Bob Ryan has a column today in which he notes how we should give credit not just to Henry/Lucchino/Epstein for this team, but also to Harrington, Yawkey, Duquette and Gorman:
it’s not as if prior Sox regimes weren’t trying. One thing has been true since that day in 1933 when Yawkey bought the floundering Red Sox: The aim here has been to win. Yawkey tried desperately to win. Haywood Sullivan tried to win. Harrington tried to win. (Link)
The key word is “tried”. (And I’m not sure it counts as trying “desperately” to win when you make your team the last team to integrate in the AL.) To illustrate his point, Ryan credits Duquette with getting Pedro, Manny, Johnny Damon, Tim Wakefield, Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek, and Doug Mirabelli. That’s selective memory. If I’m going to give Duquette credit for Lowe/Tek for Slocumb, and I do - it’s one of the great trades - I also apportion blame for Mike Lansing, Darren Lewis, Jose Awfulman, and Tony Clark. And that’s just off the top of my head. GMs get judged on their overall record, not just on the hits that will inevitably come their way. (Even a spoilt clock gets it right twice a day, that sort of thing.) Plus, Pedro-Manny-Damon are all great players, and their general goofball attitude is one of the things I love about the Sox, but it’s not like Duquette got them at a steal - does “highest paid pitcher” and “$20 million a year” mean anything?
Sure, Theo Epstein’s made some bad trades and deals (Kim last year was a great trade, but $10 million for 2 years is kind of puzzling; Jeremy Giambi, ugh), but in a short span of time, he’s filled out the rest of the lineup so that someone like Bill Mueller is batting 8th or 9th. Bill Mueller, just one year removed from a batting title.
By way of comparison, I present the ALDS lineup in 1999:
Jose Offerman 2B
John Valentin 3B
Brian Daubach DH
Nomar Garciaparra SS
Troy O’Leary LF
Mike Stanley 1B
Jason Varitek C
Darren Lewis CF
Trot Nixon RF
And a pitching rotation that was Pedro, Saberhagen, Mark Portugal, Pat Rapp, and Brian Rose. To quote a wise philosopher: “Bleargh”. Face it, the Sox’s market is such that it has thus far always been a team with money, and will usually be able to get good players and field a decently competitive team. Much as I love that ‘99 team for making me a full convert to Sox fanhood, it pales in all categories - offense, defense, pitching - to this year’s.