By: Jess Lander, YawkeyTalkies Editor
Three games is nothing in baseball. Especially the first three. But, after a close opening series against the Yankees in which the Red Sox gave up 1-2, there are some things we can take away.
Five things we can take away from the first series:
1. Even if our offense doesn’t come out all the time, it is there. In the third game, we scored one lone run. This was a showing of the reality we knew was coming. Sometimes, we’re just not going to score. We’ve built a defensive team and we know it. But, in game one we scored nine runs, and in the second, four. Four runs shows what we might expect on average, and nine shows that we definitely do have it in us when everything falls into place. We had it in us enough to out-power the Yankees on Sunday, so I’d guess there are a majority of other MLB teams that we can out-hit on a regular basis. Kansas City this weekend will give us more insight, of course. With that, and the fact that our pitching rotation looks to about only have to compete with the Yankees, I’d say we’re looking [...]

By: Ian Tasso, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
Spring Training is finally upon us.
And what does that mean? Plenty of excitement, plenty of worried Sox fans and plenty of questions.
Only this time, it also means plenty of answers.
And that’s because of the 50-some-odd questions I’ve been emailed, texted, sexted, facebooked, i-chatted (and every other form of communication you can think of) over the past week, I’ve taken the top 20 and thrown them all down here.
Ranked bottom to top, here are the top 20 things, you, the fans, want to know as we roll our calendars into April.
So here goes: the first five, starting with 20, counting down to 16 heading into the 2010 season. The rest will be about shortly, don’t you worry. But in the meantime, you can rest easy knowing that at least these five worries have been addressed. We don’t want to overwhelm you with all the answers at once (still a couple weeks ’til opening day). It’s the least I can do.
20. Did Boston win or lose this offseason? (Ben; Tyngsboro, MA)
Considering what their options were, I’d say they won out. There really weren’t any big shiny names out there, aside from Jason Bay and Matt Holliday, both [...]

By: Dan Massar, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
Defense wins championships.  You mostly hear that statement uttered by football experts and fans alike.  Alabama just won a national title with a powerful defense.
This philosophy can also apply many sports.  The Celtics won the title in 2008 with the best defense in basketball.
And now, the Red Sox are going to try to win it all with defense.  In baseball it’s more specifically defense and pitching and the Sox have loaded up on both this offseason.
The surprising signing of Angels ace John Lackey added another great arm to its starting rotation.  Lackey joins Josh Becket and Jon Lester, and all of them could be aces on many teams around the majors.  Add a continuing to improve Clay Buchholz, a hopefully healthy Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Tim Wakefield as the wildcard and you’ve got a tremendous starting rotation.
Defensively the Sox added Mike Cameron to the outfield.  He will take over center and Jacoby Ellsbury will shift to left.  While the signing of a 37-year-old outfielder was a bit troubling, Cameron is still a top outfielder defensively.
And finally, the recent signing of Adrian Beltre to play third base gives the Sox perhaps the premier defensive third baseman in [...]

By: Phil Shore, YawkeyTalkies Staff Writer
The Red Sox have signed the best free agent pitcher in the market.
Former Angels starter John Lackey agreed to a five-year $82.5 million contract. In 234 career games, Lackey has a record of 102-71 with a 3.81 ERA.
Last season Boston had issues with the consistency of their starting rotation. Brad Penny, John Smoltz, and Paul Byrd were not the answers to filling out the back end of the rotation. Tim Wakefield started off hot but broke down in the second half of the season and wound up on the DL, as did Daisuke Matsuzaka who was injured the majority of the year and struggled when he returned.
Meanwhile, the 31-year-old Lackey went 11-8 with a 3.83 ERA, had 139 strikeouts in 176.1 innings pitched, and was the ace on the AL-West winning Angels’ staff.
Adding the best pitcher available gives the Sox considerable depth in their rotation. Whether or not Lackey is the ace is questionable, but having opponents face a top three of Lackey, Josh Beckett, and Jon Lester is quite an arduous task.
If the Red Sox do make it back to the playoffs, having the ability to rely on those three is a huge advantage, [...]