I'm hardly panicked, but I'll call a spade a spade.

The Red Sox do not have strong deep pitching.  I will take the rotations of the Yankees, Rays, Tigers (arguably), Angels, and Rangers any day over the Red Sox.

When I look at the Yanks pitching I see Sabathia, Pineda (who in my opinion is going to be an excellent pitcher - he's only 23), Kuroda, Nova, Garcia, Burnett, and Hughes.  That's some pretty good depth, and that's not including Banuelos and Betances (and as a side note, the Yanks picked up a highly rated pitching prospect in the deal yesterday too).  They are built to withstand some inevitable injuries.

Buchholz, Beckett, and Lester, are good pitchers, but they're hardly head and shoulders above the trios that almost half the other teams in the league have and they lack the depth behind them.  All 3 need to stay healthy and Bard has to pitch well, and the depth behind these guys are Cook, Silva, and perhaps Padilla.  That's not going to cut it.

If the Sox did go out and get Oswalt, that would help them.  At this point, I'd be surprised if they went out and spent to get Oswalt - maybe the Yanks' moves last night will "shame" the Sox into saying the heck with the luxury tax, let's improve our team.

The Red Sox are going to be a good team in 2012, but I think the Yanks will be much better (I'll take their pen over ours, too), the Rays' pitching should be excellent, the Angels are a better team, the Rangers are better, and the Tigers are a better team.

When the Sox were in their heyday, the Sox were on equal footing with the Yanks and ahead of the rest of the league.  Yesterday with the moves the Yanks made, they still have to be considered the favorite, and many other teams have caught up to the Sox and have passed them.

As I see it the Sox are the 6th best team in the league with a chance to get one of the Wild Cards if they play better than that.