesn’t bode well for people like me that were expecting an interesting winter of Hot Stove action.

This story immediately lends credence to the report from Charlie Gasparino at the Fox Business website that the Boston Red Sox are potentially for sale.

And it also puts into question the Red Sox trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers last summer where the Red Sox traded Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto in order to remove over $262 million from their payroll.

At the time, the trade was viewed as a chance for Boston to reset its roster and get out from underneath the contracts of Crawford and Beckett and a team that wasn’t winning.

Now? Maybe the Red Sox saw this coming and knew they couldn’t afford a $175 million dollar payroll anymore. Maybe the Red Sox have spread themselves too thin between all of their investments.

Maybe it was simply a salary dump that was hidden inside all of the Bobby Valentine drama.

The biggest concern is whether this will impact the Red Sox’ ability to put a competitive team on the field next season.

Will they spend for free-agents and assume larger contracts from other teams as had been anticipated this offseason? Will they be able to climb out of the cellar next season?

We’ll find out if they are in the mix to sign players like Mike Napoli, Hiroki Kuroda and Torii Hunter.

If the Red Sox end up being bystanders this offseason, we’ll know that the financial problems are more than Red Sox’ ownership has let on.

If that happens, all of the goodwill that started with firing Bobby Valentine, hiring John Farrell, resigning David Ortiz and the generally pro-active approach of general manager Ben Cherington will go by the wayside.

Its enough to put a chill on all of the Hot Stove talk.

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It’s 12:01 a.m. Do you know where your general manager is?

Saturday is Black Friday for MLB teams and general managers.

If it’s Ben Cherington, the Boston Red Sox‘s general manager, hopefully he is on the phone being as aggressive as he can possibly be right from the start.

A couple of things will cause this offseason to be different for Boston:

1. The Red Sox’s No. 1 pick for the 2013 draft is protected, meaning Boston can be as aggressive as they want to be without forfeiting their prized pick.

2. Also, by removing so much payroll, the Red Sox can literally do anything that they want to do this winter. Nothing is off of the table, unless it will hurt the team in the long run.

But, if players want the Red Sox’s money, they need to go after it.

Here are Cherington‘s likely restrictions:

No contracts longer than four years and the total value cannot exceed $80 million dollars. The large contracts given out to Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and John Lackey simply did not work out.

The Red Sox have a wave of talent coming in the next couple of years, so the long-term commitments need to be kept to a minimum.

David Ortiz?

Signed, according to this report from Rob Bradford at WEEI.com. Good move. I’ll take Oritz for two years and $26 million.

Dan Haren?

Sounds like he has been traded to the Cubs, according to this report. Too bad the Sox missed out here. Or maybe not, according to this follow up report from Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

Call Josh Hamilton and tell him that you are interested in him for three seasons and the offer will be on the table for a while. Maybe other teams will shy away from Hamilton.

Let Zack Greinke’s agent know that Boston could be a fit for the hurler for four years.

Apologize to Hiroki Kuroda for last offseason and tell him that you’d like to bring him to Boston this year.

Tell Torii Hunter that winning in Fenway is different then winning anywhere else. Two years.

Announce to Mike Napoli that we can’t beat you, so join us. You can split time between C, 1B and DH. Two years, maybe a third. There will be plenty of at-bats.

If Napoli gives you an indication that he is not interested in coming to Boston, call Nick Swisher and give him the same sales pitch. Come play 1B, LF and DH if needed.

If he is not interested, call Lance Berkman and Adam LaRoche. See if they want to come play in Boston.

Tell Cody Ross that you really want him back, but the contract has to make sense for both sides. If he wants three years, let him see what offers are out there. Let him know that you are going to talk with other players.

Talk to Shane Victorino at the same time and find out his demands.

Make sure that Scott Boras knows that you want Stephen Drew as your starting SS for the next couple of years.

Let Melky Cabrera know that you are interested in a team friendly, one-year, make-good contract to rebuild his image.

Communicate to all of the free agent starting pitchers that you are interested in a two or three year commitment, but whomever takes you up on the offer first will get the contract.

Ignore Jim Bowden’s ridiculous speculation mentioned in this article by Bleacher Report’s Zachary Rymer about trading Will Middlebrooks for David Wright.

Call Mariano Rivera once again for old times sake.

You aren’t going to sign all of these guys, but that’s the point. The only set positions on the roster are 2B, 3B and DH. The Red Sox can go in any direction that they want to.

Now it’s up to Ben Cherington to decide where.

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The Tigers go into Sunday night with their season on the line and everyone knows who should be getting the ball for Detroit.

