People want Larry Lucchino to be taking "a swipe" against the Yankees, but in fact, he is simply telling it like it is

Cue the organ music. Get the torches. Today, resident Redsock gasbag Larry Lucchino spoke some usual gibberish about the Yankees, and the way some people see it, you'd think it was Ted Nugent talking about the Obama girls.

Obviously, a little back-and-forth between the teams is viewed favorably by the folks at YES, ESPN and NESN.

OK, this is the guy who once called us the Evil Empire. (The Yankees since have trademarked the name.) Let's look at what he said today.

"We're very different animals. I'm proud of that difference. I always cringe when people lump us together. Other baseball teams sometimes do that. They are still, this year at least, relying heavily on their inimitable old-fashioned Yankees style of high-priced, long-term free agents. And, uh, I can't say that I wish them well, but I think that we've taken a different approach."

Hmm. I certainly understand why other teams lump the Redsocks and Yankees together. But he's right about this year: We are relying on the "inimitable old-fashioned Yankees style of high-priced, long-term free agents." I cannot fault him on this.

"If you compare what we did last year in the off-season to what they did this year, there's quite a contrast there. But I'll quickly say we do keep open the prospect of having, signing a long-term deal with a free agent paying a sizable amount of money to attract a star in his prime. We haven't ruled that out. There's just a rebuttable presumption against doing that, but you can rebut it. The circumstances can allow for you to go ahead and do it. The Yankees do it more often, it seems to me that they do it more often as a matter of course. And for us it would be more the exception than the rule."

You know what? He's right. Hate to say it. But it's true. Last year, they signed spare parts. This year, we've tried to bring in an entire new nucleus. But it all boils down to the farm systems. Somehow, over the last three years, their system has worked, and ours hasn't. Until Brian Cashman - or somebody - fixes that, Boston can and SHOULD take potshots at us. Good grief, we deserve it. Ted Nugent has nothing to fear. He's still in a class by himself.