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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.

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.

No, you can't hold all of them but the "rent a player to win now" is short sighted and you pay for it later with signing top players for bigger bucks later in the careers. This has been the shortcoming of the Sox over the years and the Yankees have failed the last several years as well.

I think that you will see fewer mistakes like Jenks and Oswalt happening as power arms are at such a premium. Even if a guy can't start for lack of a good 3rd pitch (Oswalt's performance last night was amazing in light of the fact he wasn't using his curve much) if he can rear back and crank it out with a decent #2 pitch, he can be a real valuable part of your pen.

Pedro was in his prime....that was the steal of a lifetime. He was in his mid-20's, had won a Cy Young and Montreal needed to dump payroll.

Carl Everett was a guy with real problems who for all his hitting talent was a club house cancer. Like I said, scouting.

Roger Clemens in the twilight of his career? Another Sox mistake. With him and Pedro they could have gone to a series.

Also, scouting has changed a lot as well thanks to the A's and the new mentality in scouting. Guys who throw hard and can throw strikes will be sought after. Just because he looks good on the beach with a 6'-3" frame and weighs 230 lbs will not get you a high draft spot. Mental make up also means more.

Think what the A's could have been with Tejada, Giambi and Damon in their line up with Isringhausen in their pen. (Yeah, Giambi cheated but he was always an amazing OBP guy) Look at what they got for Mulder and Hudson (trades forced due to lack of $$$) and look at the pen that they have and all of it done with a budget with no room for errors. They were winning 98-100 games a year with a payroll 1/2 of the Sox a few years ago.

The Angels win with pitching and if you look at their system they are in a great place. Yes, they could afford Colon and Vlad but they still scout well. The Mets, meanwhile, spend huge money and still manage to suck every year due to wasting money on guys late in their careers just to try and keep up with the Yankees.

I agree that sometimes you need to go all in when you have the parts in place. But, I like what Theo did this year in not trading Papelbon, Annibel Sanchez, Youk or other promising guys just to try and win today at the expense of tomorrow. He'll have money to sign a big bat or take on a rent a player when needed while doing it the way the Yankees did in the 90's.