MLB Predictions: The Boston Red Sox's 2012 Season Projection

2011 Record: 90-72

2011 Expected W-L: 94-68

Second in AL East

The Pitching

With Jon Lester and Josh Beckett again anchoring the rotation and Clay Buchholz coming back for hopefully a full season, the Red Sox are set for their top three starters but that's it. Daisuke Matsuzaka coming back midseason as the fifth starter may or may not be an improvement. 

The Red Sox have Carlos Silva, Aaron Cook, Alfredo Aceves and Daniel Bard in line for the bottom two spots. Not that great of a selection but I guess anything would be better than John Lackey.

With Edwin Jackson in DC and Roy Oswalt narrowing down his options to not include the Red Sox, this is the pitching staff that is most likely going into spring training.

Their bullpen lost Jonathan Papelbon but they have solid closing options in Andrew Bailey and Mark Melancon whom they both traded for. 

The Batting

The offense is looking to follow up a strong year in which they scored the most runs in the majors, 875.

Expect bounce-back years from Kevin Youkilis and Carl Crawford whom both had down years compared to their recent career averages.

The Sox traded away both Marco Scutaro and Jed Lowrie leaving Nick Punto or Mike Aviles to be in line to start Opening Day at shortstop.

Cody Ross is an improvement over the J.D Drew and Josh Reddick platoon in right but is not a huge upgrade.

Conclusion

The Red Sox have some positives and negatives that weigh each other out. In the end if they don't get injured or collapse again, they are in line to have a similar season. They should keep a close eye on Toronto and Tampa Bay, though

2012 Projected W-L: 94-68

Second in AL East