If this is how the ownership of the Boston Red Sox opens up its wallet after buying an English soccer team, maybe someone should try to convince them to acquire Facebook or Microsoft.

First Adrian Gonzalez, a 40-40 threat (40 homers, 40 doubles) at Fenway, then Carl Crawford, perhaps a 30-30 threat (homers and steals). John Henry rebuked the ridiculous argument that he was cheap by trading for the best available slugger (who will ultimately be signed to a long-term deal. Book it.) and signing the best available free agent position player to a 7-year, $142 million contract.

Overpaid? Absolutely. What else is new? David Ortiz is overpaid. J.D. Drew is overpaid. So are John Lackey and Josh Beckett. Just be glad that the Red Sox didn’t have a 36-year-old shortstop to insult with a $51 million deal.

Simply put, the Red Sox now have two more potential MVPs in their lineup. They already have one MVP (Dustin Pedroia), a guy who once finished second in the voting (Ortiz) and one who once finished third (Kevin Youkilis).

The Gonzalez acquisition is a no-brainer. He’s the monster bat in the middle of the lineup the Sox have lacked since Manny Ramirez left and Ortiz turned 32. His swing is perfect for Fenway. What he doesn’t hit out of the park he’ll pound off the Green Monster. He has a good glove and he still has several years left in his prime.

If Gonzalez is a throwback to the lead-footed thumpers the Red Sox always used to throw the big money at, Crawford is another sign of just how different these Red Sox are the organization most of us grew up with.

The Sox weren’t been able to catch Crawford stealing in his last 35 attempts, so they ditched their catcher, then signed Crawford. It’s like Wile E. Coyote closed his ACME account then ended up bribing the Roadrunner to come up over to his side anyway.

Boston used to just draft for power. Sometimes they’d end up with a Mo Vaughn. Usually, though, they’d end up with a Greg Blosser. They’ve been drafting athletic position players under the current regime. They’ve also been drafting and acquiring good pitching for a while, even going overboard and overseas (sometimes at the same time) for a good arm.

This is the first time they have gone all out to sign an ath-a-lete, a player with many tools but whose greatest weapon is his legs. Of course, this has some folks wondering whether Crawford will still have his legs, or at least still have anything close to $20 million legs, at the tail end of his contract.

The belief here is that Crawford will evolve into more of a power hitter over time. Even if he doesn’t, he has the tools to become a dangerous hitter. Don’t believe me? Baseball-reference.com has a feature where  it finds a player’s closest statistical comparison at a certain age, their baseball twin, so to speak. Crawford’s “twin” the last three years has been Robert Clemente.

It was “Christmas at Fenway” Saturday and Red Sox fans have visions of world championships dancing in their heads. With Crawford and Gonzalez on board long-term and with Pedroia, Youkillis, Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz all locked up until at least 2013, the Sox will be in contention for the foreseeable future.

But let’s be careful making any wagers with our Yankee fan friends. The Sox still have a few holes and many question marks.

Theo Epstein acknowledges the bullpen must be addressed. Regardless of how he goes about doing it, the pen will be a concern heading into the season. Middle relievers are inherently unpredictable. So is this particular closer. No one knows how Jonathan Papelbon, coming off by far the worst year of his career, will react to reports that the Sox pursued Mariano Rivera.

The starting rotation isn’t exactly flawless, either. One can look at Lackey and Beckett one of two ways. Either they are destined to return to the mean after having subpar years, or those subpar years were indicative of their decline. If it is the former, we’re talking about perhaps the best rotation in baseball. If it is the latter, Epstein will have to be close to perfect with his bullpen maneuvers.

The lineup isn’t without its question marks, either. Youkilis, Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury are coming off season-ending injuries, as are fourth outfielder Mike Cameron and the alleged starting catcher, Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

Speaking of the man they call “Salty,” the Red Sox seem to be placing a lot of faith in a guy who is a career .248 hitter, is coming off shoulder surgery and once had such a case of the yips that he couldn’t throw back to the pitcher when he was in the minors for Texas. Everyone agrees Jason Varitek is a fine back-up, and there is talk of bringing in the rapidly-declining Russell Martin to bolster the backstop, but would anyone be stunned if Kevin Cash is back behind the plate at some point next year?

Shortstop is shaky. Marco Scutaro is 35, and we’re hearing rumblings of Jed Lowrie, who makes Drew look like Lou Gehrig, taking over as the regular starter. Regardless, both are just keeping the position warm for Jose Iglesias.

Oritz is 35, too, and one has to be a little nervous his anemic hitting in April and May could carry over into June, July and August. To this point, it appears Terry Francona’s alternative in the event of a Papi petrification, or whenever they’re facing a lefty, is Cameron.

Clearly, these aren’t the 1927 Yankees. Or the 2009 Yankees, for that matter. At least not yet.

Until 2009, I and many of my fellow Red Sox fans took great delight in deriding the Yankees as champs of the Hot Stove League, chumps of the American League. Before the 2004 season, New York traded for Alex Rodriguez and signed Gary Sheffield, adding them to a team that won the pennant the year prior.

We all know how that worked out.

Regardless of whether New York gets Cliff Lee or not, the Red Sox are champs of the off-season.

But let’s just consider that a nice Christmas gift from the Red Sox. Don’t assume next Christmas we’ll all have a “Boston Red Sox, 2011 World Series Champions” t-shirt waiting for us under the tree.