AL East

As the Patriots and Celtics roll, the snow piles on and the Gonzalez/Crawford acquisitions finally begin to set in as reality, baseball seems a long way away.

But, in just 49 more days, pitchers and catchers report to spring training!

The Sox seemed to have slowed down their offseason moves. While they might be in the mix for some more relief help and/or another right-handed bat, the Sox should be pretty content in the fact that they've addressed their offseason needs while the New York Yankees have not.

Jonathan Papelbon is gearing up for his sixth season as closer for the Boston Red Sox. The upcoming year will be the third straight that Papelbon has pitched on a one-year contract. Next fall, Papelbon will become a free agent for the first time in his career, and will presumably seek a long-term deal with a per annum rate of at least $10 million.

The 2011 Toronto Blue Jays already have a different feel to them. 

The Jays will be in an unfamiliar position when the 2011 season begins: Playoff hopefuls. 

How many times has a Jays fan been able to say that since 1993? Not many. This year’s club is focused more on manufacturing runs instead of relying on the long ball.   

Does that work in the power-laden American League East? It worked for the Tampa Bay Rays. 

Tino Martinez was one of the greatest Yankee first basemen and should be in the Hall of Fame.  He had a career that spanned 16 seasons, including four World Series titles.  He is eligible for the Hall of Fame this season, and the voters should consider him.

Tino Martinez’s stats were not outstanding.  However, he did drive in over 1,000 runs over the course of his career, and was consistently one of the best overall first basemen in the game.

Change is scary and unsettling, especially when it is not by choice.

The 2010 off-season did not work out the way the New York Yankees had hoped. The franchise heads into a New Year having failed to acquire ace Cliff Lee or any other highly sought free-agent players.

On the mound:

The Yankees will be fine without Cliff Lee. The Yankees don’t NEED Cliff Lee. Would they have liked to have signed him? Of course. Who wouldn’t have? Having C.C. Sabathia, A.J. Burnett, a young 19-game winner in Phil Hughes and possibly Andy Pettitte should be enough for the Yanks. They have a young pitcher in Ivan Nova who, if he fixes his sixth inning troubles, should be a solid pitcher.

So far this offseason, there has been much talk of the Rays moving Matt Garza and even possibly James Shields. With the big losses of Carl Crawford to Boston and Carlos Pena to Chicago, Rafael Soriano's pending signing with a new squad, along with Jason Bartlett having been dealt to San Diego, it's easy to expect a drop off from a Rays team that won the division just a year ago. However, it is not time to consider moving two of their top pitchers when they have so much dynamic talent coming up from the system soon.

The New York Yankees have made small signings this year, especially after they missed out on the Cliff Lee Sweepstakes.

Players include Russell Martin, Luis Vizcaino, and Pedro Feliciano.

And if you look at it in a positive way, this is still a similar lineup compared to the 2010 team when they reached the American League Championship Series.

Adding to that, there is money that can be spent on even more signings, which can be critical.

But for now, here is the projected lineup and starting rotation of the New York Yankees, for the 2011 season.

Future Hall of Famer Manny Ramirez is still a free agent as of right now. He is going to be looking to find another team for the 2011 season, and the New York Yankees could be the right home for the 38-year-old slugger.

His hitting would benefit almost any team, and it's rumored that the Yankees could be after him.

Here are some reasons why Ramirez could or couldn't end up with the Yankees.

I won't lie—it's a nice problem to have.

At a time of year when finding an outfielder, starting pitcher and rounding out the bullpen is at the fore of most teams' minds, Boston is chiefly concerned with the dilemma of what order to bat our All-Stars.

Oh, the bullpen isn't a given, and there's the matter of Marco Scutaro and Jed Lowrie at short. But recent additions Dan Wheeler and Bobby Jenks would seem to have stocked and solidified a middle relief that was plainly awful last year.