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A lot of the criticism levelled at the Front Office concerns poor FA decisions in the past. It demands accountability for these decisions. You are seeing that now. You will see a more conservative approach, IMO, in the FA market for a little while.

Paying money for past performance and durability is what got the Sox to where they are now with Lackey and Crawford, moves you are very critical of right now, and rightfully so, as they take up a lot of the Sox resources. I think part of the reason they didn't go into the market for Papelbon is they are bit gun-shy after getting burned by their FA signings recently.

This is neither true nor false, not yet. The next 4 years will determine if he is worth that salary level. What he did in the past is in the past.

Would you have supported a rookie DH if it meant more pitching? I'm skeptical you would given your consistent view on rookies. And, if not, don't bother listing it as an alternative, because you'd still be critical, just from another angle. I'm confident the only way your criticisms, ones that I think are a bit unrealistic and overstated, go away is if they had both Ortiz and the contingency pitching you want so bad, which takes us back to the expansion of resource cost. Don't know, we don't have the final cap number with benefits/bonuses until rosters are set. It's possible the Suctaro dump was just that, a dump to get them in-line with their budget desires. There certainly is more than one way to go about things. Just because this type of move wouldn't cost actual dollars, it does cut into the their talent resources. Gonzalez was acquired for 4 good prospects. After the recent trades for talent like Gonzalez and Martinez, is it realistic to expect them to further deplete their good MiLB talent to that degree? I mean, you have to draw the line somewhere, with both money and talent. The only thing that seems consistent is that these lines don't seem to exist for you when it comes to making you comfortable with the roster + contingencies going into the season. IMO, they should never spend money as a PR move.

It's been reported that there is no innings cap for Bard. I'm not sure I believe that given the preponderance of evidence of young pitchers who have been injured by massive workload increases.

Not only that, but if Doubront sticks as a viable starter, Bard will likely return to the BP to limit his overall innings in his first year transitioning to SP. The 2nd half BP will feature Bailey, Melancon, Bard, Aceves, and Hill (he gets back from TJS before Matsuzaka, and he looked really good last year).

This is pretty much the tradeoff. Papelbon/Lavarnway vs Bailey/Ortiz. However, saying the team has no closer is a bit disingenuous in your review of the tradeoff. The acquired a closer. The position did not get overlooked. Unfortunately, the guy they acquired got injured in a Spring Training collision, and yes, this guy has a history of injuries, so they acquired another young reliever with experience closing. We'll see how it plays out.

I agree that they could have let Ortiz go and handed over the DH duties to Lavarnway. I would have even supported such a move, as it would have been the best way to free up resources to address other needs. However, handing the job to a rookie has it's own risks. While I think Lavarnway is an exciting young player, it's a bit much to expect he could come in and perform at the level Ortiz can in his first full year at the MLB level. Ortiz had an RC of 111 last year. Projections for Lavarnway put his RC anywhere from 30-60, depending on playing time, for 2012. Now, these are just projections, and it's certainly possible that he could be much better, as these projections don't do a very good job of forecasting when young players will "breakout" and play in the big leagues like they did in the minors. However, there's real risk in such a move.

Plus there are benefits and bonuses that go into the final cap number.

$178M is the cap. And, don't know what the Sox actual number is right now. No site is posting 2012 figures until rosters are set. I just went with what he posted for the sake of illustrating that there isn't much room in the budget for adding cost.

http://sonsofsamhorn.net/topic/70489-whither-matsuzaka/ June doesn't seem like a feel good story to me, looks pretty realistic.

You've been consistently stating this position on Matsuzaka's return? How closely have you looked at the timetable for TJS return? What is driving your pessimism that he'll be unable to adhere to the timetable trend established by the other pitchers who have recently returned from TJS, a timetable that has him back by early June?

Quit overreacting. [/sarcasm]

The Reds are struggling to find cap room?

So the Yankees DL a guy, and that's a fabrication, he's really healthy and this is roster shenanigans. Same day, mind you, the Sox send a guy to a specialist, and they are obviously covering up a more serious injury. Shocking. Love that consistency.

Why is the focus only on whether or not they are getting ultimate value out of Bard? While I agree that it is ideal to achieve the best possible payment/performance value, focussing solely on that kind of ignores a more general good that can be achieved here. If Bard reaches his ultimate potential as a SP, that is going to be a very good thing for the Sox chances to win a title, even if it is only in short window. Better, IMO, and the stats kind of back this up, than their chances this year with him in the BP.