Please, do not suggest the agent is under any obligation to do something constructive, like submit a counterproposal.  From Gordon Edes in the Boston Globe’s Extra Bases blog.

With agent Scott Boras declaring tonight that if “the parties’ positions remain the same, Daisuke will return to Japan,” the Red Sox top brass were in Southern California to meet face-to-face with Daisuke Matsuzaka in a last-ditch attempt to induce him to sign.

Boras said that GM Theo Epstein, accompanied by principal owner John W. Henry and CEO Larry Lucchino, had come to conduct negotiating sessions tonight and tomorrow in an attempt to beat Thursday’s deadline for a deal.

While the Boston Herald has yet to post any new developments in the Matsuzaka situation, they did manage to catch up with the Condom Bomber.

If all of this wasn’t depressing enough for Red Sox fans, David Scott suspects there’s some validity to earlier rumors that Steve Lyons might become half of Boston’s radio crew.

We’re cheering for the possibility of having Psycho on the local airwaves – it’ll be car-crash radio just waiting to happen. He’ll be suspended by the club for inappropriate remarks by the All-Star break!

While forecasting strong interest in Jeff Suppan on the part of Pittsburgh and Kansas City (the latter having lost out on Miguel Batista to Seattle), Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal raises the possibility of Houston’s Luke Scott being dealt to Baltimore.

Paging David Simon, I think we’ve got an idea for Season 5 of “The Wire”.