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So, the Red Sox put Ramirez on waivers. That’s whatcha call daring and surprising. My first reaction was that it was mildly insane; if the Yankees don’t take Ramirez (and they’re the only team that can), the guy’s going to be unhappy in the Red Sox clubhouse for the rest of his contract.

But then I had my morning coffee and thought about it a little more. What if this didn’t come as a surprise to Manny? What if Theo Epstein sat down with Manny a week ago and asked him if he was serious about wanting to play for the Yankees? What if Manny sees this as the Red Sox offering him a chance to go where he wants to go?

“Manny, we’re gonna put you on waivers so that the Yankees can claim you. We know you’re interested in playing there, and we don’t want to stand in your way. We can’t make a trade with them — they wouldn’t give up anything we want — but we’d rather you go someplace you’re happy even if we don’t get anything in return.”

In that scenario, it’s OK if the Yankees don’t bite. It shows Manny that the Yankees don’t want him, hopefully diluting his interest in going there. It tells Manny that his current employers have his best interests at heart and are willing to take a risk in order to give him what he wants.

And, of course, if the Yankees do bite then they’re saddled with a huge contract and the Red Sox have the freedom to go after whatever big name they like. So it’s a win for the Red Sox either way.

More commentary here, here, here, here, and here.

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Hal Clement has passed away. Another of the greats… may he rest in peace. Tributes here.

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Advantage, moi. Well, more or less. Saith the Boston Dirt Dogs, with no cited source so it’s just a rumor:

The real story behind the story:  Manny asked the Red Sox put him on irrevocable waivers and insisted to Theo that the Yankees would claim up… so they called his bluff.

Yes, that is only sort of close to my theory, but either way you’ve got the key element in place: the waiver was agreed upon by both the Sox and Manny beforehand. OK, what else we got?

We got this article, in which Buster Olney goes mildly insane and decides that the Yankees won’t claim Manny because if they did, the Red Sox could go get an overpriced closer from the Astros, which would allow the Astros to sign Pettite. Nah, we’ve got Williamson, we’re feeling good. The rest of the reasons it won’t happen seem legit, though.

We also got this one from Gammons, which further validates the idea that this whole thing was at least partially Manny’s idea.

And I thought I was done with Red Sox bloggery. (On to the Celtics!)

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More hot White Wolf vs. Sony action!

The plaintiff mandatory disclosures have been filed; I’m not going to further disseminate the PDF because, well, there are home addresses in there and I don’t see any reason to make ‘em more public than they already are. I’ll do a fuller transcription later if I have the chance. In the meantime, here’s a no doubt inadequate summary of the bits which are interesting to non-lawyerly me — i.e., what’s White Wolf asking for?

Everything Underworld to be recalled and destroyed. Damages for copyright infringement. Additional damages for $150,000 per copyrighted work infringed. (I haven’t gone back and counted, but that’s gotta add up to seven figures, if I recall correctly.) Damages in the amount of Sony’s sales, tripled. Plus, of course, the costs of the lawsuit.