Cards hurt by penny-pinching ways; Red Sox slide

	The Cardinals haven't provided Albert Pujols with a suitable supporting cast. Al Tielemans/SI
	MAILBAG Tom Verducci will answer select questions from SI.com users in his Baseball Mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Interesting column on the demise of the Red Sox. You could do a great comparison with the Cardinals, who, while still barely in first, are headed the same way as the Red Sox, but because of simple penury -- not misjudgments about talent (except maybe Juan Encarnacion).
-- Bill Rogers, Lodi, Calif.

You have an argument. The Red Sox spend money like nobody this side of the Yankees and they have been one of the best franchises in terms of maximizing their market resources and turning them back into the club. A Sox fan can't complain about that. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have let this team slip from the past couple of years while moving into a new stadium. Hey, they're hanging on to first place, so they do get some slack, but, with as many potential free agents as they have, this is shaping up as a big offseason for them.

You and all the other writers who piled on the Red Sox and their front office after the five-game debacle with the Yankees seem to quickly forget that this team was in first place for much of the year. It's not that the team is terrible, but it is going through a rough stretch. Your points are valid, but all those "poor personnel decisions" still had the team in first place for most of the year. Sounds like youth getting tired to me.
-- Josh Garver, Boston

All good points, especially about some of the young players hitting a wall, which is common this time of year. And no, it's not a terrible team, as the first three months showed. I do think in many ways they counted on Coco Crisp, Wily Mo Pena, Josh Beckett and, to a lesser extent, Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen to not just keep them contending for years but also to win in 2006. That is where the evaluations fell short. Hey, it happens. It's not really assigning blame per se, because it has been the players themselves who have not gotten it done. And while I think the division title is a longshot at this point, I'm not ready to write them off as a playoff team.

This is Theo Epstein. You seem to have all the answers, so I would like to know if the Red Sox can hire you away from SI. Money is no object. We believe that you are the missing piece that we need to be a perennial contender. Please consider this open-ended offer so we can give the fans of New England a winner each and every year. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you for your consideration.
-- Theo, Boston

Let's talk Beckett money and maybe we can work something out. Actually, I know it's not the real Theo; his skin is much thicker.

I don't think player evaluation is the problem. Crisp got hurt and never really has recovered. He was the lone bad evaluation. Dustin Pedroia is still in Triple A and is hitting over .300. The problem is that Jon Lester, Hansen and Delcarmen still needed a year in Triple A and because of injuries were forced into the bigs.
-- Stephen Curtis, Dexter, Maine

I agree on the young players, but where do you stand on Beckett, Rudy Seanez, Julian Tavarez, Josh Bard/Cla Meredith for Doug Mirabelli, Javy Lopez (A and B samples) and (even when healthy) Crisp? Have they worked out as well as Boston hoped? I'd say no in every case.

I'm so annoyed with the Jason Varitek injury being such an oft-mentioned excuse for the Red Sox's swoon. Shouldn't a big-market, big-payroll team be a little more insulated from such an event than, say, a small-market team like the Twins, who have lost Francisco Liriano, Shannon Stewart, Torii Hunter, etc.?
-- Jason, Dallas

I don't know about that. Every team, no matter their resources, has one or two guys who cannot easily be replaced, for a lot of reasons. I do think Varitek, because of the way he runs the pitching staff, is one of those guys. If you want to criticize the Red Sox, you can knock them for not having a better defensive catcher on hand. I thought Mirabelli and Lopez were both shoddy in the New York series, having a key hand in the losses.