The numbers never lie

While I'm sure most Red Sox fans have already seen it, either on the Boston.com site or on BostonDirtDogs.com, Gordon Edes boils down spring training into 10 easy-to-follow storylines.

I wish the rest of my life was that easy (Top 10 storylines to keep me out of trouble at work this week, Top 10 phone calls to duck, Top 10 questionable foodstuffs to pass on this spring), but this works, too.

I just wanted to call attention to the final poll at the end of the package which asks, "Which Sox player are you most looking forward to seeing at spring training?"

With roughly 7,700 votes in this evening, Jacoby Ellsbury has 50.1 percent of the vote, running away from Manny Ramirez with his 16.3 percent. This tells me two things: 1.) Ellsbury made a major impression in his time with the team last year and 2.) Sox fans are going to be watching him like a hawk after the Johan Santana trade rumors all winter.

This will be the continuing subplot for Ellsbury in the foreseeable future as fans try to value Ellsbury's performance against what Santana does for the Mets. That's going to be fun for him, I'm sure.

I'll be keeping an eye on the two young arms this year, Clay Buchholz and Jon Lester, as well as

On a related note, the teams listed by Edes as possibly looking for Coco Crisp's services this year are the Twins, Cubs, Rangers and A's. Bobby Kielty was signed to a one-year deal today, making Crisp even more expendable.

If anyone needs me in the next hour or so, I'll be down the street at Wrigley, spraypainting, "You don't need any more outfielders," in three-foot letters across the west wall.

(Image from: NYTimes.com)