$51.1 million!

So it's official. Boston bid the most for Daisuke Matsuzaka, and will now have 30 days to negotiate a contract with him (and his agent, Scott 'Satan' Boras). Word has it the Sawx are intent on signing him, but Boras will try to keep the contract short, to about 3 years, so that Daisuke can hit the market again as a true free agent (at a still young 29) where he could earn even more than he'll get now. The winning bid: $51.1 million!!! Now we get to the rant part. This is the same 3rd place team that last year cried when the Yanks traded for Bobby Abreu, saying that they couldn't afford to add a $15 million OF.

"We are not the Yankees. We feel our best way to compete with them year in and year out is to keep one eye on now and one eye on the future and to build something that can sustain success. We've gone toe-to-toe with those guys taking that approach. I think we're one or two games under .500 against them since '03 and have won one more World Series than they have. So we're not going to change our approach and try to all of a sudden build an uber-team."
- Boston General Manager Theo Epstein

Now they're adding an $80+ million pitcher! Oh wait, nevermind that he's never faced ML hitters, and has about 1400 innings on his body already, even for Johan Santana this would be crazy money. Do y'all remember before the bidding, when rumors had it that everyone would bid low, like $10-20 million? The winning bid was expected to be only $25-30 million. With the Sawx outrageous bid, they've effectively changed the landscape of international players from now on. $51.1 million is 390% more than the $13.1 million the Mariners bid to win signing rights to Ichiro (which brings me to my next point) - How do we know Boston didn't make a backroom deal with Seibu (Mats' Japanese team) to overbid, then receive a large amount of the bid in return (it's been rumored that Seattle still hasn't paid the $13.1 million in full to Ichiro's Japanese team)?

What will the next Japanese star receive, $100 million? I know the Sawx don't like to think of themselves as 'ruining' baseball (which they reserve solely for the Yanks), but if the Yanks are ruining baseball with their spending habits, then the Sawx have just leaped ahead of their nemesis. All you KC, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh fans rejoice, you have a new enemy and it lies in Boston. The Yankees always spend a lot of money (and always will), but they've never gone completely insane like Boston did (and Texas did with Arod) for one player. The poor, poor Sawx can't use the money excuse ever again.

Hopefully Daisuke refuses to play for Boston. If not, he's in for a rude awakening his first bad outing in Fenway.