Schilling Re-Signs With Boston

FOX has just reported that the Boston Red Sox have re-signed veteran ace Curt Schilling to a 1-year deal with a base salary of $8M. The deal also includes $5M worth of incentives, most likely to insure that Curt can stay healthy throughout the season. Seems quite early, as Schilling listed a group of teams he was interested in on his blog 38pitches.com

Schilling had a very good 2007, going 9-8 with a 3.87 ERA in 151 innings-pitched for the World Champions. On the other side of the AL East, Andy Pettite has opted out of his $16M player option. Andy made this move to give him more time to make decisions and to open up a spot on the Yankees' roster.

Many Options Declined Around Majors

A quick flurry of options were declined today, so let's recap the action.

The Kansas City Royals declined options on both reliever David Riske and starter Odalis Perez. Riske declined his half of the mutual option, so it looks like his time in K.C. is over. As for Perez, there was no way the Royals were gonna pick up his dreaded $9M option.

The Chicago White Sox matched the Royals, declining the options on both outfielder Darin Erstad and reliever Mike Myers. Erstad's option was at a steady $3.5M, and Myers' sat at $1.1M.

Curt Schilling also filed for free-agency today, but still believes the Red Sox are the front-runners to sign him. On his blog, he lists the teams he may play for: "Cleveland, Detroit, Anaheim, New York Mets, Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A., S.D., Arizona, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis, Milwaukee."

Classic Beantown Beatdown

The Boston Red Sox knew this was the day to put up or shut up. And they chose to put up. After a horrid first-year with the club, right-fielder J.D. Drew smashed a 2-out grand slam in the very first inning en-route to a 12-2 trouncing. Indians' starter Fausto Carmona looked absolutely pathetic, only lasting 2+ innings surrendering 7 earned-runs with 4 walks. He also failed miserably when it came to keeping the left-handers honest, throwing all his sinkers away. Fausto's gotta learn that he must throw the ball "at" the lefties in order for it to sink inside and back them off.

Curt Schilling earned his 10th career postseason win going 7 innings only allowing 2 earned-runs with 6 hits. Now it'll be Daisuke Matsuzaka's turn to lead the Red Sox in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Jake Westbrook, Cleveland's starter, defeated Matsuzaka in this series already and will hopefully prove that he can do it again.

Rating The Starting-Pitching FA Market

Since so many teams are looking to sign an arm or two this offseason, I figured I would rate the top 5 remaining free-agents and the type of deal they should receive. You can tell by looking that the market is extremely slim this year, so teams must make sure they can choose wisely. I've already taken out Clemens, Rogers, and Glavine since they are either going to retire or stick to a specific team(s). Let's begin:

* Honoralbe Mentions: Josh Fogg

5. Bartolo Colon. The 2006 Cy Young winner has been battling back problems ever since, but is still pretty lethal if he can stay healthy. Colon in a small-market team like the Royals or Reds would make sense, especially as they can afford an injury-plagued season if one is brought upon. 2-year $5M sounds very reasonable.

4. Randy Wolf. Wolf had a decent season in Los Angeles, especially with the fact that he had to battle some tough injury bugs. He's 31, which is fairly young for this year's class. He does have a $9M option though, and the Dodgers still don't know if they are going to pick this up. I can still see Randy getting a $7M 3-year deal somewhere.

3. Kyle Lohse. One of the few pitchers who haven't turned 30 yet, Kyle is still devloping and has more upside than any of the other pitchers. He still has somewhat of a wild arm though. 5-year deal worth $35M? Especially with Boras at his side.

2. Greg Maddux. Yes, he's old and he might not even want to return next season, but if Mad Dog wanted to switch teams, he would have no problem signing for an $8M contract somewhere and continue to pitch his magic.

1. Andy Pettitte / Curt Schilling. Even thought I doubt the Yankees will waive his $16M option for '08, If Andy hits the open market he is hands down the best option for a team looking for a short-term fixture at the top of their rotation. Going 15-9 this year with a 4.05, and still being able to eclipse the 200 innings-pitched mark, Andy should easily get double-digit figures for 1-2 seasons.

Schilling is still very capable at his age, and he is showing that he's still got it in this year's postseason.

As you can see, this is one of the weakest markets in history, especially with all the vast question marks that comes with age. Will be nice to see if one of these veterans like Jason Jennings can turn his season around.