Theo is a very good GM when it comes to thinking about what the team really needs, and making the deal he has to in order to get it. He's willing to make an apparently one-sided trade (e.g., in '04, giving up the star AND the prospect AND cash) if it helps the Sox win. In fact, I'm not sure he's made any trade that he's "won" in terms of stats. He's also been good about not trading away young players who turned out well. (He didn't make the disastrous H. Ramirez trade, remember.) He's a young GM with old GM skills.

But every now and then he tries to show us how smart he is -- by doing something that doesn't work. For a while, it was Rule 5 pickups; now it's injured pitchers. These are not moves appropriate to a big-market contender -- they're what you do if you don't have the resources to compete straight up. And the showing off has a cost. In '05 the Sox would have won with Youkilis instead of Stern; this year Buchholz looks a lot better than Smoltz (who stank in Pawtucket, and clearly would not have been at the top of the rotation in Portland). All he's accomplished is to demonstrate that he's not, after all, as smart as John Schuerholz.

I liked what Reader A said, and it is reminiscent of Dan Duquette (hello, Ramon Martinez, Pete Schourek, Brett Saberhagen). Seems to be more of a Sox tradition than anything else.

Let me go a step further. Theo has made some impressive trades (the Nomar trade, referenced by Reader A, being the best but not only example). He makes, almost without exception, lousy free agent signings. Seriously. When is the last time he made a GOOD free agent signing? JD Drew? Dice-K? Edgar Renteria? Julio Lugo? After 2003, the pickings are pretty slim. Okajima certainly qualifies as good but I don't know that he overshadows the four guys mentioned above.

And no, re-signing your own players doesn't count.