The Red Sox’s necessary gamble, plus poll results on the Savannah Bananas

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Copy I am forever fascinated by the newish trend of MLB general managers betting early on prospects, circumventing baseball’s archaic arbitration system — in which a player is ineligible for free agency for six seasons — by buying out those arbitration years. It’s a simple yet expensive wager: 

Instead of saving money in the short-term, pay your mega-talented prospect more money than he’d make in...