The Sox are getting the same results the Angels have been getting: willingness to buy free agents is not a substitute for developing players. The Sox best period of sustained success was when Shueler/Schaefer drafted well – Thomas, Ventura, McDowell, Fernandez, Rowand, Crede. Except for Thomas these were baseball players first, athletes second. Then they started drafting guys like Joe Borchard and Josh Fields who were athletes first and baseball players not first. Maybe they felt Frank Thomas was the rule rather than the exception, but doing the same thing for 20 years produced the same result.

So yes, the Sox blew it – for twenty years running. It’s a pretty unusual experiment that the bulk of the same front office that blew it for twenty years running is in charge of rebuilding.