Theo Epstein

With baseball's trade deadline fast approaching, rumors are swirling about potential deals, as they are every year in Boston.

The Red Sox Sox currently sit 5.5 games behind Tampa Bay for the wild card spot and 7.5 behind the Yankees in the AL East.

The gap is by no means insurmountable, and the Sox would sure benefit from a big bat or depth at, well, virtually every spot on the roster.

Fresh off sending Conor Jackson to the Oakland Athletics and Dan Haren to the Los Angeles Angels, the Arizona Diamondbacks are shopping virtually every piece on their Major League roster, including catcher Chris Snyder, who has been on the Boston Red Sox' radar for some time, according to MLB.com's Steve Gilbert and MLBTradeRumors' Ben Nicholson-Smith.

Snyder joins the Colorado Rockies' Chris Iannetta, the Toronto Blue Jays' John Buck, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Russell Martin, and the New York Mets' Rod Barajas as a target of Boston's catching-hungry front office.

A shipment of corkboard arrived at Fenway Park today, with a note from New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman.

For many fans of America's pastime having an insight into the thoughts and daily lives of the players is highly coveted.

As the old saying goes: "You can't win the World Series in April, but you sure can lose it."

Sadly, this looks to be the case for the struggling Red Sox—possessors of one of the MLB's highest payrolls. Their struggles are due in large part to a fragile relationship between a developmentally-minded front office and a rabid fan base desperate for big-name players and marquee deals.

When done correctly, a developmentally-oriented system can lead to great results—enter the Red Sox of 2007, whose mixture of young talent and big-name stars led to World Series glory.

The Red Sox find themselves tied for third place in the AL East (10 - 11) as of April 28th.  And as April comes to a close, the Boston Red Sox season thus far seems to be summed up in three words: Feast or Famine.

In winning efforts, the Sox outscored opponents 72 to 54.  However, when tossing one into the loss column, the Sox are outscored 25-60, a dismal number.

At 1 am, the Red Sox announced their 25-man Opening Day roster in an e-mail to the media. Executive Vice President/General Manager Theo Epstein made the announcement.

If you have any doubt as to the reasons this organization is successful, all you need to know is that the front office was toiling away at 1 am on Easter Sunday morning.

With the start of the 2010 MLB season fast approaching, questions remain regarding the possibility of success for the Boston Red Sox. After some major off-season acquisitions and departures, the Red Sox front office is hoping for solid contributions from their new arrivals and continued success from some of their younger members.

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In a list of greatest players in the history of one of baseball’s most storied franchise, the names at the top of Boston’s list are Hall of Famers.

Williams. Yastrzemski. Rice. Doerr. Young.

So it is not every day that a player comes along with enough caliber to crack the top part of such a list.

One such player did emerge in the summer of 1997.

First published on Beantown Sports Observer

This past offseason was not only big for the Boston Red Sox, but for the teams in their division as well. New York, Tampa Bay, Toronto, and even Baltimore made some significant moves on their roster and though some more bad than good, the division will be tough this season.