a700hitter

That point can be debated. We'll have to see how that prospect pans out for the Nats before it can be fairly judged. The Twins did improve their team with the move and they did it by moving a guy who is blocked at the ML level by Mauer. He had nowhere to go with the Twins. Maybe they could have gotten more for him. I don't know, but he had no future with the Twins.

I'd prefer that you just discuss the issues of sports and not your perceptions of me. I don't come on here saying that I picture you playing baseball in wooden shoes after visiting a hash bar. Let's leave those personal perceptions out of it. The only part of my post directed at you was the "behind enemy lines" paragraph. The Red Sox are not a small market team. They are one of the elite franchises in all sports. They have plenty of revenue and they spend a lot of it. The problem is not how much they spend, but how they spend it. If teams like the Twins and the Rangers (which combined don't have the value of the Sox) have enough flexibility to fine tune their bullpens and rosters during the season, but the Sox don't, that doesn't add up for me. I don't expect the team to win every season, but when they don't win, I am not satisfied with the sole excuse being injuries. That just shows a lack of analysis. As someone who has been an ardent Sox fan for 45 years, I just can't latch onto that convenient excuse, and I am surprised that so many otherwise knowledgeable fans here take that view. It is something I would expect from the Pink Hat crew. BTW: I have never advocated that anyone be fired, not once... since Grady Little, but he had to go. I would have demoted Bogar to 1B during the season, but Ididn't advocate firing him.

I would have considered a plane crash to be an act of god, unless someone from the FO was piloting the plane and pilot error was involved. Whether the FO should have done more is a legitimate topic for discussion. That is a completely different discussion than whether it "could have" done things to improve the pen. The answer to that question is clearly yes. The Twins did it. Certainly the case for doing nothing was stronger at the trading deadline than in April. IMO, the bullpen was in bad shape when it left ST, and management knew it. I think they believed that a lot of the deficiencies would not be exposed because they expected more quality starts from the rotation. When the rotation started slowly, all of the warts of the bullpen were there for every one to see. I thought the problem should have been addressed early. Others disagree. The decision not to act contributed to the poor finish of the team. I think I am just stating fact in that regard,

All GMs are faced with these issues. If Theo has been presented with an uneven playing field, it is certainly one that is tilted in his favor. He is working for one of the premier franchises in all of sports. The fact that he has more advantages than most GMs should also be taken into account when evaluating his performance.

It is the highlighted portion of the question, that made me think it is snark. I am on record about some of the things I would do for 2011, and my opinion about 2010 have also been stated before.

More psycho analyzing? I may be wrong, but I don't think I have thrown around the word blame very much. There needs to be accountability whether or not there are explanations. What I read on this forum, is that we didn't make the playoffs because of injuries. That is how people are summing up the season. When I point out that our bullpen sucked as well as our defense (at the pitcher position in particular) and those issues are not related to injury, I am told that the bullpen failure was completely unforeseeable and the pitchers' fielding was Farrell's fault and we are well rid of him. When I go on to point out that the lousy bullpen was evident very early on when there was plenty of time to make adjustments, I am denigrated by being told that it was no great prediction on my part, but that it was basically too late to do anything in April to improve the pen without sacrificing the future. I point out that the Twins lost there All Star closer and they did a very nice job of building a solid pen, I am told that the Twins paid too much. It seems like there is one rationalization after another. When I have refuted all of your excuses, you guys see fit to characterize me as some meanie or hater. How juvenile. If you all weren't so intent on proving me wrong and just looked at the facts, you might realize that there were a lot of organizational failure last season, and that's why we didn't make the playoffs. For all the praise Tito got (and I love the guy) he bears some blame, because his coaches did a s***** job right down the line. They let the fundamentals in the field and on the bases go to hell. And yes the FO is accountable too. Injuries were a major factor in the teams' performance, but they did a poor job with building a bullpen and with shoring up an OF that needed shoring up in the first week of April when Cameron's abdomen tore open. They dropped the ball in certain aspects. That's all I am saying. Somehow, the "prove a700 wrong crowd" has turned that into me completely blaming the FO. That's just not true. The fact is that the injuries were not the only negative in our season. That's what I am saying. If you people don't agree with my view on this, that doesn't justify personal attacks and negative characterizations. That's really low rent stuff. If any of you have the stomach for it, maybe you should be assessing Theo's track record for building bullpens. I don't think it is that great but what do I know-- pointing out the facts regarding his record just makes me a hater ... Right? Finally BSN07, with regard to your crack about living behind enemy lines, how many Yankee fans do you have to endure during your daily life? I deal with them everyday, and the whining about injuries and bad luck is met with disdain. I don't even try it down here, and in those rare cases where a Yankee fan offers it to me as an excuse, I just say that injuries are part of the game and not an excuse. I will not whine to them.

Is there really a question here or just snark? One of the things I like about Theo is that he does stand up and take accountability. Since you are weighing in against me on this issue, but you have not asked me a serious question, I have a serious question for you. Theo is no longer the new kid on the block. He has an extensive body of work that we can judge. My question to you is how do you assess his track record in building a bullpen without all the qualifiers about bullpens being inconsistent etc. All GMs are faced with the same frustrations about relievers. How does his performance rate against his peers.

Does he have any dog in him like his brother? We don't need that.

... and more personal insults? Are you done?

"Some jerk" --more name-calling?

So, he's accountable, but with excuses? That's just whiny. It's not accountability. As for Schoenweiss, check the game logs. He was pitching very important innings, and he was not the 6th guy out of the pen in those games. He had no business being on any roster, never mind a roster that cost around $170 million.

I give up. Taking a team with the second highest payroll in baseball and ending up with the third worst bullpen and the second worst defense was just plain old bad luck. They caught some bad breaks.

The pen stunk when it left Ft. Myers. There was no excuse for that. Schoenweiss was pitching important innings. That's just not acceptable.

I agree with most of what you said, but breaking camp with Schoenweiss pitching important innings was a huge red flag that things were not good from the start.

Sometimes the facts alone are damning. A bullpen that was third from the bottom of the league and a defense that was next to last. Those are facts. No opinion or editorializing is necessary.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/Adrian-Beltre-and-Carl-Crawford-compare-well-with-all-time-greats-111410

Thank you for making my point for me. If I could make the observation that the bullpen sucked in April, it must also have been obvious to the FO. Yet, none of their moves over the next 5 months improved the situation. Bad job.

They didn't die or suffer some other freakish act of god. They just sucked. Who gets the blame for stocking a roster with sucky players? Answer: The GM. Sorry but that is just the way it is.