Empyreal Environs

Not So Hot Toddy
Talks between the Red Sox and Rockies for the services of one Todd Helton are dead. Helton was due for $16.6M a year until 2010 and $19.1M in 2011. The Rockies were going to pay a portion of that gargantuan salary, but the deal never coalesced. The humidor at Coors Field has severely hampered Helton’s power, but I suspect his advancing age has played a role as well. Helton will turn 34 this August.

I would just like to remind Theo Epstein that one of his former colleagues runs a baseball club in the state adjacent to Colorado and that they have a first base prospect named Chris Carter he may consider inquiring after.

Still Over the Plate in 2008
Forty-year old Curt Schilling doesn’t know when to quit, be it talking to the media, endorsing Republicans, or pitching. Schilling plans to return to the mound in 2008 and is seeking a deal close to the $13M he will earn this season.

This Time For Sure
J.D. Drew signed with the Red Sox fo real kine, as I would say when I lived in Hawai‘i, on January 26. Should Drew suffer a baseball-related injury to his right shoulder that forces him to be put on the disabled list for 15 to 40 days, there is an out clause in effect the third year of the deal. This would allow the Red Sox to void the remainder of the contract in either the third or fourth year. Not that he’ll need it, right? Right?

I can sense the office pools gearing up now. Who will visit the DL first, Trot Nixon (who signed a one-year, $3M deal with the Indians and let his son pick his number) or Drew?