A Lose-Lose Situation

Every so often, there is a transaction or situation where both parties can claim victory. More often than not, one side will win, and the other side will lose. And still, there are those transactions and situations where both sides lose out. The latter situation is what the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox presently have.

First, the Cubs angle. They can point to the fact that Theo Epstein won two World Series rings with the Red Sox during his tenure. Yes, he did get those rings, but the fact of the matter is that he did not truly put those teams together. The core of the 2004 Red Sox team was put together by Dan Duquette, a man most commonly remembered for saying that Roger Clemens was done after allowing him to leave as a free agent following the 1996 season. Yes, Theo made the trade to get rid of Nomar, bringing in Doug Mientkiewicz and Orlando Cabrera, but who is to say that Duquette would not have made a similar move? Yes, trading Nomar when they did took balls, but Duquette was not afraid to make a huge splash either.

Then there is the 2007 championship. There were still a number of holdovers from that 2004 team, with the biggest additions being Josh Beckett and Mike Lowell. Both of those happened to come over during ap oint in time when Theo was not with the Sox, having infamously left in a power struggle with Larry Lucchino (more on him later).

So what has Theo actually done? He gets a lot of credit for rebuilding the Red Sox farm system, but a lot of the players that came up during his tenure and stayed with the Sox were, once again, Duquette draft picks. He did manage to sign such notable free agents as Julio Lugo, John Lackey, J.D. Drew, Matt Clement, Edgar Rentaria, Mike Cameron, Bobby Jenks, Carl Crawford, and Daisuke Matsuzaka however. Oh, wait. Those guys sucked. Where did he get that genius label from again?

Now he’s off to the Cubs, calling them the ‘ultimate challenge’. He’s brought over his guy, Jed Hoyer, to be the GM. The Cubs will now be run according to his ‘organizational philosophy’, which involves valuing draft picks over free agents. Over the past nine years, the Sox have had 32 first round and sandwich draft picks (mmmm…..sandwich….). The Cubs, meanwhile, have been dead last with 16. This will change, for better or for worse. At least he can’t be as bad as that previous waste of space they had a GM, Jim Hendry.

Now to the Red Sox.

Part of why Theo left the Sox was that he no longer would have to deal with Larry Lucchino, a man that is roughly as pleasant to deal with as a CarrotTop stand-up routine. Lucchino and Epstein had been in a power struggle pretty much since the beginning, leading the Sox to essentially have two voices trying to shout each other down. Larry would manipulate the public relations side of the team to whatever he felt his agenda was, while Theo would just ignore his verdicts sent down from on high. Yeah, that’s a great situation to be around.
Now that Theo is gone, Larry wins his personal war. But are the Red Sox better for it? For all his faults, Epstein did have a long term organizational view at heart. He truly did what he felt was right to put together a winning franchise on the field. Lucchino, being one of the owners of the team, even if he is a minority owner, is more concerned with filling Fenway with customers and getting ratings on NESN than he is with the won-loss record. If people tune in, why would he care if the Sox win or not?

Lucchino is also, by all accounts, a filthy rat. He is not a man to be trusted whatsoever, unless you want to find a knife protruding from your back. Given the history of the Red Sox in recent years of ripping people as they leave the organization, you can see why most people would trust Lucchino as far as they can throw him.
Now that slimy weasel has control of the Red Sox. Yes, Ben Cherington has been named as the Red Sox new GM, but it’s really going to be Lucchino pulling the strings from behind the scenes. This promises to be a train wreck. Since the Red Sox clubhouse is already in shambles, the team chemistry is atrocious, and the fan base is almost in meltdown mode, how can things get worse?

Well, for starters, they can do what they did and give Lucchino the keys. A person with zero experience making actual roster decisions now having what is essentially the final say over everything in a major market with seemingly unlimited  money to spend? Sounds a lot like what the Yankees were over the mid 1980′s to mid 1990′s. Welcome to bloated payrolls, short sighted signings, and a losing record for years to come. The GM and manager’s positions promise to be a revolving door, but who cares as long as people pack the ballpark and sing to Sweet Caroline?

Both teams lose in this situation. And both teams will continue to lose on the field for a long time.