Red Sox Weekend Update

Lots of boring job related stuff to do today, so here's a brief recap of what happened since we all stuffed our faces on Thursday:

Junichi Tazawa chose the Boston Red Sox over the Rangers and other potential suitors and plans to sign an official deal this week. Tony Mazz says the deal will be for 3 years and $3 million. He will likely begin his training in Double A Portalnd. Fenway West has some video of Tazawa here.

The Red Sox added more bullpen depth trading two players to be named later to the Texas Rangers for RP Wes Littleton. Fire Brand of the AL takes a look at the new Sox reliever and theorizes that these recent RP signings could mean that the Sox plan to use Masterson, Bowden and Buchholz to round off the starting rotation... enabling them to spend their money of Teixeira - not a high priced free agent starter.

Derek Lowe is still hoping to return to Boston...

"If your No. 1 goal is to win, I would say there's only a handful of teams year in and year out that have a chance to win. Now, there are no guarantees, but there are teams who have a better chance than others."

Boston?

"Yeah, all because of what I just outlined," he said. "Even if I'd never played there. And I don't look at it as coming back, I look at it as who has the best chance to win? And they clearly do.

"If you're looking four or five years down the line, they fit the criteria of what I'm looking for. It's not just the fact I played there - but, yeah, there were a lot of things I enjoyed - but they're definitely a franchise that has a chance to win."

Bottom Line: With a few kids still in development and Wake's shoulder hurting, I wouldn't mind seeing D-Lowe come back... but not for $16 mil...

MLB.com's Ian Browne says it's almost a given that the Red Sox will offer Jason Varitek an arbitration deal to ensure that they can something back should he signs elsehwere:

It is a near given that the Red Sox will extend an arbitration offer to Varitek because of the obvious perk of receiving the picks should he leave. It is all but certain that Varitek would not accept Boston's arbitration offer, which gives Epstein all the more motivation to offer it. Varitek, who is 36, will likely seek a multiyear deal, whether it is from the Red Sox, the team he has started for since 1999, or another team.

The dealine for offering arbitration deals is MIDNIGHT tonight - players have until Dec. 7th to accept or decline.

Lastly... your Boston Bruins trounced the defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Saturday. The B's are now in first place in the Eastern Conference with 36 points, have won 8 of their last 10 games and currently have a 9-game winning streak at the Garden.

Their next game is in Tampa Bay aginst the Lightning. Check the player stats here.

Oh... and the Patriots got manhandled by the Steelers yesterday 33-10... guess it's time to start choosing who to root for in the playoffs.