So it looks like the new Red Sox G.M. left off where the old piece of shit G.M. left off…sucking on wheat.  It has been a less than stellar start for Ben Cherrington, and it looks to get worse before it gets better.

  In case you havent been keeping track, Cherrington has been the defacto G.M. for almost six weeks.  In that six weeks he has interviewed everyone including your mom for the vacant manager position, and yet still we have no manager.  Somehow on top of that this D-Bag has also yet to figure out the compensation with the Cubs for former Sox G.M. Theo Epstein, and the word is the Sox and Cubs are still no where near close.  Now..to make matter even worse for this shit-bag…he discloses early in the week that he has lost Jonathan Papelbon’s phone number and had yet to even speak to Papelbon’s agent during the free agent period so far.

  Cut to yesterday when the Phillies negoiating against air, sign Papelbon to the richest reliever contract in baseball history.  All this without so much as whimper or a reach around from Yawkey Way.  Oh yea Red Sox Nation…this fucking guy is gonna work out great.   Meanwhile the mouth piece of the Cherrington and the Red Sox , the Boston Globe began to leak that the Sox were prepared to go into next season with Bobby Jenks and Daniel Bard.  Hey I know what your thinking…but if this douche Cherrington lost Papelbon’s cell #…chances are he lost his effing remote and missed Bard’s big moments tour of 2011.  Cherrington may have also missed the fact that Jenks was fat…wothless…and oh yea…he missed 95% of the 2011 season.  Yea…these guys can be counted on to close out games in baseballs toughest division.

  So if the rumors are true, and I hope they are…this week will be the last that GM Theo Espstein will spend as a Boston Red Sox.  When word first hit back in August that the Cubs were interested in Epstein, it seemed hard to imagine that 2 short months and one epic collaspe later that Theo would be gone.

  In the end…Theo”s departure should be bring comfort to Red Sox Nation that a new era is starting…and not the same old errors that have become a staple of the Epstein regime.  Epstein like Terry Francona will long be remebered for helping ending the 86 year curse that had plagued the Red Sox…but like Francona….I think Epstein has over stayed his welcome as well.  Like all things Boston sports there will be much speculation over Theo’s impact as the Red Sox Gm over the last 9 seasons, however a closer inspection of Theo’s body of work…exposes Theo mainly for being a fraudlent GM and someone who had tired in the job and lost focus on things like player development, and being prepared for the rigors of being a GM 365 days a year.

  What Theo hopes stands out the most in his time in Boston is the two World Championships the Red Sox won.  What Theo hopes is forgotten are things like …signing John Lackey to a 5 year 82 million deal…or signing Carl Crawford to a 7 year 142 million deal, despite the fact that Crawford has never hit 20 home runs nor had an OBP over .335.  Theo also hopes we forgot that he was never as good at player developement and drafting as he was givin credit for.  In 2004 Theo traded short stop Nomar Garciparra….however in the 8 seasons since….the Sox have NEVER had a suitable replacement…nor have they developed a short stop.  Theo also hopes we forget that he never quite finished his degree on pitching and pitchers.  A staple of Theo”s time in Boston was watching night in and night out the bum’s the Sox ran out to the mound.  Guys like Paul Bryd, Kyle Weiland, Jason Jennings, John Lackey, Dice K, David Wells, Wade Miller, Matt Clement, Rudy Seanez, Kyle Synder, Andrew Miller, Bobby Jenks, Matt Albers, Bartolo Colon, John Smoltz, Brad Penny.  The list of guys Theo has swung and missed at is about as long the number of pitchers that have made Adam Dunn swing and miss.  Needless to say the only pitcher that has been worth a shit during Theo’s time was Curt Schilling.  Had it not been for Schilling, the Sox would STILL be seeking thier first title in almost a century.  So I guess we have to give Theo credit for crashing Curt’s Thanksgiving back in 2003.

  In the end Epstein will be given alot of credit he doesn’t deserve, in the end he failed to be his own man and win a championship for the team of his youth.  Epstein needed every last one of Dan Duquette’s players to help end the 86 year title drought….where would the Sox have been in 2004 without Johnny Damon, Derek Lowe, Jason Varitek, and Pedro Martinez and many others that gave Theo his ultimate calling card….the “GM that ended the curse”.  Some would argue in 2007 Theo was instrumental in winning that title…however…the Sox best pitcher that post season was Josh Beckett…acquired during Theo’s absence.

  Theo leaves town now though, not to a parades held in his honor….but in shame to his 2nd 3rd place finish in a row.  Theo leaves as a man defeated by the job and the spector of it.  He leaves in his wake the slew of terrible free agents signings and a farm system with a pipeline so empty, it will take YEARS to recover.  All I can say is good luck and good riddance, if you need help moving…calling a moving company or one of those guys making 20 million dollars, maybe then thier true talents will finally come to light.

  Guess Theo has some work to do finding that ever elusive left specialist they never seem to have.  Somewhere right now I can hear Hideki Okijima’s phone ringing.

  Today the Boston Red Sox will annouce that Dice-K will be taking his talents to the operating table, opting for Tommy John surgery…in effect mercifully ending his Red Sox career.  Usually when a team loses a starter…especially one they have spent over $100 million dollars for …there could be panic in the air….the only thing in the air today was a big sigh of relief coming from Yawkey Way.  Today Theo Epstein and company can finally put a plan in place for that 5th spot in the rotation.

