A few thoughts as we radically shifted from 60+ degrees weather on the weekend to snow, sleet and freezing rain on Monday.

• Reports say that the Red Sox have signed Jon Lester to a five-year, $30 million contract, with a team option for a sixth year. It's good to see Theo locking up the young core of this team for the next few years, adding Lester to the earlier signings of Dustin Pedrioa and Kevin Youkilis. I love the fact that key Red Sox players are coming up through the farm system and the Sox are spending the dollars to keep them in Boston unforms for the long term.
• I have said this before, but the current group of farm system products compares favorably with the mid-'80s Red Sox, when you had guys like Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Bruce Hurst, Oil Can Boyd, Jim Rice, Marty Barrett and Dwight Evans on the team. Although they are still pretty young, I think the group of Lester, Youk, Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jed Lowrie, Justin Masterson and Jonathan Papelbon looks pretty good.
• There has been a lot of focus on the new Yankee Stadium and their $2,500 seats, but the Mets new home, Citi Field, is no slouch when it comes to ticket prices either. They have five pricing tiers and 28 different seating levels, so a seat for Opening Day or against the Yankees could cost you more than double what the same seat for a weeknight game against the Nationals or Marlins would go for. This makes a certain amount of economic sense but fans once again pay through the nose for the most desirable games. I guess the only upside is that the money goes to the team instead of to a scalper.