The Sox weakness both in this series and all season was teir inability to hit good pitching and to wear down good pitching.

Much of the problem rests with Big Papi. He is no longer selective at the plate and has problems fouling balls off to extend his AB's to get a pitch he can hit. Sure he ended the season with close to 100 RBI's, but many of them were against weak pitching and/or in blowout games.

Sad to say, but I think his days as an everyday cleanup hitter are over. He's nothing more than a platoon DH these days.

As far as next year, the Sox have a solid pitching staff assuming Wakefield is back. The top of the batting order is strong. They need to address LF, either with Bay or a replacement. But if I were Theo, my plan would be to find a way to move on beyond Big Papi - and that's tough to do, because Papi is a folk hero.