A younger, slimmer, and more muscular Adrian Gonzalez with the Padres

Red Sox Trade? 
(Well, Technically It Will Be A Waiver Deal)

If the proposed Red Sox deal goes through with the Dodgers the following salaries could no longer be on the payroll next year: 

Carl Crawford in happier days.

Adrian Gonzalez $21.857 million 
Carl Crawford $20.857 million
Josh Beckett $17 million
Daisuke Matsuzaka (2013 Free Agent)  $10.333 million this year as an  ineffective, injury prone, tortuous-to-watch player
David Ortiz (2013 Free Agent) making $14.575 million as an aging, injury prone, DH

Josh fires a pitch after a long deliberation. Are you asleep yet?

This adds up to a potential total savings of $84.622 million that could be spent on younger, more productive, less complacent not-so-comfortable-in-losing players. 
I think next year's team will have a better record than this year's. 

I'm a little surprised the Yankees didn't play a little "chicken" with the Red Sox and claim Adrian Gonzalez. 

Sure he is expensive but he wouldn't be a bad consolation prize if the Sox actually let the Yankees have him, which they probably wouldn't.  The Yankees may regret passing on the opportunity to put the kibosh on this potential deal which will be a Godsend for the Red Sox. I believe if the Yankees had known this transaction was possible, they would have blocked it. 

Adrian Gonzalez just didn't look like he was enjoying himself in the least amount during his time with the Red Sox. I can understand that the Boston press is annoying and self righteous but that kind of money makes it easy to ignore that stuff. His stats have been OK and he leads the league in RISP average, but the power numbers have suspiciously declined and there is a perception that he doesn't hit in the clutch, mainly because the team tanked last September and has not been in the race this year. 

Crawford was terrible last year and has been injured off and on (currently on, recovering from Tommy John surgery, he may be back in time for spring training) since he arrived. 

Beckett has been mediocre for years. His fine stats last season were negated by the beer and chicken induced September swoon. He pitches soooo slowly, it seems like I'm stoned when I watch him. 

On those rare occasions in recent years when Daisuke Matsuzaka was able to pitch you would find me contemplating seppuku. Daisuke seems to operate on the theory to never throw a strike when the batter might swing at a bad pitch. On the rare occasion when he went ahead on a batter no balls two strikes, you could usually win a bar bet that the count would go full.

The chances that David Ortiz will avoid injury or decline in the next two or three years are too high to pay him anywhere near his current salary on a long term contract (more than one year at his age)  to be a DH. My guess is his pride will not allow him to  play year by year and I expect he will move on.  

Utility infielder Nick Punto will also be going to the Dodgers. He made $1,500,000 this year and was not expected back since he had a cheap buyout for next year. He is a fine fielder but his bat has abandoned him in his old (in baseball terms) age. He will be useful to the Dodgers because of injuries.  

Red Sox contract information found HERE. 

Mercy Hospital is FOR SALE
Who wants to buy?

Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine, is having financial problems. 

Mercy Hospital is not owned locally, despite their "home town" approach to advertising.
Catholic Hospital East, a Pennsylvania-based network of 35 hospitals owns the Portland institution and they are evidently not happy with its performance. Mercy Hospital is being eyed for purchase by Steward Health Care, formerly Caritas Christi, which was bought from the Boston Catholic Archdiocese when they went on a liquidation binge due to being cash short a few years ago repeatedly paying lawyers and damages for all their rapist pedophile priests.

If Steward is successful in purchasing Mercy Hospital it will convert from being a non-profit institution to an investor owned one.

"Hercules descended into Hades, accompanied by Mercury and Minerva. He obtained permission from Pluto to carry Cerberus to the upper air provided he could do it without the use of weapons; and in spite of the monster's struggling, he seized him, held him fast, and carried him to Eurystheus, and afterward brought him back again." —Bulfinch, 1897

Steward is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm. 

From the Cerberus website:

"Cerberus’s investment professionals are leading experts in four distinct investment strategies, allowing the Firm to move quickly to take advantage of diverse opportunities across multiple markets.
Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is focused on the following four investment strategies:
Distressed Securities and Assets
Control and Non-Control Private Equity Investments
Commercial Lending
Real Estate
The Firm has a deep commitment to risk mitigation and asset diversification within each investment strategy. Cerberus’s dedicated teams of investment professionals, many of whom have been with the Firm for more than a decade, are highly regarded in their areas of expertise. The combination of their analytical approach coupled with the Firm's operational team's in-depth operational knowledge provides the foundation for each of the four investment strategies."

