The Numbers

2001 record: 82-79, .509 (15th overall) 2001 expected record*: 83-78 Runs scored: 772, 7th in AL Runs allowed: 745, 5th in AL Run differential: +27 (11th overall) Starters' ERA: 4.17, 3rd in AL Bullpen ERA: 4.18, 7th in AL Payroll (Opening Day): $109.6 million (2nd overall) Local broadcast revenue: $33.4 million (4th overall) Attendance: 2.63 million (16th overall) 3-year record: 261-224, .538 (11th overall) 5-year record: 431-378, .533 (8th overall) * based on runs scored and runs allowed

2001 in review
What went right?
Hideo Nomo was more than a decent free-agent signing. He threw a no-hitter and a one-hitter in April to jump-start the Sox and led the league in strikeouts. David Cone pitched well in his last hurrah. Manny Ramirez was his usual dominant self four months. Third baseman Shea Hillenbrand came out of nowhere to have a decent rookie year. Casey Fossum and Paxton Crawford each gave indications that they may be the rarest of things in baseball: decent homegrown Red Sox pitchers.

What went wrong
How much time do you have? Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez and Jason Varitek were hurt most of the year. Their starters were next-to-last in the league in innings pitched. The manager and general manager couldn't agree on the time of day. Carl Everett, a human form of anthrax, destroyed what little chemistry the team had. Derek Lowe forgot how to close. By mid-September, it was hard to find a player who liked playing on that team, in that park, in that city. Ramirez, the $20 million man, faded under the pressure wrought by the dysfunctional atmosphere. The Sox appeared to quit when Joe Kerrigan replaced Jimy Williams as manager. You would have sold this team, too.

In retrospect, the critical decisions were:
1. Williams' refusal to use the roster assembled for him by GM Dan Duquette. After a few seasons of dealing well with Duquette's Rotisserie approach, Williams seemed to manage the team he wanted rather than the team he had. Pitchers were pulled too early, which burned out the bullpen. The team never ran much. And, most telling, Williams' constant juggling of the lineup and batting order was comical. Williams never stopped trying to win, but he didn't mind letting the world know two things: he disliked his roster and wanted to manage elsewhere.

2. There were too many veteran players (Dante Bichette, Mike Lansing, Troy O'Leary, John Valentin, Jose Offerman) who made too much money but contributed too little. The aforementioned players earned nearly $30 million in salary and hit 43 home runs combined. A team can't waste money at that level and compete with the Yankees, A's and Mariners.

Looking ahead to 2002
Three key questions
1. If Martinez, Garciaparra or Varitek do not all return to form, the Red Sox will probably endure another lost season. Especially Martinez. If the words "rotator cuff" are found in a team press release in February, the season will be over before it begins.

2. The Red Sox didn't run last year and couldn't stop anyone from running either. Sox pitchers did not use the slide step until after Williams was fired and opposing teams almost ran at will. Varitek kept things respectable, but Scott Hatteberg was helpless in this area (115 steals, just 12 caught stealing). Doug Mirabelli was a defensive upgrade over Hatteberg. On offense, the team had more speed than 46 stolen bases would indicate. Williams refused to send anybody and he was especially afraid to open up first base with Ramirez at bat. With Garciaparra, Offerman, Johnny Damon and possibly Pokey Reese, this team should easily surpass 90 stolen bases. Why get Damon and not let him run?

3. The Makeshift Rotation: 2002. Since Duquette arrived in Boston, the Red Sox have had little stability on the mound. He always made sure they had a closer, but he built a rotation each year like a chef at the fish market: What do you have today? He tried rehabs (Butch Henry, Bret Saberhagen, David Cone) but mostly he tried re-treads: Nomo, Frank Castillo, Rolando Arrojo, Pete Schourek, Jamie Moyer, Jeff Fassero, Steve Ontiveros, Ramon Martinez). Some worked out, most didn't. (Moyer's subsequent success in Seattle should be embarrassing to Duquette and don't even mention Roger Clemens.) This year Duquette is counting on Dustin Hermanson and John Burkett, with the added pressure that they are pitching behind a physically suspect Martinez.

Stats Corner
Trot Nixon (above) may need a platoon partner. He hit just .210 with a .295 slugging percentage vs. left-handers. Red Sox starters were third in the AL in ERA, but next-to-last in innings pitched. Without Nomar Garciaparra, Red Sox shortstops drove in 45 runs and had a lowly .299 on-base percentage. Should Tim Wakefield start or relieve? In 2001, his ERA was 4.30 as a starter, 3.23 as a reliever; from 1998-2000, it was 5.16 starting, 4.42 relieving.

Can expect to play better
Martinez, Varitek and Garciaparra will contribute more than last year by simply taking the field on a regular basis. But in a true player development sense, Trot Nixon needs to keep improving (.210 BA vs lefties is a problem) as does Shea Hillenbrand. Offerman, if he's the second baseman, may step it up early if only to hasten his departure via trade. Damon should also play better now that his contract situation is settled and he can focus on baseball.

