Crossroads

[cornball]

In reading PalehoseGeorge's approaches to building a team, you have to consider this. This year the Sox are at a crossroad. They are in a division, where their top competitors are getting weaker. While the Sox best players are coming back form a what....84 win team.

The cross road is do you try to win now...by trading the surplus in the outfield, selected prospects, and several pitchers (hopefully Howry) to have a chance now.

OR do you constantly hope your minor league keeps producing prospects, which more than half never turnout to be as advertised..continue to mediocre and prolong the 85 year wait. Then blame the fans for not supporting the team ....in the stadium we built for JR.

My view is show an effort you want to win every year, show us you will treat each year as the last year for baseball. If the Sox do they will be rewarded.

I do not see a plan, I do not see the master plan on what they are trying to do to build a championship. Very few teams win with more than 1 rookie in prominent roles on a team. This team for decades have always had a backlog of one dimensional DH type players, with no where to put in the field. If they decide to go with young pitchers, as has been the case, you need to support that with defense......someone tell me the plan...and dispite this we are close to being a contender...

[czalgosz]

Who specifically do you think the Sox should trade for to push them over the top?

[voodoochile]

Originally posted by cornball
In reading PalehoseGeorge's approaches to building a team, you have to consider this. This year the Sox are at a crossroad. They are in a division, where their top competitors are getting weaker. While the Sox best players are coming back form a what....84 win team.

The cross road is do you try to win now...by trading the surplus in the outfield, selected prospects, and several pitchers (hopefully Howry) to have a chance now.

OR do you constantly hope your minor league keeps producing prospects, which more than half never turnout to be as advertised..continue to mediocre and prolong the 85 year wait. Then blame the fans for not supporting the team ....in the stadium we built for JR.

My view is show an effort you want to win every year, show us you will treat each year as the last year for baseball. If the Sox do they will be rewarded.

I do not see a plan, I do not see the master plan on what they are trying to do to build a championship. Very few teams win with more than 1 rookie in prominent roles on a team. This team for decades have always had a backlog of one dimensional DH type players, with no where to put in the field. If they decide to go with young pitchers, as has been the case, you need to support that with defense......someone tell me the plan...and dispite this we are close to being a contender...

Personally, I don't expect the Sox to go out and spend tons of extra money. I wish we could, but it just isn't there. Some of that fault DOES lie with the fans who pack the park to a tune of 20K/game. If we were drawing 40K/game it would be an additional $50 million a year to spend on players. Given the financial constraints the Sox are doing the next best thing - building from the minors and tweaking the team with veteran presences to put them over the top at the right time. Last year they tried to acquire an ace and a defensive minded SS to fix some problems from the year before. Unfortunately fate handed them a rash of injuries (including the ace), the SS turned out to be a headcase (should have seen that one coming) and the team floundered. This year with the additional depth created by the year of practice all the young players got there seems to be less a need for major acquisitions, but the Sox still went out and got an inning eating pitcher who appears to be ready to take the next step and (hopefully) become dominant. WIth the return of all of the injured players, the Sox should be deep, more experienced and talented. While it probably is NOT enough to win it all this year (barring Cy Young performances from Buerhle, Ritchie and Garland (or Wright or Glover or etc...) AND bust-out rookie seasons from Borchard and Crede), they are well positioned for a 5 year run/window.

If the fans start coming out more (no one on this board is implied here, as I assume people here spend the money they can afford to on the Sox) then the Sox will be able to make some moves in the years to come to push this team to point "C" (I've been reading the WSI dictionary). Will it happen? I don't know what you think - what I think is expressed in my signature.