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Those really smart people didn’t have clarity from the short-sighted billionaires who employ them.

A loss that many bitter Rangers’ fans still blame him for...

Using Reinsdorf as leverage for better deals elsewhere has been a time-honored tradition employed by both MLB and NBA agents. The Torri Hunter / Tracy McGrady heists were legend. Reinsdorf whining about paying MJ fair market value has had an everlasting effect on A-list difference makers in either sport considering playing for the Sox or Bulls. I dare say LBJ and Wade would have been playing for the Bulls rather than the Heat had MJ been in the room during those negotiations. MJ should be at least part owner of the Bulls. How many more championship banners would be hanging from the rafters in the NBA's Sistine Chapel ? Some legacy, Reinsdorf.

I miss bucket.

Yeah. Looks like teams gambled and lost.

Hang on. He went unclaimed at $10M but signs as a free agent for $10.5M?? The really smart people running baseball today sure are stupid.

I'm not sure why that matters in this case given we only care about these things from the Sox perspective. Depending on the year, the Sox will always be either buying or selling. HS draftees will always be riskier, and here is another case where at least so far (because the book isn't closed on Rutherford yet) the Sox have tried to extract the kind of value out of a pair of HS draftees that would serve their organization well, and they were unable to. I'm not sure why there is an argument that says a high school guy is better than a college guy as an earlier round pick. The Sox have had better luck with college guys anyway, whether it is extracting value in a trade or someone producing at the MLB level. In another of my previous examples, the Sox were able to trade Holmberg as the 2nd piece for Jackson. Was that a good pick then? The main guy in that deal was a college guy also. For Holmberg's shorter-than-Madrigal ceiling, as a 2nd round pick, I think that pick sucks a fat pair of balls. If there's one major bone to pick with the Sox philosophy over the years, outside of their bullshit pre-slotting system, it's probably their performance in the 2nd through the 5th rounds. Every year going into the draft there are a host of publications that put out top-100 lists like Perfect Game, BA, BP, 20/80 baseball, Law's lists, etc., and there are probably about 130-150 players who will be on every major publications top-100 list, and probably about 50 guys or so that appear on everybody's top-30 or so. It always seems like the Sox are one of those teams that sit there and pick 100-200+ list guys early while other teams are taking players ranked highly well into the draft. There are always these other teams that get like 3 -5 of these consensus top-100 guys while the Sox take 1 or maybe 2. I said during the draft that Kelly was the most exciting 2nd rounder I can remember since Ryan Sweeney. Usually the Sox pick RPs pretty high and other guys like Pilkington who are way too high. They look for value picks too early. Hansen was an interesting pick at the time, and I think Luis Gonzalez was an interesting high floor guy as a 3rd round pick but probably too early. Other than Sheets, their 2nd rounders over recent years have been pretty good picks at the time, like Erik Johnson and Tyler Danish, who didn't turn out, but not all of these guys need to be taken in the 2nd, and even when you get someone who looks decent in the 2nd it doesn't mean you need to punt the football in the 3rd round. Beck was a good 3rd round pick. But usually you look at rounds 3-5 and that's where the Sox resort to picking "value" or "find" guys while some other teams are picking "names" and this is something Sox fans who have been following the drafts for years have constantly noticed. They have taken guys like Donny Lucy in the 2nd round, John Ely in the 3rd, etc. and have gone with bench/RP/longshot types way too early in the draft. Other teams are taking greater upside and especially players who are seen as better in the general public.

Except Rutherford and Clarkin netted the yankees a top set-up reliever, closer and third baseman.