Red Sox have established a pitchers' haven in Boston

If we can try and look past the Varitek dropped ball incident, we'll see that the only storyline that matters is the emergence of Jon Lester. After an inspirational comeback from cancer in the fall of '07, one that he himself would like to be forgotten about, Lester has been nothing short of an ace. When you consider the arms on that team: Beckett, Wakefield, Matsuzaka, it seems remarkable that he made the jump from No. 4 to No. 1 in such a short period of time. With Beckett having a down year, someone had to fill the role of the consummate ace of the Red Sox and Lester did just that, posting a sparkling 3.21 ERA with 16 wins, one of which he yielded zero hits. Thus far in the postseason he made quick work of the Angels by not allowing a single earned run in 14 innings; his fastball reaching an improbable 97 mph in the later innings. He has firmly cemented himself into a rotation that already had a pair of aces in its hand.

So what is to be made of this Red Sox pitching staff? Certainly it is the best we've seen over a five-year span since the Braves of the 90's. In fact, once October is over and the Red Sox are once again World Champs, you could make a case that it's better than that Atlanta rotation. In 2004, there was Pedro, Schilling, Lowe. In 2007-2008, there is Beckett, Dice-K, Lester, and Papelbon. These pitchers have all answered the call of performing in the postseason in an era in which one bad October start can totally derail a pitcher's confidence.

As you guessed, the common denominator here is the core of managers. At the top is Theo Epstein, who at 34, has accomplished far more than any of us could have dreamt. Nearly all of his moves have paid off, most recently his outsourcing of Manny to the Dodgers (Speaking of which, that trade has paid immediate dividends for BOTH teams, something that seems quite rare in pro sports). Then you have Terry Francona, who's postseason resume speaks for itself. The real culprit here though is pitching coach John Farrell. Although he wasn't there in '04, he has been with the Red Sox for three years and has fostered a superb pitching staff, from top to bottom. In fact, the only blip on his radar was Eric Gagne but you could easily chalk that up to being a lost cause judging by his success, or lack thereof in Milwaukee this year. Farrell has helped mold Dice-K from an extremely hyped, yet unproven starter to a bonafide star.

If the adage "Pitching wins Championships" wasn't clear enough to some of the other GMs (yes, I'm talking to you Dombrowski) look no further than the Red Sox. This is a dynasty in the making and whereas the Yankees won their championships in the late 90's with clutch hitting and adequate pitching, the Red Sox have fine-tuned a rotation with enough depth that will probably make Octobers for the next few years a little less exciting for the other 29 teams' fans. Yes, Red Sox nation is a prosperous one indeed.