Any next to nothing to spend this FO either

And I believe I warned you of that possibility every winter since 2005 when you were demanding that the team sign every and any big name free agent on the market, that there were limits to the team's budget and sooner or later going after big names was going to eat up that budget and when it did you'd still be demanding more signings even though there would be no money left to do so.

Like I've said Ken I realize now that the best way to build a team is through your farm system which is why I wanted to deal the likes of Beckett for prospects. Little did I know how bad he was going to get. Now we are either stuck with him or giving him away for next to nothing AND eating some salary. That signing SHOULD have been good. I can't believe how ROTTEN he has got. We have a couple more bad years {1 at least} ahead I'm afraid as a result of Theo's horrible deals. Ben has not shown me anything either though.

What exactly have you been wanting to see from Ben? With a very limited budget he was able to fill out the roster for the team this year, adding a very effective right handed hitting OFer to compliment the lefty heavy starting lineup out there, he built a very stable bullpen, and a decent starting rotation. What he couldn't have foreseen was what none of us could have foreseen, namely Beckett and Lester completely falling off a cliff this season. I'm not sure exactly what you think he could have done to prevent that.

So this is ALL on Beckett + Lester??

None on an average fielding .250ish hitting shortstop We traded ashortstop who hit .290 for us and played similiar D to get the RF you speak of.

None on a starting catcher who's D is awful and hits .220 with a zillion K's?

None on a 2B who is having a bad yr?

None on a closer with 6 or 7 blown saves and a 2-7 W/L?

I could go on and on

"None on an average fielding .250ish hitting shortstop We traded ashortstop who hit .290 for us and played similiar D to get the RF you speak of."

Yes, and that SS we traded is 36 years old this year, and now pretty much incapable of playing SS full time. So trading him, getting a decent reliever in the process and turning over the SS position to a player actually capable of playing it defensively and freeing up money to sign Ross seems like a pretty decent overall net for the team.

As for the rest of your list, you'll point out anything and everything you see as a deficiency. So what exactly was he supposed to do to prevent Pedroia from having an off year? As for Aceves, he was thrown into the closer role last minute because of a freak injury to Bailey. And even with that he's done a decent job as closer. Papelbon himself had as many blown saves a couple of years ago, so using ONLY that stat to judge Aceves is total BS and you know it.

Bottom line is all you're doing is your usual whining. Most of what has derailed the Sox this year were things that no one could have predicted or prepared for entering the season. The areas where there were definite needs were addressed. It's everywhere else that has been a problem all season long.

Actually you're right, it's not all on Beckett and Lester. Pedroia and Gonzalez are having down years and Ellsbury has contributed next to nothing so far. And again, how is that the fault of the GM? I'm sure you in your infinite wisdom saw that coming.

Combined those five, plus Crawford, Lackey, and Daisuke, are being paid over $105 million this season.

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Edited 8/13/2012 1:17 pm ET by DuhWINNING

To further illustrate this for Randy, here are the top 10 players in terms of salary for the Sox this year:

Gonzalez, Adrian $21,857,143
Crawford, Carl $20,357,143
Beckett, Josh $17,000,000
Lackey, John $15,950,000
Ortiz, David $14,575,000
Matsuzaka, Daisuke $10,333,333
Pedroia, Dustin $8,250,000
Ellsbury, Jacoby $8,050,000
Lester, Jon $7,625,000
Bailey, Andrew $3,900,000

Of those 10 players 4 have underperformed expectations entering this year (Beckett, Lester, Pedroia and Gonzalez) and 5 have missed over half the season (Crawford, Lackey, Matsuzaka, Ellsbury, and Bailey). Add in another $12.5 million of ineffectiveness and injury from Youk before he was traded to clear room for Middlebrooks and that's your recipe for a $175 million payroll and a sub-.500 team. And now that Ortiz has missed the majority of a month of play himself he may need to be added into the "not getting their money's worth" list as well.

The Sox would have needed Harry freakin Potter as GM to have been able to fix that mess.

Harry Potter for manager! Dumbledore for GM!

Nice call.