Daily Links - Monday Morning Edition

The theme of the day is obviousness. We'll start with Josh Beckett. Beckett isn't worried about not having beer in the clubhouse. Seriously? In other news, he's also not a racist, and he isn't anti-Semitic. Come on. Even if he was any of those awful, hateful things, he wouldn't admit it publicly, just as even if he gave two poops about wanting to drink beer in the clubhouse, he'd be a fool to say so. Do people expect Beckett to say, "No beer in the clubhouse? This sucks hard, man. Now I can't get plastered four out of every five days. No way I'm going to pitch well this year. I don't care one bit. I'm phoning this year in!"

Obviousness, Part Deux: Jacoby Ellsbury. When asked if he would consider re-signing with the Red Sox before or after he becomes a free agent, Ellsbury said one of the following things. See if you can guess correctly (cheaters: click here for the right answer):

1. "Absolutely not! You couldn't pay me enough to play here! I'm spending my millions from this year on airfare to get the heck out of here! Hate it!"
2. "There's always that possibility. I kind of leave that up to my agent."
3. "I'd stay here for just a dollar per year! I love it here! To the ownership I'd only say this: Oh please please please please with sugar on top give me that dollar!"

Of course, asking Ellsbury such a question only answers one question and it isn't the one asked. It is, does Ellsbury have a rudimentary knowledge of public perception. If we didn't before, now we know the answer is yes. Yay.

That concludes our theme for today. Now back to your regularly scheduled links.

Josh Beckett did a long interview with Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. Beckett discussed his career in Boston, the way 2011 ended, and how he feels about the upcoming season and the fans.

The Boston Herald's Scott Lauber has Kevin Youkilis giving Will Middlebrooks some pointers about the art of playing third base.

Wayne Coffey of the New York Daily News penned this excellent piece about former Mets pitcher Taylor Buchholz and his battle with depression. Contrary to (some people's) popular belief, depression is a real and very serious illness. Hopefully Buchholz can get his demons under control.

Michael McCarthy played for the Lowell Spinners last year. This year he's writing about his experiences as a minor leaguer in the Red Sox system.

Speaking of minor leaguers, Mike Andrews of Sox Prospects has written his weekly column for ESPN Boston. It's about possible breakout candidates in the Red Sox minor league system. As always, it's required reading. And, over at Sox Prospects, Chris Mellon has in-depth previews of the upcoming season for prospects Noe Ramirez and Che-Hsuan Lin. The guys at Sox Prospects are really stepping up their game. They've even got a Daily Links of sorts right here with links to articles about Sox minor leaguers.

Finally, over at Not Graphs, Carson Cistulli has the lowdown on the upkeep of your MLB.tv subscription.