Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Ben?? Jed??? Larry?? Bueller??
The Red Sox front office simply needs to be a lot more proactive and smarter. While I agree that the Sox shouldn't pay Damon that kind of dough, continuing to lose our key players on the open market is a symptom of a fatal flaw that exists within this front office.
Once again, the Sox waited to genuinely and sincerely negotiate with a player until he reached the open market (Low ball, token offers don't count), and the result was predictably disasterous for the Olde Towne Team.In ALL cases, this ownership group has either had to pay more than they would have if they had just locked the guy up the year before his deal expired(See Tek), scramble to overpay another team's free agent to make up for the loss of their own (See Error Renteria), or simply lost the player with nothing to show for him (See Pedro, Lowe, etc.).
Hey, they even did it to their hero G.M..
Dan Duquette was ripped for exactly the same thing when Clemens and Vaughn walked and left the Sox with nothing in return. In most cases, it simply makes no sense to wait; sign 'em or deal 'em. This isn't the NFL; draft picks don't come close to being any significant return. This team tried to hire Billy Beane; Even with much less leverage due to a limited payroll, Billy is able to get value back for his soon to be free agent stars. The Sox F.O. could learn a lot from him.
-Red Sox Hub
