Boston Red Sox
 

The race for the AL East last year wasn't as close as it looked.  The Yanks' 9-game swoon to finish the season brought the Red Sox to within 3 games of the title, but they were really much further away.  No starter other than Pedro Martinez won more then 10 games and the offense struggled with injuries the entire year.  This season, however, there's reason for optimism and not just because they spent a lot of money on Manny Ramirez.
 

Offense

The Red Sox have a nice core of solid offensive players.  He's not quite the offensive force that ARod is, but Nomar Garciaparra is a pretty incredible hitter nonetheless.  He's paced the American League in batting the past 2 years and was the only non-outfield/firstbase type player in the top 10 in offensive winning percentage (a rating based on how well a team of Garciaparras would perform offensively) in the majors last year.  Jose Offerman's season was marred by leg and knee injuries, the bane of existence for a lead-off hitter.  Off-season surgery has fixed his knee and he should be back to 100%.  If he can stay healthy, he's a good bet to get on base 40% of the time.  Both Garciaparra and Offerman have some of the highest contact rates in the majors so the change in the strikezone should not adversely affect their production.
Carl Everett was much better than I expected last year.  Despite his much publicized emotional outbursts, he proved that he was a valuable contributor to this team and one of the better hitters in the league.  Like Offerman, Jason Varitek suffered through the type of nagging injuries that could most affect his performance.  Varitek battled through hand injuries all of last season.  As is common with hand problems, his power went MIA.  He should bounce back to his 1999 form, when he was one of the top 2 or 3 offensive catchers in the league.  Troy O'Leary's offense was largely missing last year but not due to any serious physical problems; he was going through a divorce.  With that behind him, he's a good bet to return to his 98-99 form as a solid producer.  Trot Nixon got labeled as a platoon player because of his inability to hit lefties, but he and Dante Bichette will give the Red Sox the deepest outfield in the majors.  Each could see time at first base if Brian Daubach doesn't rebound from a terrible 2000.  Third base will be manned by some combination of Mike Lansing, John Valentin, Lou Merloni and Chris Stynes.  Stynes is the most likely to get the majority of the playing time, but if Lansing and/or Valentin have recovered from their numerous injuries, third base could be a very productive position for the Sox.  The big addition for the Sox was Ramirez.  Seen as one of, if not the best hitter in the American League, Ramirez will give a huge boost to an offense that ranked near the bottom in runs scored last year.  His presence will release Garciaparra and Everett from being the prime run producers and will give the Red Sox much more flexibility in the outfield and first base.  If they can keep everyone relatively healthy, this offense could score 900 runs.  RATING: 70
 

Defense

The Red Sox have never had that many truly great defensive players; Dwight Evans was probably the last.  This year's Sox are no different, although Garciaparra and Everett are at least above average.  The addition of Ramirez does not help a team with mediocre (at best) range in the outfield.  The infield defense is not particularly good either.  RATING: 45
 

