The Sox did it to themselves. They put themselves in a fantastic position entering September, and then just fell apart. They played the same way and didn't seem to really have any sense of urgency whatsoever for an entire month. Pedroia, Ellsbury, Scutaro, Aviles, Aceves were pretty much the only ones who didn't have an integral part in the worst month in franchise history.

They sucked at base running (the entire season) and sucked at getting the main in from 3rd with less than two outs (the entire season). Throw in the worst starting pitching performance in MLB history for a month and you blow a 9 game lead.

Crawford probably should have made the catch in the 9th. If it either dives head on he makes the catch, or if he just short hops it the runner probably stays at 3rd but he got caught in between. He hit .280 after April, but will probably be torn to shreds over the next couple weeks. Guy is here to stay and he has got to improve. I would be stunned if he doesn't get back near/above career averages next year.

I gotta imagine we see coaching changes at minimum at 3B and pitching coach. Bogar cost the team a ridiculous amount of runs, and in some instances game entirely. Curt Young had a staff completely implode for 4 weeks and even if he didn't have much to do with it, someone gets the blame. He's the constant. I'd be surprised if Tito gets his option picked up. I think it's best for the Sox to part ways, similarly to after 2003 with the bum Little.

The only major upgrade we should see in the field is RF, and there's not much in terms of impact bats in the FA class. They need to make a move for pitching, and that starts with telling Wakefield thanks but no thanks. There's a deep but not very high end crop of pitchers on the FA market. Aside from CJ Wilson and Sabathia there aren't any top end guys. I could see the Sox trying to trade for someone, or picking up one of those mid end guys to fill out the back end of the rotation. Beckett, Lester, Buchholz is still a very solid 1/2/3 and outside of Philly it's the best in the bigs. Management needs to hit on more RP's than it did this year. Aceves was a fantastic bargain, Morales ending up being pretty good. But what we thought could be a strength (Wheeer, Jenks, etc.) turned into a mess with very few guys who were able to produce consistently good results.

That's enough for now. This one bits, it really does. But seeing a team not from the AL east winning the AL or a NL team winning the WS will make it just a bit easier.