a700hitter

Pumpsie, you crazy like me and Iortiz. Lol!!!

He had a few good years for the Angels and one for the White Sox. He hasn't done much since, because he's almost as old as Wakefield.

You are diverting the discussion. SFF said that the difference between the Sox and Tampa was heart. I disagreed and said that the difference was pitching and mentioned that some combination of Lackey, Wakefield, Miller and Weiland were going to the mound 3 out of 5 days with little hope for success. That was the difference-- pitching and pitching depth. You are wandering off topic.

Paul Byrd's price would be very reasonable. Lol! I'm all for signing a couple of these low value pitchers as depth In the minors or the major league bullpen, but first, they need to stock the rotation with reliable major league arms. And no, Wakefield doesn't fall into any category. He's got nothing left.

In return for the second highest payroll in baseball, we have gotten a competitive team that has not been good enough to win the World Series since 2007. They have not been good enough to win a playoff game since 2008 nor make the playoffs since 2009. We also have very little premium talent at the upper levels of the minor leagues. He has had a terrible run for the last 3 or 4 seasons in light of his resources. All will not be lost if he is replaces. Despite what u may think, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a good GM.

No, the difference between the Sox and the Rays was starting pitching and pitching depth. We were running Wakefield, Miller, Weiland and Lacey to the mound three out of every 5 games with virtually no chance of winning. Does the whole roster need to be plown up? No, but there was an organizational failure that needs to be addressed. The FO and management team needs to be blown up. Are they a long way from winning ? No, but you should have some good talent assembled for $174 million. It is no feather in their cap that they won 90 games for $174 million. Someone else can take the core of this team and fine tune it to get it to the next level.

He stuck with rthe Angels for a good number of years, and there is a reason why he keeps showing up on the rosters of contenders. He's a solid SS.

During the last series against the O's, the team was shell shocked. By that point, they look stunned and defeated. They had done so much losing up to that point that they were running out of explanations and positive statements, so they beat it out of the clubhouse. I mean really what could they say at that point. They probably were expecting the worst, but couldn't say it, so they bailed. It wasn't the right thing to do, but I understand why they did it.

True Lucchino could also be on thin ice, but the next level up is ownership, and they don't get fired.

Some one call the Commissioner's Office immediately and tell him that there has been a mistake. The Red Sox are supposed to be in the playoffs and probably the World Series. All of the predictive models prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. We wuz robbed!! You are making less and less sense as you go on trying to prove that Theo did a bang up job. You blame the players, but now you are saying that there isn't that much wrong with the team and that it doesn't need an overhaul. By saying that they were not good enough, I am not simplistically explaining the reasons for the failure of the 2011 team. I have been repeating that in response to all of the cop out excuses of injury, poor attitude, and drinking light beer. Of course there are a lot of reasons for the failure and of course numbers and statistical models will be used to fix a good deal of it, but the complexity of the problem doesn't change the responsibility for it. Theo is responsible for the failure. You are the one arguing in circles to exonerate him. As to your assertion that the team is pretty close to being a winning team, this is not even consistent with your prior attempts to get Boy Wonder off the hook. When you were scapegoating players on alleged attitude issues, you were willing to say that they should weed out the problems going forward. You were assuming that Youk and Ortiz were bad for team chemistry, and there were the stories of the light beer drinking pitchers. Assume you were right about the bad seeds, you don't think it would be a major overhaul to part ways with the teams cleanup hitter and it's #5 hitter, guys who routinely have OPS around .900? Add to that parting ways with one of the starters for drinking-- even if that starter is Lackey. We'd have to get 2 major sticks and a starter at the very least before they even start building a bullpen. Those are major changes. You are not even being consistent in your arguments, because you are still trying to do anything you can to exonerate the Boy Wonder. BTW: He's now almost the Middle Aged Wonder.

Yes, and they do such a great job of keeping their pitchers healthy.

Even if Crawford becomes Carl Crawford again and Youkilis is healthy for the entire season, other injuries will happen-- to position players and pitchers. When is the last time that the Sox had a rotation where at least one starter didn't miss a good chunk of the season? 2004 was the last time. Getting the injured guys healthy for next year will put us in the same situation when other guys go down next season. They need to get deeper. A few BP pieces will not do the job. I think it is laughable that you don't think they have significant work to do this off season.

If he used $174 million and didn't build he team to win, well that would have been a big waste of money. Unfortunately, he failed in his task, because they didn't win. It doesn't matter that the computer projections, the pundits and fans like me picked them to win, they were all wrong. Unfortunately, it goes on Theo's record.

It would be pointless to sig it, because the cast of characters will be very different than the roster at the end of the season.

They don't have enough to win next season. We are kidding ourselves if we think the return of Buchholz and a couple BP pieces will return this team to prominence.

Theo fine tuned the 2004 team. He didn't build it. I give him almost all of the credit for 2007. In 2008, we would have had back to back titles, but Beckett got injured and they stuck with Buchholz too long. He wasn't ready. He went 2-9 and cost us the Division Title. In the end the 2008 team wasn't good enough. The same goes for 2011. The team wasn't good enough. You say that the team had all the tools, but the players didn't come through. Of course the players are at fault. They lost it on the field. They weren't good enough, and Theo put together the roster of players that were not good enough. Saying that they were good enough but just didn't win is a cop out. If they didn't lose because they weren't good enough, then why did they lose? Injuries? That's another cop out. Injuries are part of the game. Underperformance? Another cop out. Every roster has guys that over perform and under perform. We got a break out season from Ellsbury that no one expected. Beckett outperformed, so did Papelbon, and so did Ortiz. Are you saying that the players didn't give it their best? I'm not buying in on that one. On the whole the team just wasn't good enough over 162 games. That fault is at Theo's doorstep.

You take extraordinary efforts to exonerate Theo from blame. I don't think the team needs to be blown up, and I agree with you that they are close to being winners, but Theo's record doesn't warrant another chance, and I think that a new GM can step in and make the choices that will make this team a winner in 2012. Theo is not indispensable. He has made a bit of a mess, and someone else can clean it up.

You are on an island because you think Theo has done a good job and that he is not part of the problem. The majority fo the people feel differently. Every poll in every paper puts Theo at the top of the list of causes for the 2011 collapse. if the owners give him the right to talk to the Cubs, they obviously would think he is expendable. You are looking for bogeymen and scapegoats. The truth is that the team wasn't good enough, and Theo is responsible for putting together the team.