Justin Verlander.

Somewhere between tonight and tomorrow morning, Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland has to be thinking about making the switch.

It would be short rest for the Tigers ace right-handed pitcher, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Down 3 games to none after the 2-0 loss Saturday, Detroit is a team in desperate need of a spark, anything to hold on to.

Either Verlander pitches on three days rest or he pitches on 155 days rest on Opening Day next season.

This is nothing against the Tigers’ scheduled starter Max Scherzer. Scherzer is going to have to win a game for you in this series, but it shouldn’t be Game 4. This is simply looking at the series realistically.

Pitching hasn’t been the problem for the Tigers in the series. Doug Fister and Anibal Sanchez have done their jobs against the Giants.

Now it is up to Verlander to extend the season for the Tigers.

The Tigers had their chances in Game 3 and continued to struggle with men on base. Prince Fielder came to the plate with two runners on and hit into a double play. Detroit had the bases loaded in the fifth inning and Quintin Berry struck out—then Miguel Cabrera popped out against Giants’ starter Ryan Vogelsong.

If Verlander takes the mound Sunday night, you can imagine the fans being excited knowing their ace is coming back on short rest to save the season. The combination of Verlander stepping up and the Detroit crowd facing elimination might be enough to bring some energy into the lifeless Tigers lineup.

Before this World Series started, everything looked to be set up in the Tigers’ favor.

The pitching matchups favored the Tigers in the first two games. Detroit was rested and ready. The Giants, coming off of an emotional comeback Monday night, were having to start the series less than 48 hours after advancing into the Series, scrambling to find a Game 2 starter.

Since Pablo Sandoval’s first-inning home run in Game 1 off of Verlander, the Tigers have seemed to play tentatively and the Giants have seemed to play with an air of confidence.

Can Detroit win four straight games? Certainly. If that means handing the ball to the best pitcher in baseball for Games 4 and 7, even better.

Justin Verlander has to save the Detroit Tigers’ season.

The question is, will Jim Leyland give him the chance?

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Well, we have our first real official trade of the offseason.

The Diamondbacks didn’t waste any time opening up their outfield logjam today, trading Chris Young to the Oakland A’s as part of a three-team trade involving the Miami Marlins, as reported by MLB.com.

This might cut down on the rumors of Justin Upton being traded this offseason, or this might cause the trade fires to burn more brightly.

Many things stand out from this trade.

Looking at it from the Arizona perspective, Justin Upton may not be going anywhere after all.

This trade opens CF for prospect Adam Eaton to take over and bat leadoff. Upton can continue in RF, and the D’Backs are then left to decide whether to go with offense (Jason Kubel) or defense (Gerardo Parra) in left field.  

By trading Young and taking back Heath Bell, the Diamondbacks are saving about $3 million in salary according to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, which they can redirect to other areas. The Marlins are paying about $8 million of Bell’s remaining contract, making Bell (at $6.5 million per year) a valuable commodity if he can regain his All-Star form.

Arizona will also receive 28-year-old SS Cliff Pennington from Oakland. Pennington will likely factor into the D’Backs shortstop mix for the 2013 season. Pennington had a poor regular season for Oakland but was excellent during the playoffs this past year.

From the Miami perspective, according to mlbtraderumors, it looks to be a salary dump by the Marlins for a player that was touted last winter as a key piece coming into Miami. Bell had a terrible year in 2012, pitching to a 5.09 ERA, and he had only 19 saves. But in his prior three seasons in San Diego, he recorded over 40 saves each year. With how volatile the reliever and closer market is, he could easily regain his form in 2013 and have real value.

The other aspect from the Marlins side is the indication that Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen may return for the 2013 season. Bell and Guillen clashed last season, and Bell was one of Guillen’s most vocal critics, so by removing Bell it may signal that the Marlins are going to give Guillen one more season to turn things around. Miami did receive a prospect in the deal, but it looks to be mostly clearing salary and cleaning out the clubhouse.

The Oakland A’s side is very interesting. By trading for Chris Young, the A’s will have four quality outfielders under contract for 2013. Arizona only kicked $500K into the deal, meaning that Young will cost Oakland $8 million next season.

Do the A’s sell high on Josh Reddick, who struggled down the stretch in 2012? Does Oakland plan on rotating all of the outfielders through the DH position? Is Coco Crisp trade bait all of a sudden?

A’s manager Bob Melvin used to be Young’s manager in Arizona, during which time Young had two of his best seasons. Maybe Young can be a productive player again for Melvin in Oakland.

The MLB hot stove has started already. Great news for everyone looking ahead to next season.

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