[Damian Rey]

Originally Posted by Vox Populi I think you're giving the organization a bit of extra credit here. They've done a pretty piss-poor job of grooming anything resembling a legitimate successor to Varitek, as internally, they'd genuinely thought that Joe Mauer was going to get on the first plane possible out of Minneapolis and knock on the gate at Fenway. Stupid assumption to begin with that looks even dumber when you get a close look at the "top catching prospects" over the past few years. As good of a job as they've done drafting and developing at other positions, they pretty much punted on catchers for several years there.

I do agree with this, somewhat. But don't too ahead of yourself. The Yankees only recently acquired Montero, and he's not really a catching prospect. Not to mention, as long as a catcher can call a good game, they're doing their job. Catcher is the last position people are going to look for offense from, honestly. Not a lot of good hitting catchers are avaiable.

Originally Posted by Aguakate I still don't understand why the Red Sox traded for Victor Martinez, and then let him go, basically...

They needed him for a playoff push and stablize the position for the duration of his contract. I'm sure they would have loved to have kept him. But in losing him and Beltre, they upgraded with Crawford and Gonzalez. I think they felt they had to make a choice as to who they felt was more important to the team, and, personally, I'd Gonzo and Crawford over Beltre and Martinez any day of the week.