Filed Under » Boston Red Sox

As the late-season collapse of the Boston Red Sox moves the team closer and closer to missing the postseason, the finger-pointing has begun in earnest. And Boston general manager Theo Epstein, who failed to significantly upgrade the roster before the trade deadline, is taking the brunt of the blame.

"I'll take all the blame if need be," said Epstein. "But we're still in contention and I still believe this team has enough talent to at least secure a wild card."

Yet the fact remains that the team Epstein built contains only 13 present or former All-Stars — Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, J.D. Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury, Adrian Gonzalez, John Lackey, Jon Lester, David Ortiz, Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, Jason Varitek, Tim Wakefield and Kevin Youkilis — and not a single additional All-Star or MVP candidate was added at the July or August deadline.

"It's easy to look back now and think that I should have acquired Albert Pujols or Felix Hernandez or both of them — and that's probably what we'll do in the offseason — but it's tricky if you have too many future Hall of Famers on a team at once," said Epstein. "People think it's really easy to run a team that just buys all of the best players. But it's not. Imagine what it's like to look a David Ortiz in the face and tell him that he's only a pinch hitter now because we added someone better than him."