Cerberus is the three headed dog in Greek Mythology who guards the gates of Hades (that's Hell in Greek).

Cerberus, called by some a "vulture capitalist" company, was founded in 1992 by Steve Feinberg, who still runs it and claims he regrets the choice of name but believes that the brand equity he has built up is too valuable to warrant a change.
Yet Cerberus indeed is a storefront for an Underworld (or a Hell, if you please) of exclusive investment. The company is well connected in Republican Washington.

George W. Bush's former treasury secretary John W. Snow, is a senior executive.
Dan Quayle is chairman of the company's investment division.
Donal Rumsfeld was (is?) a client.

The specialize in snapping up troubled companies at bargain prices. They bought Chrysler from Daimler at the wrong time and would have lost their entire investment had the govenment not bailed out the auto companies. They have since sold out Chrysler to Fiat for twenty cents on the dollar. [Other, more friendly reports claim that Cerberus garnered back 90% of their investment in Chrysler.] They own lots of stuff, including the operating company of Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton and other hotel brands. Covis Pharma, a Swiss drug company, is owned by one of their affiliates. They own the film production company Spyglass Entertainment, which has a deal with Disney.
 One can get a good overview of establishment film making by perusing a list of titles they have unleashed on the world HERE. 

Spyglass' Last Fifteen Releases:
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013) ... Production Company
The Vow (2012) ... Production Company (presents)
Footloose (2011) ... Production Company (presents)
The Dilemma (2011) ... Production Company (in association with)
No Strings Attached (2011/I) ... Production Company (presents)
The Tourist (2010) ... Production Company (in association with)
Dinner for Schmucks (2010) ... Production Company (presents)
Get Him to the Greek (2010) ... Production Company (in association with)
Leap Year (2010) ... Production Company (presents)
Invictus (2009) ... Production Company (in association with)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009) ... Production Company (presents)
Star Trek (2009) ... Production Company (presents)
Four Christmases (2008) ... Production Company (in association with)
Flash of Genius (2008) ... Production Company (presents)
Ghost Town (2008/I) ... Production Company (presents)

Cerberus, a few years ago, went on a buying binge of firearms companies.
They own Windham, Maine's Bushmaster Firearms, as well as Remington, Cobb Manufacturing (through Bushmaster), DPMS Panther Arms, Marlin Firearms (through Remington) and others. They consolidated their firearm companies under an umbrella called The Freedom Group.
Last year right wing fearophiles' emails and social networks spread a false rumor claiming the Freedom Group was owned by George Soros who purportedly (and therefore hilariously) bought these companies to put them out of business.  

Scary Bête noire of the right,
 George Soros

Funny Funny. I wouldn't be surprised if a bored Cerberus employee made that one up and sent it out on a right wing mouth frother mailing list to drum up business among the inevitably and too easily panicked 2nd Amendment cultists.

J.P. Morgan Worldwide Securities Services administers their money.

Cerberus operates a large private (which means you can't get involved or find out much about it) hedge fund.

One of Cerberus' entities, International American Products (IAP) Worldwide Services had a contract to operate the facilities at Walter Reed Hospital and medical facilities in Iraq during the Bush II administration. It was thought that IAP getting these contracts would be  an improvement and a fresh start over the embarrassing Halliburton KBR performance in privatizing war, but it turned out that IAP was a sort of Halliburton in hiding.
They had to repay millions in overcharges to the DOD.
The tawdry details can be found here. 

IAP's CEO, Al Neffgen, is a former Halliburton KBR executive. Cerberus, through IAP, may have partnered with Halliburton KBR in fleecing the government of millions in defense contracts in Iraq during the Bush privatization scandals. IAP also had to answer questions about missing money received in contracts for Katrina relief.

 Former IAP president (and former Halliburton KBR vice president) Dave (His Real Name) Swindle had to answer some tricky questions in relation to the treatment of Iraq vets due to the degraded conditions at Walter Reed Hospital after privatization and assumption of operation by IAP. 

From Wikipedia, some entities owned by Cerberus:

A Albertsons LLC American Coach Lines Aozora Bank YP Holdings B BAWAG BAWAG P.S.K. Blue Bird Corporation BlueLinx Bushmaster Firearms International

C Caritas Christi Health Care D DPMS Panther Arms DynCorp F Freedom Group G GeoEye H H & R Firearms M Marlin Firearms N NewPage North American Bus Industries

O Optima Bus Corporation P Para-Ordnance R Remington Arms S SNET Information Services Spyglass Entertainment Steward Health Care System T Tower International