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You can't sign them, you have to draft them, manage them intelligently through the minors and then resist the urge to trade them in haste just to try and make the playoffs. By the way, how'd you like the D played by Adam Everett last night? We could have saved ourselves big $$$ by not trading him for Jurassic Carl or we could have had Bagwell for 15 years instead of Captain Belch, Larry Anderson. Mike Boddiker for Brady Anderson and Curt Schilling? Eckstein was in the Sox system and was let go.

This just reeks of poor scouting and talent evaluation and the "have to win now" mentality. I realize that not every prospect works out in the long run but look at the A's today as well as their players all over the league. They figured it out as did Cleveland.

The Sox did okay with Kevin Millar (*2/3 years), Bill Mueller, Todd Walker, K-Horn (year one), Timlin, Embree (2/3 years) and Wells. Wells cost them good money but it was all incentive based and a great move by Theo. You win with guys like that. The Yankees did that with O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Knobloch, Brochus mixed in with some superstars and great pitching.

The Sox fans have to get over the fact that they cannot spend like the Yankees and they have a choice to make. Are they willing to play the game of having to be appeased for 86 years of failure or having gotten a wonderful WS are they willing to rebuild and contend for years? $100 million payroll can get you to the dance with some stars, role players and exciting young guys that make them a lot of fun to watch.

But, you can't hold onto every player you draft. Teams with high payrolls use their farm system to get high priced players. The key is to know which ones, and that's difficult. Oswalt, for example, was a 23rd round pick in '96. How many 23rd rounders even make it to the Big Show? Should we have kept Pavano instead of getting Petey? We sent Justin Duchscherer away for Mirabelli, but I think Mirabelli helped Wake.

You bring up Adam and Carl. Let's look at that. 2000 was a win now year. We had just won the ALDS and did win 1 game against the Yanks-- so we thought we would be able to build off that in 2000. Petey was in his prime and you need a dominant pitcher for a short playoff series, we had Nomar coming off a year when he won the batting title and then repeated the feat, Derek Lowe doing a fine job closing games, and Carl did what he was brought in to do-- .959 OPS and 34 homers. As a GM you have to look at your team and go for it sometimes-- go all in.

This just reeks of poor scouting and talent evaluation and the "have to win now" mentality. I realize that not every prospect works out in the long run but look at the A's today as well as their players all over the league. They figured it out as did Cleveland.

Yes, look at them. Look at their glorious postseason success recently...

It's not a fluke that the Yanks make the playoffs year after year. Or that we usually do. Or, the Angels. You talk about the Bagwell trade. How smart were the Stros to give up so much for a rental of the Big Useless? You think they could have used Freddy Garcia and Carlos Guillen in 2004-- with that team that had a 3-2 lead over the Cards? They might be seeking out a repeat WS championship this year.