Most rankings have the Sox about 10th or 11th best farm, so I guess most pens are just horrible then. Pack it up everyone.
For the first time in a long time the Sox were actually able to bring up younger pitchers (Winckowski, Crawford, Bello) and there are others on the horizon that could bolster the pen next season (Mata, Bazardo, Murphy, German, Politi). There are even some longer shots like Thaddeus Ward who has pitched well since coming back from TJS and Ryan Zeferjahn who has been much better since converting to relief and reducing his pitch mix.
You could have posted this a few years ago and been right on the money, but I think you're a little off base at the moment.