Starting Pitching

For the past 3 years, the Red Sox starting pitching has been Pedro Martinez... and hope for 4 days of rain.  This year, they might have a legitimate #2 starter.  Hideo Nomo has pitched in obscurity since his rookie of the year campaign in 1995.  Some of that is due to the places he's called home - Milwaukee and Detroit.  Some of it has to do with the way he's pitched.  However, he hasn't been all that bad and his strikeout rates have remained consistent, an indicator that he's not losing anything to age.  If they call a more vertical strikezone this year, he could be a big beneficiary, as his primary pitches are a high fastball and a diving forkball.  Behind Nomo, the Red Sox have a number of candidates, most of whom are long shots to produce anything.  David Cone is 38, coming off his worst year as a professional and his strikeout rates have been in decline for 3 years.  Bret Saberhagen is still trying to resurrect a career riddled with arm and shoulder injuries.  Frank Castillo is coming off a career year in Toronto, but for three straight years preceding 2000 he was pretty bad.  Which is the real Castillo?  Rolando Arrojo showed some signs of life in the second half last year but really doesn't look like more than a 4th starter.  Tim Wakefield and Pete Schourek will also vie for a spot but I doubt either will pose much of a threat to secure a place in the rotation for the entire year.  The Red Sox best hope for some stability in the 3rd and 4th spots in the rotation will come from their farm system.  Paxton Crawford, Tomokazu Ohka and Juan Pena are each promising.  Pena will be very good if he can stay healthy, something he has had a great deal of trouble doing.  At least one off them will begin the season in AAA, but all should be contributing to the big club by August.  So how good is Pedro?  The Red Sox have led the AL in ERA in each of the last 2 years despite having 4 stiffs in the rotation for 600+ innings a year.  A good bullpen has helped.  But the rest has been Pedro.  It's still premature (after all, he's only 29), but if he can avoid serious injury for the next 10-12 years, he could become the greatest pitcher ever.  He has legitimate shots at 300 wins (he's averaged 19 a year for the past 4 years; at that rate, he'd get 300 in 9+ years when he's 38), 5000 strikeouts (he's got more than Nolan Ryan had at the same age; averaging 288 over the last 4 years, putting him at 5000 in 11+ years, when he's 40) and the lowest career ERA since the deadball era (2.52, Hoyt Wilhelm; Martinez' current career ERA is 2.68).  Compare him to his league average, he might already be the best ever.  If the Red Sox can get him any kind of help in the rotation, they'll have one of the best staffs in the AL.  RATING: 70 
 

Bullpen

Derek Lowe is one of those rare closers who is asked to go more than an inning relatively often.  There are two reasons why manager Jimy Williams let's him do this.  One is that he's an extreme groundball pitcher, getting a groundball out nearly 4 times as often as a flyball out.  This affords him greater opportunity to induce a double play grounder, thus allowing him to throw fewer pitches to get out of jams.  The other reason is that the Red Sox have a deep bullpen, with 2 other guys (Rod Beck, Rich Garces) who are quite capable of closing out games.   In the likely event that he doesn't make the cut in the rotation, Tim Wakefield can help in the bullpen, in short or long relief.  He can close out games as well, having been temporary closer for them in 1999 when Beck went down with injury.  There is no reason to believe that the Red Sox bullpen won't continue to be one of the best in the AL.  RATING: 70
 

Management

Jimy Williams is thought by many to be one of the best managers in baseball.  A decade ago, when he was managing the Blue Jays that wasn't the consensus.  He spent time as a coach for the Braves until he was offered the Boston job.  It's amazing how much one can learn from Bobby Cox's mistakes.  His relationship with Carl Everett, which to date can only be described as stormy, will be under intense scrutiny by the media this season.  GM Dan Duquette's relationship with player personnel and the media can also be described as stormy.  He has done a terrific job of picking up solid players off the scrap heap, but has had a tough time getting good value with his in-season trades.  Last year he gave up a very promising pitcher and shortstop (Dennis Tankersley and Cesar Saba) for Ed Sprague, took on the large contracts of Lansing and Arrojo at the expense of 2 inexpensive, decent players (Pitcher Brian Rose and infielder Jeff Frye) and then traded two promising arms (Chris Reitsma and John Curtice) for Dante Bichette.  None of the players he received had enough impact to bring the Sox closer to the Yanks and 2 of the pitchers he gave up (Tankersley and Reitsma) could have helped the Red Sox in the next year or so.  Ultimately, Duquette will be graded on how positively Ramirez affects this team's fortunes.  If they fail to make the playoffs, Duquette will likely fail to keep his job.  RATING: 65
 

Summary

With the additions of Nomo and Ramirez, the Red Sox should have enough to stay with the Yanks.  If the Yanks experience any dropoff on offense, the Red Sox should be considered the favorites to win the division.  However, the Sox are already at their spending ceiling; the Yanks are nowhere near theirs, even though they possess one of the highest payrolls in baseball.  Regardless, the Sox should be able to make the playoffs and if they get any kind of pitching out of their non-Pedro starters, have a very good chance to get to the World Series.