Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls may I direct your attention to 4 Yawkey Way in Boston where, yesterday, the Red Sox management blew up the 2012 version of the Boston Red Sox. That’s right folks, that rumble you heard and that earth you felt moving under your feet is the Red Sox setting the charges and detonators which signal that enough is enough!

The Los Angeles Dodgers showed up yesterday and they brought Christmas to New England exactly four months early!

Leaving smiles on the faces of this man.

Red Sox GM Ben Cherington.

And this man,

Red Sox Director of Baseball Operations Larry Luchinno.

And there is no doubt these two fellows are pretty happy as well.

Red Sox principal owner John Henry and Vice-President Tom Werner.

And as for these folks,

Well 71% of them who voted yesterday in an on-line survey of the Boston Globe agree with this statement, “the team needed to clean house and this was a great way to do it.”

In case you slept all day yesterday or just returned from laying on the beach in Bali, the Red Sox shipped Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to the inhabitants of LA, LA Land in exchange for first baseman James Loney , infield prospect Ivan De Jesus Jr, pitching prospect Allen Webster and two players to be named later, purported to be outfield/first base prospect Jerry Sands and pitching prospect Rubby De La Rosa.

The two keys here are Webster (ranked as the Dodgers second best prospect by Baseball America) and De La Rosa who has been known to crack 100 mph on the gun and is just returning from Tommy John surgery.

The 6′ 3″ Webster is 22 years old and was 6-8 with a 3.55 ERA this year for the Dodgers double A Chattanooga Lookout squad this year.

 De La Rosa was 4-5 last year for the Dodgers with a 3.71 ERA before his Tommy John surgery. He struck out 60 batters in 60 2/3 innings.

The most amazing part of this deal is that the Dodgers are eating all but $11,000,000.00 of the $270,000,000.00 owed to Gonzalez, Beckett and Crawford. Let that sink in for a minute, all but 11 mil of it! Thus wiping the slate clean and delivering the Red Sox from the financial burden that was a part of Theo Epstein’s legacy!

So what now? It is clear that the Sox are looking beyond 2012. They put Jon Lester and Jacoby Ellsbury on waivers and if they are in the market to trade them, I believe they will wait and entertain offers throughout the winter. The larger question will be how will they re-tool.

For the rest of the season they will take a look at some kids and that will be fun. Come winter they will get down to the business of rebuilding the team. It seems clear that Dustin Pedroia is now the face of the franchise. What to do with Papi? His Achilles is bothering him again and a return to the DL is likely. Does this bring his price down and the potential of a two-year deal at say 15-20 mil? I’d do it, but will he, you know that crazy respect thing he’s got going.

Then comes Ellsbury, do you trade him or sign him. This is the most interesting one and I believe that the way they handle this situation will be a bellweather to their modus operandi.

Ellsbury becomes a free agent after 2013.

The current trend with big name free agents is many, many years at mucho, mucho, mucho dollars! The Red Sox were caught up in it and it didn’t work. Do you think the Red Sox failure at this aspect of the game will stop other teams from doing it? I think not, after all look at the Dodgers! They are on course to make the Red Sox and the Yankees look like cheapskates! So then how do you compete?

Not that anyone has asked me but I say you give a bit more money but far fewer years. Just for fun, let’s just say Ellsbury does not sign, stays and next year returns to his MVP type form of 2010. That will place him in the 20 million dollar 8-10 year contract range wouldn’t you say? I would offer him 60 mil for two years and a club option for the third year with a 5 million dollar buy out! Crazy? Maybe but that makes him 32 at the end of two years with still another crack at free agency! Anyway you get my point! Taken the given that it’s all crazy, I am willing to up the craziness only not commit to it for as long a time. Will Ellsbury’s agent, the lovely Scott Boras buy it? Probably not, but I’d spend 2013 feeling him out and if it’s a no go….That July trading deadline could be fun!

And what about Bobby V? A simple question, is he part of the soulution or part of the problem? I think he’s part of the problem, case closed! Thanks Bobby and good night!

Christmas came to New England yesterday and I liked what Santa left, I like even more what he took!

And so it is on this day in Fenway Park history, Auguyst 26, 2012.