Just Saying..

Remember on December 6, 2010, when the Red Sox got Adrian Gonzalez from the Padres for Casey Kelly, Raymond Fuentes, Eric Patterson, and Anthony Rizzo? Seemed like a great idea at the time. And it still could be. But we let catcher Victor Martinez sign with the Tigers go, and we let Adrian Beltre go to the Rangers as well. You know what those two teams have in common, right? They are both in the postseason. In fact, Adrian Beltre hit three home runs today to propel the Rangers into the ALCS. Again- it is the second year the Rangers have made it into the ALCS. And it is the second year in a row the Red Sox haven't made the playoffs. Now imagine if we had never signed Carl Crawford, kept Victor Martinez, and used the excess $$ to get a better fielding left fielder, and plug in V-Mart into the Red Sox lineup. Keep in mind that Martinez hit .330 this year, almost 80 points better than Crawford. We could have used Beltre this year because Youkilis was hurt for almost half the season. We would have saved about 100 million dollars had we not signed Crawford. Could that $$ have been used for a starter? Maybe even Cliff Lee? Maybe. Or some bullpen help- the bullpen was atrocious in September. But no. None of this happened. We got Crawford and Adrian. Crawford had a bad season, and even though Adrian put up some great numbers, he faltered big-time in September. I'm not putting the blame on Theo. He is arguably the best general manager in baseball. He couldn't see how bad Crawford would be, or how John Lackey would have caused incidents inside the clubhouse or throw a hissy-fit when Francona takes him out. Now Francona is gone, and Martinez and Beltre are both in the post season. Just another bunch of 'what if's' in the Red Sox' history. What if they had went 9-18 in September? They would have made the post-season, and avoid the most catastrophic collapse in September history. The Rays were eliminated today. Would they have made it farther than them? Doesn't matter. Time to look towards the future. Since Tito stepped down already, Theo and the Red Sox management have started to look for his replacement. Tito was the second winning-est Red Sox manager. From 2004-2011, he notched 744 wins, compared to just 552 losses. He led the Red Sox to two pennants and two world series, and the team reached 90 wins in 6 of his 8 seasons. He will be dearly missed. No one knows who will fill his spot.