Red Sox camp report: This model looks fully loaded

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- So how many games will the pinstripe-quaking, AL East-shaking, Green Monster-rattling Red Sox win this year?
Josh Beckett took one look at this comically loaded clubhouse and predicted 100 wins is possible. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman already has dubbed Boston the AL East favorite.
"If it's 100 wins, if it's 90 wins, if it's 95 or 85, it doesn't matter," Kevin Youkilis said. "Just as long as it's enough to get us into the playoffs, we have a good shot."
Week 1 of spring training and the Red Sox are loaded. There is an embarrassment of riches, an overload of niches.
There's $296 million in new marquee players, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez (Crawford's seven-year, $142 million deal, and counting the still-unannounced extension for Gonzalez at seven years and $154 million). There's All-Star Dustin Pedroia, bopping around on two healthy feet. Youkilis, happily taking ground balls at third base.
And don't overlook the addition of relievers Bobby Jenks and Dan Wheeler to Jonathan Papelbon, Daniel Bard and Co. Because as any winning October team can tell you, success or failure often hinges on what's behind the bullpen door.
Oh, there are things the Red Sox do lack. Like ... um ... maybe a fourth batting-practice pitcher. Or a third shoe-shiner.
"This offseason was a tremendous one for the organization on a number of levels," owner John Henry said. "We accomplished everything that we set out to accomplish."
You think?
"This team has enormous potential," Henry continued. "Someone said there are 16 players here who have played in All-Star Games."
Aw, but who's counting?
"There's very definitely a sense of confidence," club president Larry Lucchino said. "A sense of optimism, a sense of what possibly could be. And you feel it when you first walk into the camp and talk to the individual players. ...
"But everyone knows hope springs eternal. We have to make sure that we're healthy, and then hope that the good luck and the randomness fall in our favor as well."
The 2010 Red Sox severely lacked those final two items and still managed to win 89 games and remain in the race until the season's final week. Pedroia (broken foot) essentially was done for the season by the end of June. Youkilis (thumb) was finished on Aug. 2. Outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury (ribs) played in only 18 games.
Meanwhile, Beckett and Lackey combined for just 20 wins and a whopping 4.91 ERA.
Being that those two will combine for $35 million in salary in 2011, the Sox are expecting far more. So, too, it should be said are Lackey, who has lost about 10 pounds, and Beckett, who has gained core strength via offseason workouts.

Bounce-back player ... Josh Beckett: The widespread skepticism over Beckett is baffling considering how easily and predictably he has rebounded from poor performances in the past. When he posted a 5.01 ERA for Boston in 2006, he rebounded with his one and only 20-win season. When he struggled with a 4.03 ERA during an injury-plagued 2008, he rebounded with career highs in innings and strikeouts. His career-worst numbers last year have a perfectly reasonable explanation: He had a strained back most of the year, missing two full months with it. His velocity was normal; his strikeout rate was normal. Ignore the skeptics. Bust ... David Ortiz: Ortiz did a disservice to owners by batting .363 with 10 home runs last May. Sure, he won some games for them, reestablishing himself as a Fantasy mainstay after looking like a lost cause in April. But the resurgence could lead you to believe the end is further away than it actually is. Ortiz is only two years removed from a season in which he hit .238 with the OPS (.794) of a middle infielder, and at age 35, he's old even by DH standards. Even if he declines by just a little this year, he's not much better than Luke Scott or Hideki Matsui, especially now that his struggles against left-handers could force him into a platoon role. Sleeper ... Jed Lowrie: All of the Red Sox's retooling this offseason left Lowrie without a place to play, which is both bad news and good news in Fantasy. The bad news is Lowrie won't get consistent at-bats coming off a breakout season in which he ranked second in OPS among shortstop-eligible players, behind Troy Tulowitzki and ahead of Hanley Ramirez. The good news is he's still plenty affordable on Draft Day. The Red Sox infield isn't a model of health, and even if they each play 162 games, the Red Sox could ultimately decide Lowrie's bat is too valuable to leave on the bench and make Marco Scutaro their utility infielder instead. -- Scott White

"Beckett was not happy with last year, and he aims to change that," Francona said. "He did it before, with a vengeance. It's our hope that he'll do it again."
One thing that will aid in that process is that the Sox no longer must live part of their life with Crawford leading off of first base, jabbering with Youkilis between pitches.
"He'd tell me when he's not [stealing]," Youkilis said. "He'd say, 'I'm going to stay here and let him try to hit.'"
Honest to a fault, when Crawford said he was staying on first base in his Tampa Bay days, he never lied to Youkilis.
"He would always stay," Youkilis confirmed. "He's pretty smart about that stuff. He knows the game."
Those conversations become a charming relic with Crawford now wearing a Red Sox uniform and Youkilis shoving over from first to third to make way for Gonzalez.
Another thing that's far easier to chuckle over now is that bygone day from May 2009, when Crawford burned the Sox and catcher Jason Varitek for a record-tying six thefts in one game.
"Some guys have rare athletic talent and don't know the game," Youkilis says. "When you have a baseball mind and rare athletic talent, that's when you know you've got something."
The Sox know they've got something right now.
So, too, do the Yankees. It isn't often that the two ancient franchises enter a season with the Sox as the clear favorite.
Just don't go looking for an outright admission from Boston.
"He's ordinarily such a straight shooter," Lucchino said of Cashman. "But he's not above a little gamesmanship, is he?"
Quipped Francona: "They've got a $200 million payroll. They're not going to be too underdoggish."
So what is it going to be for the Big Red Sox Machine? A century-mark's worth of wins? Maybe blow past the 1998 Yankees' 114-48?
"If you worry about the numbers too much," Youkilis said, "you always try and do something more."
So sit back and let 'er rip. Yeah, that's it.
extracted from cbssports.com