The Boston Red Sox Land Carl Crawford

Remember when the Boston Red Sox didn’t make the postseason in 2006? Do you remember the offseason the Red Sox had right after?

The Red Sox went on a spending spree and brought in Daisuke Matsuzaka, J.D. Drew, Julio Lugo, and Hideki Okajima. While GM Theo Epstein is not proud of all of those moves, they all in their own way helped the Red Sox win the World Series the following year.

The Red Sox missed the postseason in 2010 and guess what? Once again they are making some serious waves in the offseason.

When they traded for Adrian Gonzalez last week, I thought that was the move that would help shift the balance of power in the American League East to at least even with the New York Yankees. Taking into consideration both offense and defense, Gonzalez is a top-10 player in baseball.

Now the Red Sox have signed Carl Crawford, the balance of power has swung into the Red Sox’s favor.

The Red Sox signed Crawford at around midnight to a seven-year, $142 million contract. The deal includes a partial no-trade clause according to Jon Heyman of SI.com and is the largest contract ever to a player who has never hit more than 20 HR’s in a season.

Home runs, schmo runs, I say.

I honestly can’t believe the Red Sox pulled this off. Crawford is a game changer and like Gonzalez, when you take into account both offense and defense, the Red Sox landed themselves another top-10-to-15 player in baseball.

All Crawford has done throughout his eight full seasons is put up an average hitting line of .299/.340/.448 with 13 HR’s, 12 triples, 26 doubles, and 50 SB’s. He is the complete package and is made for Fenway Park.

Crawford hit .303 on balls hit to the opposite field last season and that number should increase with the short left field wall in Fenway. Wade Boggs used to play ping pong off the Green Monster and I can see Crawford doing the same thing. The only difference being any ball off the wall in Fenway for Crawford will be a guaranteed double, while Boggs used to hit long singles.

Like Gonzalez as well, the Red Sox picked up someone who is best in breed defensively at their position. This is a carry over from last season when Epstein was hell bent on improving the Red Sox defensively.

Over the last three seasons, there is no left fielder statistically close to Crawford. His only weakness is his throwing arm and that will now be negated because of the short left field in Fenway. He could realistically stand 50 feet behind Marco Scutaro or Jed Lowrie at short and get away with it.

With Crawford manning left, look for Jacoby Ellsbury to move back to center and Mike Cameron will become a very expensive fourth outfielder. He will spell either Ellsbury or Drew against lefties.

With Gonzalez, Crawford, David Ortiz, and Drew, the Red Sox should crush right-handed pitching in 2011. They might be a little too left-handed at this point, but when a lineup is now as deep as Boston’s, that shouldn’t be an issue.

The Red Sox now have a lineup that features world class speed in Ellsbury and Crawford. They have grinders in Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. And they have power in Ortiz and Gonzalez. Not to mention they also have guys like Scutaro, Lowrie and Drew who know how to work the count.

Their lineup is off the charts good.

In terms of the contract, $20 million per year isn’t steep for someone of Crawford’s caliber. He’s been a $15 – $20 million a year player for Tampa Bay throughout his career and over the last two seasons, has been close to a $30 million a year player.

With the moves of Crawford and Gonzalez, the Red Sox are the team to beat in the American League. Will that translate into another World Series in October? That is to far away to say now, but the Red Sox are hoping history repeats itself from the last time they missed the playoffs.

And one last comment about this signing. I don’t want to hear it anymore from Red Sox fans about spending money. They have become the Yankees. There is no more “Well the Yankees buy a World Series.”

The Red Sox have become just as guilty as they have over the years. And this offseason, they are right there with New York.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg