Baseball America and a few late Christmas cards arrived in the mailbox today. The BA issue features the top 10 prospects of the American League East teams.

Here are the top 10 Red Sox prospects, according to BA:

Questions:

Will the New Year bring Johan Santana?

And if Jon Lester is included in the deal for Santana, then the Red Sox still have six starters, including Clay Buchholz. But you can't go with a six-man rotation, because you want Beckett and Santana every fifth day, right?

Some thoughts as the Hot Stove League has cooled down (for now):

One of the latest rumors about the hunt for Johan Santana is that the Twins want Clay Buchholz in any trade with the Red Sox. Boston's answer should be easy. No. Period.

Buchholz shows the potential to become a right-handed Santana. He's only 23 and won't be demanding $25-million a year anytime soon.

Now what?

The anticipated Mitchell Report dug up a lot of dirt. But the probe, as George Mithcell made clear, was not complete, and a lot of it is old news on players who have retired, or are in a decade-long approach to retiring (Roger Clemens).

Commisioner Bud Selig has vowed to act. But do you depend on a man who goes to his own press conference without full knowledge of the report?

When the Red Sox got squeezed out of the Carolina League atfer the 2006 season - when the Wilmington Blue Rocks booted them - they had to move their advanced Class A team across the country to windblown Lancaster, Calif.

But the Red Sox figured out a way to get back into the Carolina League - they bought a team.

Now that Eric Gagne has finished his short and ineffective tour of duty with the Boston Red Sox - signing with Milwaukee - I keep hearing what a disasterous trade it was last summer.

Aw, how easy it is to be an expert in hindsight.

Pitching depth can come and go, depending on health, and prospects being able to fulfill potential.

As we wait for word on the Johan Santana trade, here is how the Red Sox organization looks from the mound, in Boston and on the farm: