1) I said "arguably" ...the best.
2) Getting rid of CC alone for nothing made it a top 5 Sox trade. Beckett was apparently a cancer and went 8-14 in 2.3 yrs in LA. As it turned out, even the AGon part of the deal worked out for us. He ended up with a .793 OPS while making big money.
3) It wasn't ever about what we got back, although Webster and DLR were viewed as decent young pitcher. It was about freeing up budget space, and Ben spent wisely on Vic, Uehara, Napoli and Drew and there's no way we win the ring in 2013 without that trade and those signings. (True, we didn't trade for those guys, but the trade made their signings possible.)
4) I have no issue with calling the Pedro trade the best ever, and maybe even the Schilling trade second best, but I rank the Dodger dump an all time top 3 Sox deal with a significant case to be made it was number one.