Thursday’s Morning Links

Red Sox Look To Counter Yankees Potential Cliff Lee Signing: The Red Sox seem to be working hard at trying to acquire a big named free agent to balance the Yankees likely signing of Cliff Lee. They are targeting the next two free agents on the market, OF’s Carl Crawford and Jayson Werth. The Red Sox outfield is their weakest unit and it will only get weaker when J.D. Drew leaves next year as a free agent. If the Red Sox can land either Crawford or Werth it will give them another impact bat for their lineup, and help offset the loss of Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre. Both Crawford and Werth are going to draw significant interest on the market, with Crawford the top prize (and price tag). I think the likelihood the Sox land one of the two free agent outfielders is pretty high, and would help keep the balance of power between the Yanks and Red Sox in check.

Caps Have No Trouble This Time Against Halak: Jaroslav Halak was on a hot streak last postseason and he stopped the Capitals Stanley Cup dreams cold. But last night with his new team, the St. Louis Blues, Washington got the best of him. The Caps won 4-1, to improve to a league best 18-6-2, and they got a little revenge against their nemesis. The Capitals are on a 4 game winning streak since their goalie Semyon Varlamov recovered from and injury and look to be headed in the right direction again. Prior to his return, the Caps were not only losing games, but they were getting blownout in them as well. While Washington showed that they can overcome Halak, the best news is the fact that now they won’t have to face him in the postseason unless the Blues make the Stanley Cup Finals (not too likely).