  In the coming day’s …week’s …years…it will be interesting to see what comes out about Dice-K.  By all accounts Dice was not a good team mate.  In five seasons with the Red Sox Dice never really learned to speak English, on the other hand…several of his teammates including every catcher that ever worked with Dice K learned Japanese.  Dice was not very enduring to the press corp and the fans, he was always stand-off-ish and never reached out to the fans.  In his five years with the Sox there always seemed like there was a disconnect with the Sox and Dice-K on what was expected from him and his approach to baseball.  Several times in his time with the Sox, Dice-K reported to camp looking like a blow toad, and no where near baseball shape, unless you count round.  Two seasons ago Dice missed almost the entire season with “arm fatigue”.

  Today is a good day in Red Sox Nation….today we now know we never have to see that worthless blow toad in a Red Sox uniform again.  Sure the Sox will not be as deep in the rotation as they were 4 weeks ago.  The silver lining is, the Sox now know what they can expect from that spot now, instead of Mr Toad”s Wild Ride…where we never knew what we were gonna get from Dice K.  I guess the Red Sox brass will proclaim Dice-k’s time in Boston a success.  He did post a 49-30 record…he did win 18 games one year, and the Sox won a World Series in Dice-k’s time in Boston…hell he even recorded a win in the World Series.  However to those that sat through his starts night in and night out…knows that Dice never past the smell test….the HYPE never lived up to the REALITY.  The reality was this ass clown was another creation of Scott Boras and a team in search of an international sports star.  The real winner was Dice-K and Scott Boras, and the real losers were any Red Sox fan who had to watch a game pitched by Dice-K live at Fenway or any other venue….at least watching from home we had the option to flip the channel.

  Tim Wakefield got the spot start last night, in what could be his very last big stage.  Wakie went 6 2/3 innings last night, and he was brilliant throughout.  Wake’s knuckleball had the Cubbies guessing for most of the night.  Wakefield had an unreal pitch count for most of the game, and even departed after throwing only 75 pitches.  Wake’s line for  the night was 4 hits, one run, no walks or strikouts.  Not bad for a guy that is pushing 45 years old.  The bullpen followed Wake’s lead, allowing only two base runners from the 7th inning on.  Daniel Bard who has been super shakey as of late, look strong last night going 1 1/3 innings last night.  The Red Sox were forced to use 2 spot startes over the weekend, both pitchers combined to pitch 11 2/3 innings, giving up two total runs, all in all not a bad performance.

The offense had another strong night against the make-shift pitchers of the Cubs last night, with Adrian Gonzalez in particular having a great night.  For the 2nd time this year Gonzalez recorded a 4 hit night, for the series versus the Cubs, Gonzalez was an amazing 10 for 15.  The heart of the Sox line up had a great night, as Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz also contributed with 3 RBI’s.  The Sox went old school in the 4th inning, scoring two runs via the sac fly.   All in all the offense had a pretty solid night, hell even the catcher got involved in the offense, adding a solo homerun in the 5th inning.  The Sox start today only a 1/2 game out of first place, and it is really bad news for the AL East if the Sox’s catcher’s start to get involved in the offense.

  The Sox now head to Cleveland for a three game series that will feature the top of the rotation for both teams.  The Sox were swept away by Cleveland in early April, so they look to get back on track versus the AL Central divison leaders.  The Sox will play seven games versus the AL Central this week, 3 vs the Indians and finishing up in Detroit with a 4 game series vs the Tigers.

The Sox finally got the used tire last night they had been searching for since the off-season….Kevin Millwood.  Millwood just opted out of his deal with the Yankees, and with the recent injuries to Dice K and John Lackey…Millwood looks to have a real shot to pitch some innings for the Sox soon.  The deal is a minor league contract.

Hello/Goodbye- The Sox said good bye again to Hideki Okijima and Micheal Bowden.  Okijima was DFA, so chances are he has played his last game in a Sox uniform.  Bowden has been optioned back to Pawtucket.  Dan Wheeler has finished his Pawtucket rehab, so he will be rejoining the Sox this weekend.  Hopefully he left his 10.95 ERA in Pawtucket.

Relief- The Sox consumated a trade last night with the Rockies for LHP Franklin Morales.  Morales is young….but has been in the majors for 4 seasons.  This year he has 14 appearances with a 3.85 ERA.

Beckett was strong last night going six innings, giving up only one run on five hits and 3 walks.  Beckett was able to scatter the hitters over his six frames.  Beckett was forced to leave the game with a stiff neck, which was detemined to be due to the cold spring night.  The Sox got 2 strong innings of bullpen help last night and one lousy inning.  Matt Albers and Jonathan Papelbon kept a lid on thier innings, the same could not be said for the sad sack of shit that is Daniel Bard.  Bard for the second time this week looked like a lost kid on the mound.  Bard was touched this time for back-to-back homeruns, blowing the game for Beckett, leaving him with another no decision.

  Offense of course was at a premium due to the strong pitching of Justin Verlander, but between David Ortiz, J.D. Drew and Carl Crawford the Sox had just enough to get by.  For the 4th time this year the Sox walked off with a win.  More impressive was Carl Crawford’s third walk off this month…ole Crawford doesn’t have many hits or RBI’s…but the ones he has certainly count!

Here are tonights line-ups

Here are the lineups:

RED SOX (22-20)
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Drew RF
Lowrie SS
Crawford LF
Varitek C

Pitching: RHP Josh Beckett (3-1, 1.75).

TIGERS (22-20)
Jackson CF
Sizemore 2B
Boesch RF
Cabrera 1B
Martinez DH
Dirks LF
Peralta SS
Avila C
Inge 3B

Pitching: RHP Justin Verlander (4-3, 2.91).

Game time: 7:10 p.m.