Daniel Bard News

That DeMarlo Hale's work as the Red Sox third base coach was rarely a topic of discussion speaks to how well he did that job for four years.

Turns out it was a pretty good year for hard-throwing relievers in Boston. Closer Jonathan Papelbon has been selected as the 2009 Red Sox Fireman of the Year by the Boston Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America, while fellow flamethrowing righthander Daniel Bard was named as its Red Sox Rookie of the Year.

SD is in a far stronger bargaining position than Toronto. Halladay has come out and made clear he will not resign after this year.

Jon Lester is 10x the pitcher Grienke is. And Daniel Bard should have won rookie of the year.

The "2010 Baseball America Prospect Handbook" arrives in bookstores and mailboxes in late January, but the tease comes roughly a month earlier: The list of the Red Sox' top 30 prospects is set to be revealed on the BA website Dec.

While Theo Epstein circulates amongst his peers at the Major League general managers meetings in Chicago this week, he'll be coming home to face an increasingly busy offseason of tedious contract work.

Ken Rosenthal has been the senior baseball writer for FOXSports.com since Aug. 2005. He appears weekly on the FSN Baseball Report and MLB on FOX.

Alex Gonzalez still could be the starting shortstop for the Red Sox next season.

As expected, the Red Sox have exercised their 2010 option on C / 1B Victor Martinez while declining their option on SS Alex Gonzalez.

First of all, I'd like to advise all Red Sox fans to start living by the advice of Douglas Adams; author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy .

As was rumored for quite a while, the Boston Red Sox were interested in acquiring J.J. Hardy from the Brewers, but weren't able to agree with the Brewers on a trade.

The Red Sox retained one of the key members of their minor league system yesterday when director of player development Mike Hazen declined to join the San Diego Padres as assistant general manager.

In the Nation, we tend to get impatient...a lot. This tends to escalate in offseasons following disappointing campaigns, but then again, our version of disappointing would make about 80 percent of the rest of baseball angry considering the Red Sox's run of success over the past decade.

T he Red Sox [ team stats ] retained one of the key members of their minor league system yesterday when director of player development Mike Hazen declined to join the San Diego Padres as assistant general manager.

Right after game three and the sweep of the Boston Red Sox at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels, I watched Kevin Youkilis on NESN , answering questions about getting swept, and he says calmly "yes, it's frustrating, but it's time to look forward to next season." While I'd like to see Youkilis be pissed...it is time to look forward to the ...

JED HOYER won't have to worry too much about backlash from fans in San Diego in the coming months.

Welcome to the offseason, which means I will try to take time once each week to answer all of your questions.

The most promising aspect, going forward, is that the Red Sox have money to spend again.

Boston Red Sox It is getting tougher and tougher for the Red Sox to keep winning and maintain an elite farm system, especially when you make some aggressive trade-deadline deals to pick up the likes of Victor Martinez and Billy Wagner .

Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein spoke candidly about the sudden end to his team's season, his thoughts on moving the club forward, Jason Bay's free agency, J.D. Drew's value, David Ortiz, Daniel Bard, and other players and topics during an interview on WEEI's "Dennis and Callahan" program this morning.