Shaugnessy's review of the Sox off-season

Not sure what to make of this. Big Red rightly praises the Sox management for beating Boras in the Varitek negotiations, getting Pedroia and Youk signed for long term and adding some reclamation projects like Penny, Smoltz and Baldelli. But at the end of this off-season, will the Sox fans feel good when looking at the gazillions the Yanks tossed at CC, Burnett and (Sox prime desire) Teixeira?

We are a couple of weeks away from pitchers and catchers, and the Red Sox offseason is difficult to grade. Seems like the Boston brass has racked up a lot of "wins" in the player payroll column. The Sox beat Jason Varitek and Scott Boras to a pulp. They locked up Dustin Pedroia for ('scuse the expression) relatively short dough. They assured us that Youk is going to be here for a while. They took on reclamation projects - John Smoltz, Rocco Baldelli, Brad Penny - at safe prices. But is this prudent spending supposed to make fans feel better when the Yankees whip out almost a half-billion for Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, and A.J. Burnett? The AL East (except for Baltimore) is going to come at Boston with killer starting staffs this year and the Sox seem to have a lot of easy outs in their lineup, especially if J.D. Drew drags down the middle with his annual two months of flat-line production.