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I’ve been eagerly awaiting news as to where Bartolo Colon is heading this year. His last full season was 2005, when he dominated the competition and ended up winning the Cy Young. Unfortunately for him, injuries have kept him from returning to that form and left him a relatively unloved free agent. The irony is that numerous teams have been interested in his services, but few have been willing to give him the sort of deal that he feels he’s worth.

This past week, there was a rumor that Colon would be pitching for the White Sox this year. Chicago GM Kenny Williams gave no comment about the supposed negotiations, declining even to confirm that they had taken place. Later the deal was revealed not to exist.

Yesterday ESPN.com reported that Colon will indeed be joining the Sox, the Red Sox. That’s right, Theo Epstein and company have apparently persuaded Colon to accept a minor league deal for his services this year. It’s unclear what the structure of the deal is, but my guess is that it is heavy with performance incentives.

It’s tough to make any meaningful predictions without having seen a single professional inning since last October, but if pressed I’d say this deal is rich with potential. Consider these factors. The Red Sox have lost Curt Schilling for the season. The market is absolutely mad for pitching—the Carlos Silva deal and the five-for-one Erik Bedard swap being two prominent examples. And Colon has been a robust producer for many years, averaging more than 215 innings per season from 1998 until 2005. This could easily shape up to be a pivotal move for the ’08 Red Sox as they look to repeat as division winners in the perennially brutal AL East.

There are many uncertainties of course. What kind of condition is Colon in? He has never been known for his physical conditioning and some people blame his beleaguered state the last two years at least in part on his sub-par exercise regimen. It’s also possible that Colon, who turns 35 in about three months, has been worn out by more than a decade of service and is too old to recover.

But with a deal where Colon takes on most of the risk the Red Sox have tipped the odds in their favor. Plus, for whatever silly reason, I believe Colon will return this year with the drive he was lacking in past years. He’s a recent Cy Young winner with something to prove. That’s often a dangerous combination.

Derek Jeter can be a polarizing figure. Almost too good to be true—sacrificing his body in a headlong dive into the stands to snare a foul ball, coming through at the plate in critical situations, acting graciously toward even his critics—Jeter is beloved in New York and reviled by many others. As much as I know my own reticence to like him is founded primarily on irrationality, I still find myself ambivalent at best.

Why does he do that bothers me? Here is an example. A few months ago he was caught up in a contest over back taxes that the state and city of New York thought he owed. You can read about the intricacies of this particular situation on a tax blog I found. When I heard about a man who made in excess of $20 million dollars last year supposedly dodging taxes, I was appalled. Jeter settled the dispute a few weeks later without having to go to court, likely paying a portion of the sum that the governments were seeking. Is it wrong of him to fight for money he thought was his own? Of course not. But anytime a man worth tens of millions of dollars can’t pay a bit more in taxes, I feel a bit sick inside. And it seems to be worse when the culprit is Jeter. Can’t he just get Steinbrenner to agree to pay his taxes for him? I’m sure the Yankees could afford it.

Yet then he has a week like last week. He took a stance in favor of blood tests for banned substances in Major League players in a brief interview with the AP. This is a position opposed by his own union representative, as the story points out. But hearing a player talk this way gives me hope that baseball can clean itself up. One day I hope Jeter’s sentiment is more widely held, and that brings about an era when baseball’s integrity is considered beyond reproach. Jeter also attended teammate Andy Pettitte’s press conference in a touching show of support for a man doing the right thing, which also happened to be the difficult thing. These are the admirable qualities that make his teammates and managers and fans love and respect him.