Here is what he wrote in February of this year:
> But here’s the reality, people: The 2013 Red Sox might be really bad. Worse, they might be really boring. Anybody talking about baseball in your neighborhood these days?
> …
> The first base situation is alarming. Mike Napoli is an old 31, hit .227 last year, has played only 133 games at the position, and has a degenerative hip disease. Don’t be surprised to see Lyle Overbay as an alternative.
> …
> The outfield looks like Gomes in left, Ellsbury in center, and Shane Victorino in right. Not exactly Rice, Lynn, and Evans, is it? Gomes is a winner but is best deployed as a platoon player. Ellsbury’s power numbers were way off last year. Victorino looks like a guy whose best days are behind him. Better hope he’s not Kevin Stevens or Joseph Addai.
> …
> Sorry. The juice glass is half-empty today. These guys could be really bad. And really boring. “Scrappy” doesn’t sell in Boston in 2013. Not after everything that’s happened. For $170 million, a little more prime-time talent would have been nice.
It is quite impressive how much he got wrong in a single piece. In fact, even his attempts to point out what he thought was a strength[^f1] turned out to be misguided.
Essentially, if we were measuring predictions like we measure batting average, Shaughnessy would be Pete Kozma.
[^f1]: The bullpen anchored by Joel Hanrahan. Yeah, that Joel Hanrahan.