I don't feel like working.
Here's the timeline:
July 1: Sold Rich Hill for nothing. Meh. Who cares.
July 16: Released AJP. Hooray! but, man. Why was he here in the first place. In 3 months he went to zero value.
July 26: Jake Peavy for Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree. Another meh. We can assume there wasn't a lot of demand for Peavy, and these guys seem like decent flyers. In July of 14 I don't think Edrod was a gigantic step ahead of Escobar, for instance.
July 30: Felix Doubront for Marco Hernandez. Another meh.
July 31: Stephen Drew for Kelly Johnson. Another trade where the Red Sox seemed to place too much value on a guy in April of 2014 and his value evaporated by July of 2014. Can't blame Ben alone, but there is some organizational failure here.
July 31: Lackey for Craig and Kelly. Just bad. I know there are Kelly fans, but there are other semi-promising guys out in the world that don't require you to give up a pitcher of Lackey's caliber AND take on an albatross.
July 31: Lester and Gomes for Cespedes and a pick. Analyzed to death. Two months of Lester for 8 months of Cespedes isn't bad in a vacuum, on the other hand, it also wasn't good. obviously GMs fall in love with guys, but Shark and Hammel for Russel is highway robbery compared to Lester for Cespedes. Did Ben wait too long? I guess you can't blame him if he did. Also, see my comments above. It wasn't in a vacuum.
July 31: Miller for EdRod. Great one. I'm not as big on EdRod the ace as others, but he seems like he will be useful for a while, which is a huge get for 2 months of a reliever.
August 3: Released Carp. Notable again just to point out how much value the Red Sox saw evaporate in the first half of 2014. Not assigning blame.
August 23: Signed Castillo. Not a bad risk, again, in a vacuum, but why do this after moving Mookie to the OF and after trading for Cespedes and Craig? It's not like Castillo is 23. This was essentially a major league signing.
November 25: Signed Ramirez and Sandoval. Well debated. Terrible first year, all fingers crossed for later years.
December 11: Signed Justin Masterson. I don't think anyone thought this was a very good idea.
December 11: Traded Cespedes (among others) for Porcello. Not bad until signing Porcello to the huge extension.
December 12: Traded RDLR and Webster for Miley. Solid trade. Speaks again to the decay in value of Red Sox properties though.
December 19: Traded WMB for Hanigan. Solid trade, something for nothing.
January 27: Traded Ranaudo for Ross. Meh.
January 30: Signed Ogando. I like this at the time. Worked out terribly.
I'm not one to just blame or credit scouting. There is also luck involved. I think EdRod is a good example of why we may have wanted Ben to go fishing for prospects instead of major leaguers with Lester/Lackey. Accumulate some guys and hope to end up with a couple of gems.
I also want to note, that it is easy to deflect any criticism by saying it takes two teams to make a trade. I know this well.
Last, the most important point, no matter whether it is bad luck, bad management, whatever, the Red Sox had a 2008 housing collapse level of value erosion for about half of their roster between April and July of 2014.[/QUOTE
Minor point in the overall great summary of Ben's transactions and trades but I would classify the Heath Hembree and Robbie Ross trades as wins rather than meh. Jake Peavey was not going to be re signed by the Sox and Anthony Ranaudo has done nothing in Texas.