Manny is LOCKED in

After two "regular season" games in Tokyo, Japan...my BoSox split with the Oakland A's (1 win each).

However, as the past has shown, a contract year does do wonders for these baseball players and their hitting ability. Manny Ramirez, perhaps the best right-handed hitter of his generation, is currently in the beginning of a de-facto contract year. At the end of this season, the Sox have an option to either pickup another year of Manny's services for a cool $20 million, or let him go find a new job. Either way, Manny, if he does what he should do as a big-time slugger, is poised to make some serious cash next year in guaranteed money (he's currently making somewhere between $18-$19 million).

Through these two games, Manny has hit a pair of 2-run doubles...one was nearly a home run. And this morning Manny hit a home run in a loss to the A's. He is already locked in it seems, and this can only be a good thing for my beloved BoSox.

In other notes: Matsuzaka continued to show some nibbling in the strike zone, and he got himself into some trouble in the first game before settling down. All of the BoSox Nation is looking for a good year out of Matsuzaka, and going back to his homeland, he showed how nervous/pumped he was. It's only one game, he gets a pass.

However, this morning a cancer-free John Lester began his 2008 campaign by showing what we've seen before. I am disappointed and I can only hope he too was struggling only because of the jetlag or other things. The boy needs to throw strikes consistently, and he didn't show well today. Let's hope he turns it around and begins throwing strikes and trusting his pitches, he has the potential.