grandsalami wrote:

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totheights wrote:

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Bury the Hammer wrote:

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I don't get it.

If it hasn't been made abundantly clear yet, it is simple. Our owners are being cheap this offseason. The bottom line is more important than the win totals.

are sox fans really that spoiled that we can't handle ONE year of not making big FA signings? the yankees did the same last year. and the last few BIG FA signings have not turned out well. Lakcey (no) Jenks (no) dice-k (no) CC (no so far). the last two off seasons we broke the bank, and still didn't make the playoffs

But that's not what the real complaining is about.  I don't think anybody here expected the Sox to blow big bucks on Mark Buerhle or CJ Wilson.  That's understandable.  It would have been great if the Sox had gone after a young ace like Darvish, but the Sox didn't want to make a big commitment.  Don't like that, but ok.

So it's obvious the Sox need another starter.  Oswalt and Kuroda are out there for short-term money.  Yet the Sox can't sign one of them UNLESS they trade another contract?  Really?

So today the Sox robbed Peter to pay Paul.  The Sox better sign Oswalt after this, but even if they do, SS, a key position, will be a mess.

And the one thing here that everybody seems to take for granted is the offense.  The first five hitters in the lineup were awesome (Youks was good, but is capable of being awesome when healthy), but after that it was weak.  Scutaro, who in my opinion should have been batting 2nd with Pedroia in the cleanup spot in last Sept, was one of the better SS around.  So now he's gone.

That leaves a bottom 4 of Sweeney, Crawford (assuming he's out a short time), Salty, and Aviles/Punto.  That's 3 guys who will most likely fail to get on base 30% of the time.  That's likely to hurt an offense.  And then you have to assume that Ortiz will be as good as he was last year and that Youks will be on the field more often next year.  You have to pray that Crawford remembers the player he was in Tampa.  Sweeney has very little power and it'll be awhile before Kalish is ready and can establish himself as an asset.  I wouldn't expect that until 2013.   The point is that the offense will most likely not be the "juggernaut" it was last year.

So if they get Oswalt, that should give the pitching the help it needs.  But this is what I don't get.  In a business, if your revenue generates your expenses by a great deal as it does with the Sox, that means you're operating at a massive profit, so to me, it looks like the Sox ownership is more concerned with keeping the massive profit than with maximizing the teams' chance to win.

I mean are the Sox better with Oswalt/Floyd as a pitcher and drek at SS or are they better off with Oswalt/Floyd as a needed pitcher and stability at SS with Scutaro?  Obviously the latter.  It would have cost them somewhere near $10 extra million dollars at a short-term commitment.  We're not talking some long John Lackey/Carl Crawford mega contract here.  We're talking relative peanuts for an organization that charges the highest priced tickets in baseball.  That's what irritates me.

And then who did the Sox get for Scutaro?  A lousy pitcher.  My expectation is that Aviles will get first crack at the position, will hit .265 with a .285 OBP and mediocre defense and will be replaced by Punto who won't hit, but would at least be a major league SS defensively.  It won't take long before SS is seen as a liability and rushing Iglesias in won't help the situation.  Maybe the Sox would spend a few bucks for Ryan Theriot?

Anyways, the remaining aggravation centers around a team that choked big-time last Sept and if you look at that team that walked off the field and the team they are now (even assuming they sign Oswalt), it's not really an improved ballclub.