'Sky is the limit' for this year's Red Sox squad

Tout est possible en avril... (portion de l'article de Ian Browne sur MLB)

Ever since that frenzied 72-hour period back in December when general manager Theo Epstein traded for Adrian Gonzalez and signed Carl Crawford, anticipation has engulfed Red Sox Nation.
So now the mission for the Red Sox comes down to this: Living up to the hype.

"That's the game plan, that's the goal," said second baseman Dustin Pedroia. "We want to go out there and work as hard as we can to be the best team we can be. We have to make sure that all of us are unselfish and play the game the right way." And before assuming that the enormous expectations surrounding this team have all been a media creation, consider that it was right-hander Josh Beckett who said multiple times during Spring Training that a 100-win season was a goal. The last Sox team to reach triple-digits in wins was the 1946 edition, led by Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.

More than a half-century later, this group, which boasts 16 players who have been All-Stars, has the potential to be a similar juggernaut. While the players are aware of the expectations, they aren't trying to hide from them. In fact, they seem to relish the chance to live up to the hype.
"Sky is the limit," said Crawford. "We can go a long way if we play to our abilities. We have big goals for this season." Crawford played for an AL champion, the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays. But he doesn't know what it feels like to be the World