Lowell and Ortiz coming off injuries, are they fully back?

New pitchers, how do they look?

Here are ESPN.com's predictions for the 2009 season.

American League Champions

Jorge Arangure Jr.: Boston Red Sox (lose World Series)
Matthew Berry: Tampa Bay Rays (win WS)
Jim Caple: Minnesota Twins (win WS)
Jerry Crasnick: Tampa Bay Rays (win WS)
Peter Gammons: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Pedro Gomez: Tampa Bay Rays (win WS)
Jason Grey: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Orel Hershiser: Tampay Bay Rays (win WS)
Eric Karabell: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Tim Kurkjian: New York Yankees (win WS)
Keith Law: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Amy Nelson: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Rob Neyer: New York Yankees (lose WS)
Buster Olney: Tampay Bay Rays (win WS)
Peter Pascarelli: Tampa Bay Rays (lose WS)
Nate Ravitz: Tampa Bay Rays (lose WS)
Brendan Roberts: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Enrique Rojas: New York Yankees (win WS)
Chris Singleton: New York Yankees (win WS)
Jayson Startk: Boston Red Sox (win WS)
Gene Wojciechowski: Boston Red Sox (lose WS)



Summary

Boston Red Sox: 9 AL pennants, 7 World Series wins
Tampa Bay Rays: 7 AL pennants, 4 World Series wins
New York Yankees: 4 AL pennants, 3 World Series wins

Total: 20 AL pennants (95.2%), 14 World Series wins (66.7%)

here's to dropping a squat on the rays today

red sox will make some serious moves during the season IMO...i mean its 100% that peavy and halladay are going to be moved so red sox should b involved there. Especially if Penny and Smoltz dont work out as planned

any1 surprised lol

thats why we love you peter

Lugo needs surgery, and lowrie is for sure the future. Biggest story I think is how will Penny stack up?

94.5 wins+, cmon sox

red sx rained out wtf, guess ill have to go tomorrow

yankees do suck go soxx:

Rain is ruining my fun, wonder if I'll be able to go tomorrow.

o's getting to cc for 3 in the 3rd. that was my first 1/2 inning of baseball this year so good start.

i skip classes today to watch the game...i wake up finding out that the game is postponed till tomorrow and i already told my gf she could take the car to work today since i was staying home to watch the game so i couldn't go to class anyway...now i have to leave class early tomorrow and race home to catch the game at 4. i run bad at life.

In brighter news, I took today off to go to the game, stayed home and did nothing, and my boss said I can take tomorrow off to go to the game. Win/Win!

Anyone else going?

LM, game starts at 4:10 so you can give your boss at least half a day lol.

ill be there, cant wait, i just walked outside in boston, its pretty nice now, wish the game was at 1-2pm, 4-8pm gonna be collllldddddd

go sox

No way I'm going to be sober enough to go back into work at 8pm. (I work Second Shift )

looks like the mvp is ready for '09

I hope they play that Pedroia video game commercial.

drewwwww

Walking Jason **** Bartlett on a bunch of curveballs is not such a good idea.

i absolutely love this years team. not even a useless season from varitek can ruin this.

Varitek's two outs were both actually fairly well hit.

Hey, Beckett's curveball seems to be working again. Sweet.

Can anyone else not imagine LM working? I just imagined you were independently wealthy somehow which is what allowed you wander around the country watching Red Sox games and clandestinely taking pictures of random women, sort of like a 2+2 version of Kramer.

yea pretty much this


really hope i'm not cringing as much at varitek this season, but it shouldn't be too big a deal if it happens, pitching depth ftw