What went wrong?

The Sox season is over so it's time to start pointing fingers:

• Injuries. The Sox two most important pitchers were pretty much ineffective and hurt all year. When Schilling and Foulke are good and healthy they help the entire pitching staff. Along with the wins, Schilling saves the bullpen and takes the pressure off the other starters. With a steady Foulke in the ninth, the other relievers are put into roles that they can handle. Find a World Series Champion who won without their two best pitchers. I'm not including Wade Miller and Matt Mantei's injuries -- they were gambles who the Sox knew would probably get hurt. It's like dating a porn star and being surprised that she cheated on you. The Sox knew what they were getting into.
• Bullpen. Foulke screwed it up, but there's plenty of blame to spread. Pretty sad that the only reliable reliever was Timlin who was overrated this year. A good reliever does not allow inherited runners score like Timlin did.
  
• Theo Epstein. I'm putting him here because I just wrote about the bullpen. Looking at the White Sox and Angels play, I keep asking myself, why couldn't the Sox find relievers like these guys. I'm not blaming Theo for not making any moves at the trade deadline -- I'm glad he held on to his prospects because there really wasn't much out there. Then there's the starting rotation. Theo bashers keep saying how much Pedro and Lowe would have helped. I'm not buying it. Pedro was helped by the NL lineups and I still don't think he was worth that big contract. Lowe didn't do anything special this year. The problem for Theo was the timing of losing two starters -- it was a bad time to look for starters. What could Theo have done to get something better than Wells and Clement? Other than trading for Hudson or Mulder, there weren't many good pitchers out there.
• Hitting. This sounds stupid considering that the Red Sox had the best hitting lineup in baseball, but the hitters were to blame for September's struggles and the playoffs. I should have put Damon in the injury section. He was the spark plug of the lineup and when injuries finally caught up to him, it affected the whole lineup. The basic problem was the Red Sox became solely dependent on Manny and Ortiz. Varitek was great early in the season, but he faded dramatically which happens to catchers. The source of the problem is first base and right field.
  
• The Yankees. Cashman struck gold with Small and Chacon and Giambi's steroids finally kicked in. Because the Yankees had an amazing September, the Red Sox couldn't coast into the post season. If the Yankees were out of the division race, Schilling would have started game 1 and Clement might not have even pitched. Also Francona would have been able to give needed rest to players like Varitek and Damon.

Let's start blaming some players.

• Millar. Terrible (but thank you for getting that walk against Rivera in Game 4)
• Trot Nixon. He's been a disappointment
• Renteria. His hitting was average until you look at how much money he makes, and his defense was pathetic. Theo should have signed Eckstein to keep the shortstop seat worm for Hanley Ramirez
• Bellhorn. At least he played good defense, but his season long slump was painful to watch.
• Jay Payton. The Sox needed a good 4th outfielder with the inevitable injury to Trot Nixon. Payton complained his way out of Boston right before he would have had a lot of playing time. The Gabe Kapler injury made Payton's departure even more painful.
• The Godfather. His hiatus from the board coincided with the Yankees improvement. Coincidence?