The long winter

Baseball in Boston is over, or on hold at least until pitchers and catchers report in late February. So after 162 games and a 3rd place finish of 11 back in the AL East and a measly 86-76 record, the Red Sox are going to go through their usual off season shuffling (already firing Pitching Coach Dave Wallace and Hitting Coach Ron Jackson), they'll proceed to raise UB's ticket prices and take another run at it next season. For now here are UB's grades for the 2006 season, followed by his playoff prediction for the teams remaining:

Starting pitching: D+

Schilling and Beckett looked like a solid 1-2 punch for about a month then things fell apart for Beckett and he never recovered. Matt Clement's crap out and the team's decision to trade Bronson Arroyo and the Sox never recoverd

Relief pitching: D+

Save for Jonathan Papelbon, the pen was a mess. The Sox relied on the kids to sort things out and it worked early on but lack of support from Keith Foulke (losing the closer's gig after one game and being a non-factor for the rest of the year) and Mike Timlin and they weren't able to hold down the fort

Manager: B

Tito played the hand he was delt, and had the players folded it for him

Management: F

Ticket prices are about to go up as salary goes down...Makes sense

The Roster:

Catchers
Jason Varitek C
Doug Mirabelli F

Pitchers
Josh Beckett D
Keith Foulke F
Craig Hansen C+
Jonathan Papelbon A
Curt Schilling A –
Julian Tavarez C-
Mike Timlin D

Tim Wakefield INC

Infield
Alex Cora A
Alex Gonzalez A
Mark Loretta B-
Kevin Youkilis B

Mike Lowell B-

Outfield
Coco Crisp F
Gabe Kapler C

Trot Nixon F
Wily Mo Pena B
Manny Ramirez B

DH
David Ortiz A+

The Playoffs:

WC-Round: Yankoffs over Tigers 3-0; Twins over A's 3-1; Mets over Dodgers 3-2; Padres over Cardinals 3-1

LCS: Twins over Yankoffs 4-2; Padres over Mets 4-2

World Series: Twins over Padres 4-3

"And that's all she wrote..."