You probably have heard bits and pieces of this but here's the entire thing. First about the team:
"You guys probably will have the answer to that question before I will. That may have to slap me in my face. I'm having a little difficulty putting my arms around that concept, whereas many other people have come to that conclusion. I'm mindful of the fact that I've watched an Oakland A's team the last four years come back after starts like this and win their division and average 93, 94 victories. I watched Minnesota do it last year. I watched Cleveland do it the year before in '05 in trying to catch us. So you can recover from these things if you are a talented club, and we are a talented club."
How do you respond to other GMs that call you?
"I tell 'em a couple of things. I tell 'em I'm preparing for that slap in the face and at the same time I'm also preparing to add to our current mix -- maybe inject some life in that fashion as well. I'm looking for possibilities first to make us better right now and second to look for deals that might result as a byproduct of us doing worse than where we are . . . In recent years nobody has asked for the key cogs in our machine here and that's a little different. It doesn't leave all that great of a taste in my mouth to be honest with you. But it is what it is."
Will you lower your asking price so you get something for players that might walk after the season?
"The assumption may be that we have to move something to make sure we get some value at the end of the season. For me the loyalty of all the people who trek down here every day and spend their hard-earned money and you want to put the best product on the field that you can possibly can. So I take that responsibility very seriously. Another aspect of it is obviously the ability to still field a team that every day I look at and go "Is today going to be the day, geez?" We can't possibility continue to play this poorly with these quality players out there. But then when it slaps you in the face too that OK you're still in that mode, you'd better reassess and possibly redirect things. But the assumption that we have to do anything is no assumption because of money we have to do it. Or it's an incorrect assumption that because of money we'll have to do it. I'm perfectly willing if it gets to that point and we don't get exactly what we want similarly to what we got in the John Danks deal or Gio Gonzalez and Gavin deal, if we don't get exactly what we want, we'll ride it to the very end, give ourselves a chance to come back from the hole that we've dug and take the draft picks as a result. I'm perfectly comfortable with that."
In other news, the Sox signed 14 draft picks (list) from the 2007 draft. There are 3 shortstops: Sergio Miranda (13th round), Gregory Paiml (15), and Dale Mollenhauer (17).