FredLynn

Here are the FA 3B available after next year: Third Basemen Geoff Blum Miguel Cairo Brandon Inge * Maicer Izturis Chipper Jones * Kevin Kouzmanoff Placido Polanco * Mark Reynolds * Scott Rolen Mark Teahen Ty Wigginton * David Wright * Kevin Youkilis * And here are the available FA SP. Its a pretty good list. We ought to wait until then to pursue a very good SP and consider next year to be a rebuilding year. We need it: Starting Pitchers Scott Baker * Joe Blanton Matt Cain Fausto Carmona * Kevin Correia John Danks Jorge De La Rosa * R.A. Dickey * Scott Feldman * Gavin Floyd * Zack Greinke Jeremy Guthrie Cole Hamels Dan Haren * Tim Hudson * Colby Lewis Francisco Liriano Kyle Lohse Derek Lowe Shaun Marcum Daisuke Matsuzaka Brandon McCarthy Brett Myers * Carl Pavano Jake Peavy * Anibal Sanchez Jonathan Sanchez Ervin Santana * Joe Saunders James Shields * Jake Westbrook * Randy Wolf * Carlos Zambrano *

Its too soon for me to make enemies here..........

I just don't see it the way you do Forsythe. I understand where you are coming from, but I think that if you add up ALL of the pieces its just not as rosy a picture as you paint. In a small market he would not even have had access to some of the "finds". He would have had to rely much more heavily on his farm system, much of which he is not even responsible for (as someone mentioned earlier, he hires guys to do that job). Without as many FA finds his record would be even worse than it was here. With the Red Sox he was given a huge budget and squandered much of it. It didn't have to be that way if he were a better judge of FA talent. He isn't. He gets a "C" from me. Sorry.

And he is going to have company. The very best way for the fans to express their displeasure is to boycott opening day. If no improvement is seen, no apologies issued, more boycotts. The owners under$tand that language be$t of any language.

Go ahead. Total it up. Maybe I made a calculation error. And I got your point. He is still very poor judge of FA talent IMO. FREE AGENTS Finds DH David Ortiz (2003, 1 year, $1.2 million) INF Bill Mueller (2002, 2 years, $4.5 million) RHP Keith Foulke (2004, 3 years, $20.2 million) LHP Hideki Okajima (2006, 2 years, $2.5 million) RHP Takashi Saito (2009, 1 year, $1.5 million) 3B Adrian Beltre (2010, 1 year, $9 million) RHP Alfredo Aceves (2011, I year, $650,000) Busts SS Edgar Renteria (2004, 4 years, $40 million) RHP Matt Clement (2004, 3 years, $25.8 million) SS Julio Lugo (2006, 4 years, $36 million) RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka (2006, 6 years, $52 million plus $51 million posting fee) RHP Brad Penny (2008, 1 year, $5 million) RHP John Smoltz (2009, 1 year, $5.5 million) RHP John Lackey (2009, 5 years, $82.5 million) OF Mike Cameron (2009, 2 years, $15.5 million) RHP Bobby Jenks (2 years, $12 million)

I don't think that its realistic to expect Beckett to be going anywhere. We could certainly use a pitcher that is better than Beckett/Lester. Those kinds of pitchers will become available after next season. This year should be a rebuilding year. We ought to be positioning ourselves for a run in 2013. If I were the new GM I would tell Beckett that he needs to apologize publicly for his role in the antics that went on this year and that he needs to promise publicly that it won't be repeated and that he will be working his butt off make amends for his bad behavior. If he did that I would be willing to give him a second chance.

DiceK is ours for one more year, but he isn't expected back until August. I doubt we will see him on the mound for us again.

The good players cost a total of $39.55M; the bad players cost a total of $325.30M. That is not a good track record.

Wikipedia defines ace as follows: In baseball, an ace is the best starting pitcher of any team THIS YEAR, statistically, Beckett was much better than Lester. I would consider Beckett to have been our ace this year, though I don't regard either guy as a top tier pitcher in the class of Sabathia or Verlander or a few others. Those are the guys we need to take the pressure off Beckett and Lester.

Another thing about Scutaro that is not true about many other players on the team: he is willing to go out and play when he is not 100% healthy. Solid guy; not spectacular, but solid. BTW: Iglesias may never be ready for the majors if he cannot hit the baseball far better than what he has shown so far. Scutaro may be here for a while.

I think thats probably true: the GM has to rely on his scouts for young talent. Epstein must have had some good ones, and the Rays have better ones. Still, big ticket FA acquisitions I am certain get approved and worked out by the GM. It is in that arena that I have a problem with his results.

Look, I am not disputing Epstein's record with draft picks. I admit its pretty good. What I am saying is that a GM that misappropriates nearly a third of a billion dollars of his budget is not a very good GM.

That is not factually correct. Beckett was the ace of the staff this year, if we had an ace. Beckett: 13-7, 2.89 Lester: 15-9, 3.47

Justify that. What realistic moves could be made to make us competitive for a WS ring next year. I don't see it. Too much deadwood, too many bad contracts, and not enough talented starting pitching in the FA market this year.

The only way Epstein made good for the team is by a combination of his draft choices, trades, and the "finds" he obtained. The problem is that the "finds" are so far outnumbered by his "busts" that it makes his record here ludicrous. Its over an 8:1 dollar ratio in favor of busts. In a smaller market he would not have had the opportunity to get any "finds", or far fewer, and those he thought were finds were likely busts anyway and would bankrupt his team. What exactly has he done for the Red Sox since 2007? Cameron? Lackey? Crawford? Our minor league system? Nope. All of these are in sad shape. Even his prize acquisition, Gonzalez, failed to come through this year against all the good teams except Texas. In short, he has done NOTHING for us lately. Thats why the owners let him leave.

You are right. That was opinion, not fact.

Bowden was a first round pick, the 47th overall pick, in the 2005 draft. They got Shields in the 8th round, I believe. Friedman is a much better evaluator of talent than Epstein ever was. Michael Bowden Michael Matthew Bowden Position: Pitcher Bats: Right, Throws: Right Height: 6' 3", Weight: 215 lb. Born: September 9, 1986 in Winfield, IL (Age 25) High School: Waubonsie Valley (Aurora, IL) Drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 1st round (47th pick) of the 2005 amateur draft. Signed June 24, 2005. (All Transactions) By the way, Epstein picked Craig Hanson ahead of Bowden that year, at #26. That sure worked out well.

NYY record since 2004: 771-525 (.595 ball, or 96 wins season ave) Boston Red Sox record since 2004: 744-552 (.574 ball or 93 wins per season ave) The Yankees have missed the playoffs once since 2004; we have missed the playoffs three times. Even the Rays have played more playoff games than we have over the past five years. There is no cogent arguement that we have been as successful as the Yankees since Epstein arrived, even though we have two rings to their one. Epstein had little to do with Ramirez and Beckett being on the team, the two key components of both rings. Friedman and Beane are both far better GMs than Epstein IMO. They have a long track record of developing great pitchers. If you like I can review for you how those staffs have done over the past several years compared to our home grown pitchers. Its not close. With one of our first round picks, Epstein chose Bowden; Friedman chose Price with one of his, for example. The ONLY reason the A's and Rays are not multiple ring winners is the money available to their GMs. I realize that this logic will not persuade folks like you, and thats fine. Believe what you like. Lets see how he does with the Cubs.