With Opening Day just four days away, I am going to go ahead and throw my predictions in there.  For conversation sake, and to open up a healthy, baseball related debate.

There is no doubt that the AL East is a baseball power-house for this upcoming season.  We will be going to battle against two teams who will give us a run for our money, as we will for them.  Rays and Skanks.  With the type of season Longoria had with Tampa last year, there is no doubt that he will pose a decent threat to our powerful pitching squad.   Then there's Mark Teixeira.  Enough said on that one.  The Skanks other addition poses no threat in my eyes.  CC SaFATia will do nothing but be on and off the DL.

Something that excites me to look at is the projected rotation and lineup.  (Rotation) : Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester, Brad Penny and Tim Wakefield.  What's exciting about it?  Our bullpen.  Jonathan Papelbon could be the best closer in baseball.  He finished last season saving 41 games, while pitching to a 2.34 ERA. 

Then we have added Takashi Saito to help set-up and maybe take some of the pressure off of one of our starters.  Then, of course, Ramon Ramirez was also a nice pickup from the right-hand side.

Righties Manny Delcarmen and Justin Masterson and left-handed specialist Javier Lopez round out one of the deepest bullpens in the league.

Our lineup will pose a continued threat to our opponents.   Jacoby Ellsbury,  Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell, Jed Lowrie then Jason Varitek.  Keeping our speed up front with power in the middle seems to be our winning formula.

Now onto my prediction.  I predict that we will take it all the way to the World Series.  Our opponent?  The New York Mets.  We will beat them this time around.   Jason Varitek will continue to get his power numbers up and John Smoltz will be healthy enough to record at least four wins (if they allow him to pitch enough). 

Age and injuries could be a concern, but the Sox should be deep enough to overcome that. Still, anything but a postseason appearance would be a disappointment.

GO SOX!!
RSM - RLF