It's one thing to make a virtue of necessity; it's another to actually win games while doing it.

Now that the college bowl games are finally over and the Patriots have been eliminated from the NFL playoffs, we New Englanders can turn our attention to serious sports business – Boston Red Sox.

Before we know it, major league teams will be assembling in Florida and Arizona for spring training. It may be January now, but it is not too early to ponder the prospects of the Sox.

This off-season has not yet been memorable for the repositioning of a team that lost to Tampa Bay in the American League Championship series. Boston's pitching did not hold up in the playoffs. Josh Beckett was a particular disappointment, but Tim Wakefield was ineffective as well. Middle relief was uneven.

The Sox's hitting also deserted them in the league finals. Mike Lowell was injured. David Ortiz seemed to have lost his knack for the dramatic blow.

All of this put way too much pressure on Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis. This duo had carried the Sox through most of the season but just couldn't sustain that effort through the playoffs.

Moreover, the captain, Jason Varitek, had an abysmal season at the plate, becoming a liability with men in scoring position. While he still handled pitchers well, his future with the Sox is in doubt.

Against this backdrop, the Red Sox entered the off-season with many questions and a few holes to fill. So far the Sox's ability to strengthen the team through free agent signing has been disappointing.

We lost out in the competition for Mark Teixeira. Much was made of the fact that Teixeira seemed to fit the Sox mold – unselfish, power from both sides of the plate, and a good work ethic.

We fans were assured not to worry when the Sox decided not to go after CC Sabathia, the major free agent pitching talent. Given the Yankees' clear intent to get Sabathia at all costs, this seemed like a wise move. However, when the Yankees appeared, seemingly out of nowhere, to also win the Teixeira sweepstakes, it was time to be worried.

George Steinbrenner's son Hal, now running the franchise, seems determined to outdo his father in assembling the most multimillion-dollar ballplayers on the planet. With the additions of Teixeira and Sabathia, the Yankees now have four of the top five most expensive contracts in baseball.

How worried should we be? Let's hope that the old maxim – money can't buy happiness – continues to hold. Over the past 10 years the Yankees have repeatedly demonstrated that the highest-priced talent does not necessarily make the best team

Over the past couple of weeks,the Red Sox have had a flurry of free agent signings. By the time you read this, the Sox should have completed negotiations with John Smoltz, the 41-year-old Atlanta pitching ace. In addition, they signed Takashi Saito, a former Dodger closer. They also added Brad Penny, another veteran pitcher, who was a teammate of Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett on the Florida Marlins.

Perhaps most exciting to Red Sox fans, the Sox inked a one-year deal with outfielder Rocco Baldelli, aka the Woonsocket Rocket, whose promising career with the Rays was sidetracked last year by an obscure disease that causes extreme muscle fatigue.

The good news in all this is that the Sox acquired a lot of proven talent to shore up the pitching staff, and, if Baldelli can play, added power hitting in the outfield. They also acquired this talent at bargain-basement prices.

The downside here is that all the players the Sox signed are coming off significant injuries.

Smoltz, surely a future Hall of Famer, is recovering from shoulder surgery. Penny and Saito are coming off shoulder and elbow problems.

Theo Epstein, the Sox GM, characterizes this as being willing to take chances on players who have significant upside potential. Others have suggested the Red Sox have added more aging veterans whose glory days are well behind them.

It appears the Sox, having missed out on key free agents, have decided to make a virtue out of necessity.

Time will tell whether Epstein has pulled a rabbit or two out of the hat. He will need to if the Sox have any chance of another World Series run in 2009.