I love this time of year. No not fall, though that in itself was beautiful, but lacked the bold reds that I love to see in October.

Instead it's the baseball offseason when anything can happen. But in all my years being a fan I can't remember a year quite like this one.

Everyone is rumored to have interest in Manny. Only a few have what it takes to take this hitting machine from the Hub.

It appears that the Angels could be the front runners considering the amount of pitching they have acquired over the last few days. Rumor has it that they may be willing to part with Scott Shields and either Ervin Santana or Jared Weaver.

Now we are getting somewhere. In fact a trade involving one more starter would surely save our pen.

How so?

Well it may mean the return of Tim Wakefield to either a set-up role or closer. I can think of worse scenarios.

I have often wanted to see Wakefield in the set-up position. His knuckler would be a sharp contrast to anything pitched before or after him. It would be most interesting to see how successful he and the Sox could be.

That would make Shields the closer. He has plenty of experience in that role and we could do worse, say Joe Borowski worse. His WHIP always near 1.00

Imagine a rotation of Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, Santana and Papelbon.

I'm getting chills.

E-mail this entry to a friend