The bubble has been popped, folks. The honeymoon is over. Reality is rushing back in. The only benefit of this is that by the time the season starts, it should be resolved and make everyone breathe a sigh of relief that a major screw up was avoided. This is yet another emotional low that is caused by a pessimistic fan base and will result in a stupid emotional spike when everyone realizes that Jimmy Williams and Dan Duquette are not as dumb as WEEI callers.

That being said, some legitimate concerns arise, because injuries are very real, and because Jimmy does make asinine moves.

Nomar has a split tendon in his wrist. Um, yeah, this is bad. No, not really. In all honesty, the Red Sox nation is going to have to wait in suspense for the next two weeks to see if Nomar is okay. The injury itself is much less serious than having a torn tendon, which might require surgery. That being said, it has the potential to be one of those lingering injuries, which could affect his play throughout the season. However, Nomar played all last season with this injury and won a batting title. But, his power numbers fell from 30 HR down to 21. While Nomar was given terrible pitches to hit last year, I believe that his HR fell mainly because of this injury and because he hit so many doubles. My greatest fear with this is that it doesn’t heal, and our friend Dr. Pappas doesn’t recognize the problem, and it turns out Nomar needs midseason surgery. If it doesn’t heal, shut him down and get the knife, deal with it now, not when we really need him.

While I’m on the subject of Nomar and the coming season, let me make a comment on the benefit of “protection” that Nomar will receive, hitting in front of Manny Ramirez. Later last season, Nomar, like Morgan Burkhart, began striking out on the rising fastball more frequently. Yes, Nomar typically doesn’t strikeout much, but it was obvious that the fastball was giving him problems. With the new high strike, and the protection of Manny, Garciaparra will get a lot more fastballs, which he has shown a propensity for swinging at. Furthermore, Nomar wins his batting titles by hitting garbage balls. Pitchers this year, if the umpires really enforce the new strike zone, will stop pitching outside, and will work the upper limit of the strike zone more. In general, I think that the new rules are detrimental to pitchers, as Carl Everett and Trot Nixon will start wailing on the high fastballs. However, Nomar may be hurt by this. But, take solace, Red Sox fans, Nomar, shockingly, is still getting better as a hitter. I don’t think he has reached his maximum skill level yet, he’s close and will reach a plateau soon, but he’s still learning.

While I’m on the subject, Bartolo Colon will have an amazing year with the high strike. Pedro has a chance of setting a new single season record for ERA and strikeouts, even though I don’t know the K record. He also, if the offense picks up again, could become the next 30 game winner. I’m rambling now, but I’m enjoying this, so I’m going to continue on this horrible tangent.

Am I the only one who notices that the Red Sox have a ton of salary clearing up next year? They signed Nomo and Cone to one-year deals. Bichette, Valentin, O’Leary (if we keep him), Lansing, Beck, Pichardo, Florie, Schourek, and Lewis all have contracts that expire this year. Of course my source for this information could be wrong. Either way, I expect the Red Sox to resign Beck and Pichardo at the very minimum. Florie will probably get a minor league deal at the least, for public relations. One of Lewis, O’Leary, or someone of comparable salary will be on the team, I expect O’Leary, unless he sucks it up for another year. If Nomo rebounds from last season, expect another contract offer.

Bichette, Lansing, Schourek, and Cone will not be resigned, barring some amazing rebirth. Cone just wants to go out a winner, or if that’s not possible, with as much dignity as possible. But those four players free up, after subtracting buyouts, 11 million dollars.

The big five: Nomar, Pedro, Lowe, Ramirez, and Everett only have total increases of about 7.5 million to their salaries next year. I expect that the real amount of dumped salary will be around 20 million, because they won’t keep D. Lew and O’Leary at the same time, Valentin will walk if Stynes does even an average job, which frees up another 7.3 million minimum. Why do I mention this? Two of my favorite pitchers are coming onto the market next year, and I’m hoping that they underachieve, so we can pick them up for cheap. Chan Ho Park is on the market this year. With the amount of money the Dodgers have spent on their rotation, expect Park to be let go. Dreifort, Brown, and Ashby have all signed big deals with them, and Gagne is ready to enter the rotation. Expect Ramon Martinez to rebound this season, especially in the NL, and take the 4th spot. I want Park. If Randy Johnson wasn’t in the NL, Park could challenge Brown, Maddux, and Glavine for the Cy Young. I’m pretty sure Colon is becoming a free agent next year as well, which is awesome. He’s an ace, will benefit from the rulebook strike, idolizes Pedro, and would be loved by the fans for his high K totals. It’d be great, we’d have a 40% chance of seeing a strikeout artist pitch at Fenway for the Red Sox, not the opposing team.

Oh crap, this has gotten out of hand. Therefore, I will not postpone my other comments on Spring Training until my next column. Sorry. Back to your regularly scheduled Column:

Okay, so it’s not realistic to expect Park or Colon, but next year is the end of the CBA, so there is the possibility of a salary cap. There better not be a stoppage. If there is, I get tons to write about, but it’s boring as hell.

On that subject, I have gained a new level of respect for Pedro Martinez. In his recent comments about how Frank Thomas (The Big Squirt) and Sammy Sosa should shut up about their contracts and play, he showed a new level of intelligence. One of his comments was along the lines of:

Baseball players signed a contract, and should honor their word. They were well paid when they signed that contract, and now they have to live with that. But it works both ways. I don’t want to hear the owners saying, “we need a salary cap” when the time comes.

This guy is great. He was already an awesome pitcher, an intimidator, and funny as hell in the dugout. Now, he’s big, he’s talking trash about Fat Thomas, and is displaying a degree of economic savvy as a player who will be one of the top paid players for the next decade. Pedro’s the man.

And to all those stupid people saying that Nomar hurt his wrist doing something unspeakable, I have this to say to you: Look at who he’s dating! He pulls the most tail of anyone on the Sox. The recent SI issue opened up a lot about Nomar’s personality that Bostonians didn’t know about. He probably did it to create an image for the national audience. However, it still remains that Nomar is much more down to earth than A-Rod and Jeter. And, he’s our Nomar, Dammit!

Coming Next Column: Manny Ramirez and Right Field. Next Column: Around Sunday or Monday 3/4/2001
Coming Subjects: New Fenway, Full League Preview

And on a bad note, the girl I was hitting on has hooked up with a friend of mine. Expect a more depressed columnist. DAMN! So close!

And a quick note: I wanted to convey my thanks for the fan emails I’ve been receiving. I’ve gotten stuff from people who nearly cried reading my Trot Nixon article to people who support me in my war on Callahan. One person even suggested this: Start a bonehead of the month column. I enjoy reading fan mail, like a little kid, and try to write a meaningful response to everything I get. Feel free to write, even if it’s to complain that you love Jerry Callahan, or that I’m a crappy writer.

Alex Beam, eat your heart out.

hbrennan@hotmail.com