Rebuilding A Nation: BoSox in 2010

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First of all, I'd like to advise all Red Sox fans to start living by the advice of Douglas Adams; author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Don't Panic.

The Red Sox have a lot of positives heading into the offseason this year. One of them being the new found level of monetary gluttony being exhibited by the New York Yankees:

$112,500,000.

That is the combined 2010 salary of Yankee staples C.C. Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixeira. And unlike last off-season, the Yanks will not be dumping nearly as much salary this year, which has led to many reports citing Yanks executives as saying they will not be making big ticket free agents a priority this off-season including Jason Bay, Matt Holliday, John Lackey. All of this, despite the fact that left field could be a high-need position with the departure of either Johnny Damon or World Series MVP Hideki Matsui (perhaps both).

So where does this leave the Red Sox? In a position to restock their team the Theo Epstein way. Big FA Signing and Low Risk, High Reward. So here are some predictions on Red Sox offseason moves and the chances of them happening:

- Sign Matt Holliday (6yr / $154M) 75 percent (Only real competition seems to be the Mets)

- Sign Rich Harden   (1yr / $7M) 50 percent (Sox have wanted this guy for a while...)

- Trade for Roy Halliday 25 percent (Sox are reported to be going hard after him already)

- Trade for Adrian Gonzalez 2 percent (Sorry... But Jed Hoyer's not doing us any favors)

- Trade Jon Papelbon 0 percent (No way. Daniel Bard is not ready yet, and there are not any free agent closers out there good enough to bridge Bard for two years.)

The chances are overwhelming that the 2010 Red Sox opening day roster will look pretty good on paper, maybe even good enough to have them favored to win the division over an older (although getting younger) Yankees team. But remember, no matter how hot the stove may get...

Don't Panic.

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