He would hqave been able to go deep into games in that stretch. Something that "The Ultimate Loser" and others could not do. When combined with Schilling and Beckett, Arroyo's talent to eat innings may have taken some heat off the pen. Look at the 2005 pen with Harville, Remlinger and other assworted crap. It was no better than the '06 bullpen. In fact the '06 bullpen was probably worse as it didn't have a dominant closer. Yet Arroyo won 14 in '05. There's no reason to believe that he wouldn't have won 10-15 this year for the Sox. The bullpen sucked, but the snowball started rolling downhill when starters couldn't get past the 4th or 5th inning on a daily basis.
You have really gone over the edge if you think Loretta has killed the '06 Sox. I guess the terrible starting pitching and bullpen had nothing to do with it, or replacing Damon's stick with Crisp's, or another half-year from Nixon, or Varitek's .240 avg. and injury. You lose credibility with ridiculous remarks like that.
I agree that Pedroia should be playing in these games, but Loretta is hardly a scrub. If everyone in te lineup had been as consistent as Loretta, the team would have been better off. There were a lot of things wrong with the '06 Sox, but Loretta was not one of the problems.
I thought he was a bad signing, but not as bad as Seanez who I considered to be a waste. Tavarez was in the running for the DFA contest for a while with Seanez especially after that game where he blew up and almost threw away a game only to be saved by a play at the plate for the final out. He has earned some kudos taking the ball as a starter when everyone elese was crapping out in that role.