Surely we lucked out losing on that bidding war. It just goes to show the danger of spending money just for the sake of spending it.

to say I never wanted to sign him, and was amazed (in a bad way) at the veracity of the Cardinals in pursuing him?

Good pitcher, but he was always more of a Pavano to me; good pitcher but not worth the $$.

Now, Ponson surprised me; good signing so far.

Encarnacion, way too much $$ (and that's not just because of his slump).

There were some -good- bullpen arms out there to be grabbed. Looper could possibly turn out pretty good in the setup role, but for the most part, I wasn't impressed with our offseason.

I also wanted to grab Wily Mo :(

The thing about Burnett, the guy was capable of doing something that only one other guy on our team can do (as a pitcher), and that's dominate a game.  In the playoffs, power pitching seems to really rate.  I would have loved to march out a big three of Carp, Burnett, and Mulder in October - that would have been a dynamite rotation, a lot of different looks and no breaks for the opposition.  Right now that number three pitcher is Jason Marquis.  I agree that it was too much money, or really more on point, too many years - but if the team was trying to win the world series NOW, while Albert is in his prime, Edmonds is still around, and our core is sound, I think that's what the push for Burnett would have demonstrated.  

That's my opinion.  I really wish we would have ponied up and acquired Beckett when he was being shopped, but I think the Sox probably just had better prospects to offer.  That would have been one heck of a rotation.  C'est la vie.  

My two cents, fwiw.