Hey, is it okay to do a preview of the upcoming Red Sox season if it is already underway?

Absolutely! After all, they still have three exhibition games to play with the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

After starting the season in Tokyo with a two-game split with Oakland, the Sox will wrap up this weekend's pretend games then head up the coast to finish the 4-game set with the Athletics. From there, it is off to Toronto. This is already one well-traveled team and it is the first week of the season.

I really would like to say I think the Sox will repeat as World Series Champions but I don't think it is going to happen. I think their downfall will be an area that was initially deemed one of their strengths: starting pitching.

Only Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield will prove effective over the course of 162 games. Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz will all struggle. 

Fans tend to forget - or at least overlook - the fact that the three are in either their first or second full season in the Major Leagues. Baseball, at this level, is not that easy. 

Sure, the Sox will hit, even though there will be the occasional shutdown as was the case against Rich Harden and the A's in Tokyo. But it is pitching and defense that wins championships, just ask the Yankees who owned virtually every offensive category in 2007 and had nothing but angst to show for it.

Nonetheless, it should be an exciting season. That will never change as long as the current Front Office stays in place.