So this Jeremy Reed lad...

I have news for you all, the starting Centerfielders for the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox in 2006 will most likely be Johnny Damon and Jeremy Reed. Who knows which club will have which player but Damon only has two suitors and both of those suitors have spoken numerous times with the Mariners over Reed.

The Mariners are keen on both Bronson Arroyo and Chien-Ming Wang, but the Sox prefer to ship Matt Clement away whereas the Yanks would prefer to jettison Carl Pavano in any said deal. The Bronx Bombers have already turned down a straight up Reed for Pavano deal but would be interested in possibly adding another player to the deal should they miss out on Damon.

Reed has yet to prove he can hit Major League pitching but after being a monster in the minors, you have to expect that he will be a fine ML hitter. When you add that to his outstanding defense and the fact that he can swipe a bag or two then you can see why he is rated so highly by scouts.

Damon today declined arbitration meaning the Red Sox have until January 8th to reach an agreement with the lead-off guy. Should they fail to sign a deal by then, you'd fully expect to see him end up in the Bronx as he will not be sitting out until May to play for the Sox.

Both players have their upsides, one is a fine defensive CF with an interesting future in the bigs whereas the other is one of the best lead off hitters in the game, and he has that classic Yankee Stadium swing if he ends up in the Bronx...