Does your bank account swell while you’re dreaming at night

So what do you want?  As a baseball fan, what are you looking for from your team?

I’ve lost count at how many people have bitched about the Red Sox not “doing” anything thus far, how many people are “unimpressed” with the few signings that have taken place and how many people are convinced that the Red Sox will “suck” in 2010 (and I’m talking about Red Sox fans here).

I’ll tell you what I’m looking for.  I’m looking for Theo to fill gaps that need to be filled and I’m hoping for the team to be competitive enough to entertain me all season long.  Would I love a “blockbuster” signing?  Sure would, if it was for the right player.  But I’m not going to lose sleep over the Yankees getting Curtis Granderson for a song while the Red Sox didn’t.  And I’m getting sick to death of people comparing what the Red Sox aren’t doing to what the Yankees are.  If you want to root for the Yankees, have at it, they’re waiting for more folks to jump on the already overflowing bandwagon (and, truth be told, I wouldn’t be so sad to see the Red Sox bandwagon lose a few annoying, fair weather fans).

Now I don’t consider everyone who criticizes the team a fair weather fan but I do question why you’d be bitching about the team this early in the off-season.  The Sox can’t make a move without another party involved and the moves their contemplating are going to take some time.  I’m good with this.  I’m also good with not hearing every day which player’s rep the team is or isn’t talking to.  Just because it isn’t being reported on doesn’t mean nothing is getting done (or attempted).  I know that most of the media likes to think that the world doesn’t revolve unless they’re writing about it but that’s just not true.  So, if you don’t mind, I’d like the hot stove to get a bit older before I start lamenting about how Theo has lost his touch and won’t be doing anything to improve the team for 2010, thanks.

Yesterday, Amalie Benjamin kept up her fan-baiting ways with this tweet over at Twitter:

Given Theo’s “bridge” year comments about the upcoming season, how are you all feeling about the #RedSox and about the front office?

Now, obviously she was hoping for a ton of “The team is going to suck! We’ll never beat the Yankees again!” responses. But our own KellyO gave (in my opinion) the best response:

I’d FAR rather hold onto our future; if that means waiting out 2010, so be it. We’ve been blessed in recent years.

Now I don’t think two WS wins in the 2000s means the team gets a free pass to go forward and be unsuccessful, but that hasn’t been the situation, thus far, and I don’t see it being the situation any time soon.  ESPECIALLY if Theo doesn’t trade away the future just for some instant gratification.  What those two World Series wins means to me is Theo gets a lot of leeway to play with the house money because, regardless of what some would like to think, the Red Sox are a successful team thanks in large part to Theo and a few early exits from the post-season won’t change that.  Good teams don’t always make the post-season and they don’t always win the World Series.  Be competitive and entertain me and that’s all I can really ask for.  There’s no way I’m calling this off-season a failure in the second week of December.  Hysteria isn’t my style.

For those of you who missed it – here’s Theo’s “bridge” comments as reported by Amalie Benjamin:

“We talked about this a lot at the end of the year, that we’re kind of in a bridge period,’’ he said. “We still think that if we push some of the right buttons, we can be competitive at the very highest levels for the next two years. But we don’t want to compromise too much of the future for that competitiveness during the bridge period, but we all don’t want to sacrifice our competitiveness during the bridge just for the future. So we’re just trying to balance both those issues.’’

I’m not sure how anyone can read anything negative into that but it seems to be Amalie’s M.O. lately (riling the fans up just for fun).

Tickets for the regular season go on sale this Saturday.  I’ll be at the Sistah’s annual Christmas gathering so I won’t be joining you all in the virtual waiting room, but I’ll be there in spirit!  It’ll be interesting to see if this uncertainty in the team that seems to be permeating the Internet over these last couple of weeks will be reflected in ticket sales on Saturday.  Something tells me it won’t.