Mistakes were made... 30 of them as a matter of fact A wanted ad in this weeks Globe:
Local Baseball team seeks replacement player for short-stop position. Talented fielders a MUST!! Good hitting skills recommended. Taking all qualified applicants NOW!*
*Nomar need not apply
I have no idea what’s going on in the minds of the hydra that now runs the Red Sox front office. It seems that constant motion is a goal of theirs. Exit Edgar Renteria. Rent, we hardly knew ye (and never liked ye). Best known for making the last out of the Red Sox 2004 World Series victory over the Cardinals, Rent was a total bust as a pickup. Theo was riding HIGH with the victory and made a few too many changes before the 2005 season and Rent was the poster boy for this problem. Fellow Columbian Orlando Cabrera was well liked, cheaper, younger and juuuuust a bit shorter in the talent department. At least that’s what the common wisdom said at the time. Now we are a year removed and Renteria and his 30 errors looks like the biggest blown signing since Jose Offerman. I loved Theo as a GM and would even love to have him back now, but this whole short-stop fiasco was a mistake. In fact, it was a 4 year and $40 million mistake that is now being covered with $11 million in whiteout. At least the Sox are getting a GREAT third base prospect in return. Mike Lowell and Kevin Youklis were sleeping too soundly anyway. As for the hole in SS? Well it matches the one in center(thanks Boras), left field(maybe), first base and in the bullpen. WOO HOO!
My biggest question is that what if this is the start of a massive rollback of all the work Theo did in his tenure as GM? Rent is gone, Wells is on his way out and Clement is being verbally added to every deal the “GM by committee” team makes. They might leave him as a tip when they pay the hotel bill for the winter meetings. I know the idea of erasing the work Theo did in 2005 sounds a little farfetched, but if Lowe, Nomar and Dave Roberts are sitting with the team in Florida this spring… well you heard it here first.
It looks like Bill (the Pro) Mueller is going to be back with Grady Little in LA. The Dodgers offered him and his dead man knees a 2 year deal. Good for him. I wish him the best (oh and thanks for the draft picks).
Also on the bus out of town is everyone’s favorite lefty specialist and Wayne’s World front man, Mike Myers. He signed with the Yankees for 2 years and will join the ranks of Embree and Bellhorn as “guys who won in Boston and decided to sell their souls”. I just hope he didn’t pay much attention while David Ortiz was at the plate. I think he’s going to face him about 10,000 times next year.
One final note: Eric and I went to Union Square to see Bill Simmons sign his book Now I Can Die in Peace : How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank, and the 2004 Red Sox. It’s a great collection of his Sox columns over the years with some added comments they wouldn’t let him make on ESPN.com. Meeting Simmons was neat. He did about a 25 minute Q&A (he was 20 minutes late) and then went into signing the books and chatting with fans. Apparently, he was really against the breaking up of the World Series team and feels like too much tinkering was done with the chemistry. He is a great writer and funny guy, but was MUCH more of a nerd than I thought he would be. Not that it's a bad thing. Some of my best friends… well you know.
GO SOX
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