Decision #1

I guess the first decision the Sox need to make, and the one that will shape the rest of the decisions that are made in 2005/06 (and beyond), concerns the future of Theo Epstein, who has now lost the title of the "Youngest GM in Baseball History" to Jon Daniels (and for a Rangers fans interesting take on the move look here) - if the Boston media are a useful guide, Rangers fans can look forward to 12 month of stories peppered with the words fresh-faced, youthful, baby-faced etc, etc... as well as many, many references to his date of birth.

When Theo signed on, his promise was to turn the Red Sox into persistent post-season contenders (from memory, his claim was 8 out of every 10 post-seasons) and into a $100m player development machine - he has delivered on the first part (though 3 out of 3, means only 5 out of 7 ahead, bad times), and given the positive press that the Sox farm system gets these days he seems to be delivering on the second.

On a simple basis, it is hard to argue that Theo's three years haven't been a major success - three years with at least 95 wins, three years of post-season play, four play-off series victories and oh yeh, one of those World Series things. While the roster that won the World Series still had the fingerprints of Dan Duquette, many of Theo's signings, and roster moves, were critical to that success - Schilling, Foulke, Ortiz, Miller, Mueller, Bellhorn and the Garciaparra / Cabrera trade.

Depending on which of Boston's papers you read over the last couple of days you get a different take - the Globe raises the possibility that Theo might not be back, although it seems mostly a "here is the worst case" story, while the Herald believes it is a done deal.

I guess if you look here, I voted with the majority - it was standing at 91% to 9% last I looked! Though it is worth looking through to see the 'majority' position on all of the team's free agent decisions in the coming close season.