While Theo has gotten off the hook, to a large degree, for the signings of Crawford and Lackey, which were supposedly due to "feeding the monster", he can't hide from the signings of JD Drew and Adrian Gonzales. The way they approach the game, and how much they don't fit the Boston market, shows that Theo relies on the make-up of a player as much as Bill James. Whether you "could play in the Boston market" never seemed to matter to Theo. Whatever Carmine told him he'd do. In Jason Bay you had a player that had to come into Boston and take Manny Ramirez' place and he was highly successful under difficult circumstances. So what did Theo do? He comes up with some bogus knee problem and Bay leaves for the Mets. Theo then signs Mike Cameron to a ridiculous deal, makes him the center fielder, and moves Ellsbury to left field where he gets run over and injured by Adrian Beltre, another player who proved he could play here who Theo let go to the Rangers where he seems to be playing well. This current disaster of a team is due to Theo's flawed player acquisition philosophy and ownership's meddling. Giving Bill James more of a say certainly won't help the Sox with respect to the judgement of a player's make-up. Expect more of the same going forward with John Henry's continued meddling. Go Pats!!

Congratulations, Dan. By the middle of August, 2011, I was really feeling so sorry for you. The Red Sox had a really good run going from 2004 until then....not everything was perfect during those years but the Sox were always in contention. Your writing during this span, not coincidentally, became worse and worse. Because as been well proven, you have no idea how to write about the Red Sox when things are going well for them. You need a negative situation, like this year's Red Sox team, to thrive. So, congratulations again, Dan. You are back in the saddle. Now, you can, once again, include in , at least, every other column of yours, the Boston Massacre, the curse of the Bambino, Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, Aaron Boone, and the collapse of September, 2011. Watch for it, people. Dan will never let us down. After all, he is the most negative sportswriter in Boston.

Good humor. These articles are a nostalgic throw back to an era gone by when dope slapping the Sox was second nature to all. Still getting a boot out of the Adrian “The Cooler’’ Gonzalez reference. For anyone who hasn't seen 'The Cooler', it's currently playing on cable TV. 26 cabs for 26 players anyone?

I figured that you and Schill went out for a beer and you picked up the tab because you felt sorry for him. 

No? 

Why do sportswriters continue to flog Ellsbury for missing so many games? We all know he was run down by a teammate and had ribs broken. He came back too soon and re-injured them. Broken ribs take a long time to heal, period. It's not as if he was slacking.

Ellsbury is 29, which is the age at which most baseball players hit their peak. So far, he has had one very good season, and four seasons that were below average. His lifetime OPS+ is 106, so he has been slightly (6%)above average as a hitter. His defense has saved an average of 3 runs per year so he is barely above average as a fielder. The Red Sox should offer him a contract that is slightly above what the average player would get. If they sign him for more than that, then they are wasting their money. In contrast, some of the pink hats have complained about Drew, but Drew posted OPS+ of 105, 138, 134, 109, and 67 with the Sox, and he had a career average of 125, which is much better than Ellsbury. Drew's hitting was almost as good as Jim Rice (OPS+ of 128), and he was a little bit better fielder too.