The sun never sets on Red Sox Nation

Back when I was in high school, one of my history teachers once, for the sake of argument, said that the American Revolution was the greatest victory for the British Empire. His argument was that, while the United States broke away from British rule, every British colony rebelled since they thought the British would be stretched too thin and they could also break away. Only the USA succeeded in their revolution however, so the British basically dominated a world war by themselves, losing on only one front. That was my history teacher's argument, though I'm not entirely sure I buy it.

However, using that logic, the Boston Red Sox have had the best offseason. Sure they lost out on the large free agent they were seeking in Mark Teixeira (America) but they won all the smaller battles. They signed AL MVP Dustin Pedroia to a six-year extension. They signed MVP candidate Kevin Youkilis to a four-year extension. They signed Brad Penny, Takasi Saito, Mark Kotsay, Rocco Baldelli, and John Smoltz, all to one year deals for a base salary of $14 million combined.

While there is some injury risk associated with all of them, the deals are for minimal baseball money, and if the players can stay healthy in the reduced roles they will have in Boston, the Red Sox became incredibly deep and dangerous for very cheap. The Red Sox also have one more move coming to solve the hole they have at catcher. Buchholz is probably the most likely candidate to be moved because, while he has the talent, he doesn't seem to have the mental make up to pitch in Boston.

So, while the Red Sox may have lost their top free agent, they kept the rest of their empire. And who knows, for the lengths of the deals, the Yankees may have handcuffed themselves down the road. As a Yankee friend of mine said to me, "Yeah, the Yankees might be reducing payroll this season, but that's just a one year thing. Just wait until next offseason when they add two more giant contracts." Either way, this should be a great three-team race for the AL East this coming season.