Matsuzaka Redux

Apparently the Sox bid $51+ million for the rights to Daisuke Matsuzaka, $10 million more than previous estimates. But they did win the bidding. (Here is Gordon Edes' story from this morning's Globe and here is Bob Ryan's column today.)

This fuels a point I have been making for a couple of years now. The beauty of being a team in the financial position of the Red Sox is that they can afford to play what I have called "Moneyball Plus." They can adhere to the tenets of Moneyball -- finding inefficiencies in the market place, relying on evaluation and statistical standards that go beyond the sometimes hackneyed old baseball tropes, and so forth but at the same time they can afford to pay for the inefficiencies inherent in the highest-echelons of the free agent and high-level trade market. The Red Sox can play it smart but still can afford to make mistakes. It is a nice position in which to find oneself.

Suffice it to say that the following has me giddy:

"If they can sign him, they've got the best pitcher in the market, and he may be the best pitcher in baseball when all is said and done," said one American League general manager last night. "He's got five outstanding pitches.

All of this simply re-enforces my view that anything other than making a serious effort to sign Matsuzaka would be insane. Pitchers and catchers report in approximately 92 days.