Can expect to play worse
Not a lot of candidates here as no one on the team had a career or breakout season.

Projected lineup
CF Johnny Damon
RF Trot Nixon
SS Nomar Garciaparra
LF Manny Ramirez
1B Tony Clark
C Jason Varitek
DH Brian Daubach
3B Shea Hillenbrand
2B Jose Offerman / Pokey Reese?

Rotation
Pedro Martinez
John Burkett
Dustin Hermanson
Frank Castillo
Derek Lowe

Closer
Ugueth Urbina. Tim Wakefield and Lowe are available as well.

A closer look
The Red Sox were sold in December of 2001. Once the sale is approved, probably next week at the owners' meetings in Phoenix, GM Dan Duquette may be fired. His time is up in Boston but he wasn't a complete failure, though he sure had a tendency to make big mistakes: the acrimonious departures of Mo Vaughn and Roger Clemens; utter miscalculation on what Clemens had left; Mike Lansing's 2001 salary of $7 million; not supporting Jimy Williams when Carl Everett's behavior went out of control; prematurely and needlessly picking up the fourth-year option on Everett's contract, making him that much harder to trade; wildly overpaying for the wonderful but one-dimensional Manny Ramirez; and most important, presiding over one of the worst farm systems in baseball. Which is a bit sad because if he had just gotten that last one right, all of the other stuff would have been much less crippling.

Baseball comes down to player acquisition and the Red Sox under Duquette went about it the expensive and risky way, with nary a thought to chemistry. "Can these guys play?" is a good question; "Can they play together?" is also a good question.

Wil Cordero, Carl Everett, Rolando Arrojo, Jose Offerman, John Valentin and Mike Lansing and others were morale-busters in Boston. Duquette and Williams never figured how to use or how to handle Tim Wakefield, a versatile and valuable pitcher who spends too much time wondering what his job is. The atmosphere is so disjointed that even a marginal guy like Lou Merloni feels he has the right to complain about playing time. Year in, year out, Duquette's Red Sox were a wild bunch, never a well-constructed, coherent team. Even leaders like Mike Stanley, Darren Lewis, David Cone and others made little impression on their malcontented teammates.

Pedro and Nomar are not natural, rah-rah leaders. Pitchers can't really lead anyway and it's not yet in Nomar's nature. Trot Nixon is emerging as a clubhouse presence and Tony Clark and Johnny Damon are considered solid citizens. And Everett is gone. So there is hope. Duquette made these moves too late but the new regime of Tom Werner and John Henry should take heed. It's a long season and how the guys get along matters.

Red Sox players under Duquette also seemed to complain a lot about how they were treated as individuals. There were many reports of nickel and diming the players on medical second opinions, injured players not traveling with the team and other small quirks that just don't come up with the Yankees. Peter Gammons has often pointed out how bad a move it was to let Stanley (who is soon to be hired as the team's bench coach) know by a phone message that he was being released. It reveals a lack of respect, an antiquated boss versus employee attitude that no modern general manager can afford.

The fan's gut reaction may be that these guys make so much money that they need to get over themselves. Well, that won't work. Signing today's ballplayers to big-money deals is merely the beginning of a relationship -- with a human being, not just a right fielder or a No. 3 starter. Duquette never understood this and no one in the team's recent history sent more people out into the baseball world with a bad feeling about the Red Sox than Duquette.

Werner, Henry and Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox's new team president, must do better than Duquette. But it won't be easy. A few local columnists made great hay when Ramirez's agent simply stated that his client was hoping to be more "comfortable" next year in the musty, cramped embarrassment that is the Red Sox clubhouse. Many Boston players over the years have complained that they have no privacy and no haven from the swarming media. Ramirez was just adding his voice to the choir and he was ripped for it. Of course, it doesn't matter if a few writers don't get it. The clubhouse is horrific. And the new management team better understand and respect that privacy and a state of the art clubhouse is a reasonable desire for a baseball player in Boston in 2002.

The new owners will have an easy time besting Duquette in player development. His record was so shoddy that he had to bail himself out every year with free agents. And the new owners may not be spending money the way the Yawkey Trust did since the team will carry considerable debt. The team will simply have to start taking player development and scouting more seriously. Fans should look for a complete overhaul of an organization that produced too many players like Izzy Alcantara and Brian Rose and not nearly enough like Trot Nixon and Nomar Garciaparra.

Still, Duquette had the right prospects when Pedro Martinez was available. He drafted Nomar. He signed Manny. He traded Heathcliff Slocumb for Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek in the best trade in team history. He just happened to do all this while the Yankees were creating a dynasty. Under Duquette, the Red Sox made the playoffs three times and reached the ALCS once ... but just once.

The new owners will have the same charge as the old one: win the World Series. The Red Sox have been close before. That won't be enough in 2002.

John Hassan is a senior editor for ESPN The Magazine.