FredLynn

I could not care less what level of credibility I have with you. Why should I? Furthermore, I think this henpecking between you and me has gone far enough. I think we should stick to baseball and try to at least tolerate one another, if not ignore one another. I understand where I stand with you; I trust the reverse is also true.

Gee, 10 games. Do you think I JUST MIGHT have been referring to starting for the team? Or did that along with everything else I have tried to teach you slip past your confused brain.

I am always happy to educate those who are less educated. Stick around...you might learn something.

We are middle of the pack, at best. Both of our major competitors in the ALE rank far ahead of us. If middle of the pack is "good" then sure, we have a "good" farm system. I prefer top third or better before I call it "good". http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/10/2011-farm-system-rankings/ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/834247-mlb-power-rankings-rating-every-mlb-farm-system#/articles/1071951-mlb-free-agency-grading-every-teams-offseason-heading-to-spring-training

Right now our minor league system does not contain the kind of talent that will produce impact players in the majors. Who is really down there that will make the same impact as Ellsbury and Youkilis and Bard right now? When Theo left he left us a minor league system that is severely lacking.

Like I said, he gets partial credit for the 2004 team. Not full credit; partial credit. He also gets full credit for everyone on the list of failed FA acquisitions I presented. I expect better from our GM.

Sorry. I reserve the right to defend myself here. If SFF can't stand the heat, he shouldn't have started the fire.

Then put me on ignore. Both of us will feel better.

Ah...the old "run prevention" theory again. How did that work out a couple of years ago for us when Theo signed Mike Cameron to defend against runs? Nonsense. Ever read "Moneyball"? The data Billy Beane used to create all those winning teams disregarded "run prevention" and still managed to win 95+ games a year until everyone else caught on to those theories too. Jose Iglesias has played 10 games for the Red Sox and in your mind he is already Ozzie Smith. Talk about rose colored glasses.... I realize this is way over your head to comprehend, but at least I am making an effort to explain it to you, right? As for being a talent evaluator, yes, I do think I could do it with the proper training and access to data. Its largely an educated guess anyway, a calculated crapshoot. Professionals can be wrong, and frequently are wrong. If your doctor tells you to drink a glass of hemlock to cure your acne, are you going to do it or are you going to question him? How about if he tells you to take echinacea for your cold? Learn to think for yourself. It will be a very liberating feeling for you.

I presented the data to support my opinion. I realize that others think he was better than I think he was here. I posted my next post (above) before I read yours. I admit that he was much better at drafting good players than most GMs. On another board I did an extensive review of how his draft picks did relative to other GMs, and his track record was pretty good in that regard. Only Friedman of Tampa Bay is superior to him (that I could find) in terms of the percentage of draft picks that made it to the majors. But there is more to being a GM than drafting well, and in the other areas he fell down. I would grade him a B+ for drafting, but a D for getting good FAs and a C for trades. So overall in my opinion he did C+ work for us. Not horrible, but not up to snuff either.

Just responding to this: You're actually being an incredibly annoying idiot right now Two can play the name-calling game, right? I NEVER start that game, but sometimes I play it when invited.

Then we will disagree about how good a GM Epstein was for this team. The fact of the matter is that he had relatively little to do with assembling the 04 championship team. He added a few key pieces; the rest were already there. His list of failures is extensive: Lugo, Renteria, Cameron, Clement, Smoltz, Penny, Gagne, Lackey, Matsusaka, Jenks, Pena, Kim, and so forth. He did well to get us Ortiz, Mueller, and Foulke, a trio who made 2004 possible. Thats just too many failures to be classified as a great GM-and it doesn't even count Crawford, who is being overpaid but may still perform decently one day. Look at the state he left us in: hamstrung by a series of long term contract in which we overpaid underperforming players and unable to spend the money on quality guys as he exited through the back door in shame. Instead we sign guys like Silva, Padilla, Germano, and Cooke to pitch for us because he bankrupted the budget. No, Theo Epstein is no Hall of Fame GM. He was a mediocre GM for a high budget team, and he was very fortunate to have the amount of money he had to spend. He was able to make mistakes and still win games because of his large budget. Showalter was right: he would likely fail in a small market area.

Epstein was regarded by some as a "talented baseball professional". Look how he left this franchise-laden with overpaid spoiled ineffective bums, to a large extent. The list of his failures is overwhelming; the list of his successes, slim. Yet he is one of those "experts". You too should learn to question anyone who calls himself an "expert". They are often wrong.

Forsythe said that "expert talent evaluators" are comparing him to Ozzie Smith. The discussion was not about his suitability for this year's roster. It was about comparing him to a Hall of Fame player. Sorry you cannot grasp that fact. There is NO comparison other than both players rely/relied on defense to make their contribution. So far Iglesias hasn't even done that. It is correct to say that he has POTENTIAL defensively because that is what he has showed us so far. He has NOT showed us that he is any kind of Ozzie Smith facsimile whatsoever. To compare the two is absurd.

Why should I do you any favors? You have a hard time differentiating Hall of Famers from rookies. With that kind of disability its hard to explain things logically. I never claimed to be an expert at baseball. But neither am I stupid. With proper training and access to data I could probably do just as good a job as some of these talent evaluators that you worship. All I am willing to grant Iglesias so far is that he shows some promise defensively. Thats it. Any more accolades represent hyperbole.

Coming from a moron such as yourself, I guess I could just disregard much of what you have to say. As usual, you are missing the point. If those marvelous talent evaluators are so gosh darn good, how come they are wrong so often? You have FAR too much blind respect for "professionals". What they do is not rocket science. They make educated guesses about who will succeed, based on numbers and observation-the same thing many of US could do if we had access to the same data and time to do it. Oh-and since you haven't been paying attention, I will say again, assuming you can read, that I think that the team is on the right track, overall. They have fired an incompetent manager and got rid of an incompetent GM. They jettisoned Wakefield and most likely Varitek. They hired a disciplinarian to fix the clubhouse. And while it will take a few years to fix what Epstein did to us, they are at least starting. I hope your expectations are not too high this year...oh wait...I couldn't care less about your expectations.

I agree with everything you wrote except the part about Varitek. I think that even if he didn't or couldn't stop the nonsense in the clubhouse last year, he should certainly have been first in line to apologize to RSN. I still haven't heard from him.

Your butt kissing of talent evaluators is sickening. They are often wrong, as Theo Epstein proved over and over again. As for Iglesias, there is really no need for him to play another game. We should elect him to the Hall of Fame right now, eh? After all, all the adulated talent evaluators have already proclaimed him to be the reincarnation of Ozzie Smith, right? Its nonsense, of course. Iglesias and Smith are/were all defense, no offense. Its plain stupidity to assume that some minor leaguer will become as good as Smith. Thats a long shot. Maybe we could wait and see him play for a small fraction of the 19 seasons Smith played (and, incidentally, won 13 GGs in those 19 years). Incidentally, while Smith had no power, he did finish with a career BA of .262. Iglesias in over 387 PAs in AAA hit just .235. Long Live King Jose!