Carl Crawford reaches agreement with Boston (7yr 142mm)

[sbauer]

Deal done

The Red Sox have agreed to a seven-year, $142MM deal with Carl Crawford, according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe (on Twitter)

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/red-sox-agree-to-sign-carl-crawford.html

[tylerfrombelair]

This all but indicates that the Yankees will get Lee. No way Steinbrunner and Cashman let the Sox steal the winter meetings by acquiring 2 all star bats.

[byrdz]

Wow, you wouldn't know this country is in an economic crisis the way MLB teams are tossing money around.

[Capn Vivi]

Well, the Red Sox just completely solidified their offense for the next 5-6 years.

Crawford - Ellsbury are going to be a nightmare on the basepaths. with the OBP of Youk behind them and AGon hitting clean-up...

Well, they're a good team regardless. Here's a question: how much better is Crawford + AGon vs. Beltre + VMart?

Aah, nevermind, this is ridiculous. I hate the Red Sox.

[PaulBako]

can we please move to the pac 10 basketball of mlb divisions

Were never gonna win in this division. No effing chance.

[Carroll County]

Yep... it's pretty ridiculous how stacked the Yankees and Red Sox are. But you still gotta play the season (to find out who wins the AL Central and West)

[Jterp08]

Wow. Carl Crawford can thank the Washington Nationals for that one.

[Scrat1]

I think it's probably a good thing we didn't get too involved in free agency this offseason. The market has been absolutely insane. Remember when Jason Bay's contract seemed like an albatross?

[sbauer]

I think it's probably a good thing we didn't get too involved in free agency this offseason. The market has been absolutely insane. Remember when Jason Bay's contract seemed like an albatross?

Probably. We'll say it again next year too. So no worries.

[mweb]

Ugh. I hate the MLB system. :angryfire:

[josscki]

What a depressing vicious cycle. I absolutely love baseball but I'm truly starting to lose my faith.

[sbauer]

Love the game, hate everything else.

[Catch 8]

Bud Selig is weeaakkkkk.

[nevadaO]

$20.3M per year??!! For Crawford?!???!?

[Oriolesfan8]

I don't get this deal from the Red Sox's perspective. A lot of Crawford's value is in his great defense, and assuming he's going to be playing LF, his value in this regard is vastly negated by the field for half of his games.

As a hitter, he's very good, but not great: his 0.851 OPS this year was his career high, and his OPS for his career is 50 points behind Nick Markakis.

Obviously, if you have a huge budget, and overpaying on this contract doesn't move the needle for you financially, then it's justifiable, as it improves the team. But, in any case, I don't think you're getting good value for the money. And I can't imagine why the Red Sox would value him higher than any other team that doesn't play half its games at Fenway Park and the Green Monster.