Greg, I completely agree with you on what you said about KW. His track record prior to and after 05..Less than Stellar to be nice. His Pens have always been pile of scrap heap hoping for 2005 all the time. And Until Ozzie got here, his SP was just as bad. I think 05, was more Ozzie's mouth telling the media in 04 that this no pitching all hitting machine doesn't win. KW was forced to make changes.. and was lucked into 2005.
I let KW slide for 06, but 2007.. is downright his fault. Coming into this year, the team didn't fix any of the holes of 06, instead he created more holes and we have no one in our farm system to replace them. Our Pen was an issue in 06, yet we let Riske go to the Royals, and instead go with "power" arms, that didn't work on other teams. Our Big FA signing was Toby Hall, who was needed but we also needed a CF/LF as well. We needed a SS and we are left with Uribe, who contuines to make stupid play after stupid play. Yet we were told when we question his moves that he is all knowing... and we the fans don't know s***. Now he has a 100mil payroll and tied with the Royals, who are on the rise, while we keep falling.
The sad part is JR will let him stay on and continue to ruin this franchise all because of 2005. Personally I would like to see him rebuild from within, yes its going to suck for a while, but looking at DET/CLE and Minny.. They have mini dynasty build while we had one magical year and then faded away. I could take losing till 09/10 time to rebuild a team from our own farm system, not have a 100mil payroll. Money doesn't equal winning..just ask the Yankees and Cubs how well that has worked the last 10 years.