(Expect more frowns where that came from.)

I normally like Ken Rosenthal's work. Very much, in fact. I have his archive bookmarked on my Mozilla toolbar so I can get to his work with a single click of the mouse (or, more appropriately, laptop touch pad) during the regular season to keep updated on rumors and trade rumblings. (Creepy? Maybe. Unnecessary? Probably. Useful? Definitely.) To be fair - and honest, two staples upon which the Boston Sports Buzz empire was built - Rosenthal's one of the best national baseball writers on the scene today. But he really missed the mark with his latest column titled "Will non-white free agents shun the Sox?"

While Rosenthal does a good job of tip-toeing around the issue without every overtly saying "The Sox traded Manny away and will look to trade Coco and Lugo away in the offseason so they have a predominantly white roster," that seems to be his implication throughout. If that's a bit too strong for you, perhaps the more mild "The racial undertones that once permeated this area and guided owners' and general managers' decisions in the past may still be doing so today" argument may better suit you. Case in point:

Yet, fairly or not, Ramirez's messy divorce with the Red Sox could raise suspicions that the team prefers a certain type of player — unassuming, conformist, white. The current makeup of the team's roster might create similar notions, even as the Red Sox say that nothing could be further from the truth.

Look, I know what Rosenthal's ultimately getting at, and I understand that as a national columnist he has to bring it with edgy, original pieces to captivate us and keep our attention. But to go through the Sox' recent trade, draft and free agent signing history and imply that the race of the parties involved had some sort of influence on those decisions is pretty absurd in this day and age.

Maybe the Sox' roster looks a bit homogenous after the Manny trade, and they may not be big players for non-white players like CC Sabathia and Francisco Rodriguez, but race has nothing to do with their not ending up or staying on the Sox' roster. Manny was traded because he forced his way out of town, and Bay was acquired because he was on the block and offered a pretty good return due to the fact that his short-term numbers are somewhat comparable and he's also signed for relatively cheap next year. The Sox would love to add players the caliber of Sabathia and K-Rod, but Sabathia is due to command big years and even bigger money (and they won't want to commit either to CC knowing they have to pay Beckett after next year), and the closer position is perhaps the most well locked-down on the club (that, and it's not typically a good idea to drop upwards of $12 to $15 million per year on set-up men, as if Franky would ever accept the demotion...).

Bottom line here is that while what Rosenthal says is technically true due to the fact that the makeup of the lineup is predominantly white, his insinuation that the composition of said roster was or is racially driven and that the front office prefers white players over their non-white counterparts is nothing short of ludicrous. Shaking things up and challenging established views in the game is all well and good, but stopping just short of labeling a franchise as a group of bigots because they just traded their star Dominican player away is shoddy journalism.