As of now, most baseball observers assume that this year’s American League East will look more or less like it has for the last 10. I’m not so sure.

The Yankees aren’t as good as people think they are, and the Red Sox are better. Behind them are the Blue Jays, who just got a major cash infusion that could allow them to take on $20 million in salary this year, and the Orioles, who have that rare commodity, genuine superstar talent, that allows a team to compete when no one thinks it can. The Devil Rays are still the Devil Rays, but even accounting for that benighted franchise, the A.L. East should be a lot more interesting this year than it has been since the mid-1990s. Here’s a look at some of the big questions facing each of the teams as spring training gets into full swing:

BOSTON RED SOX

While the obvious problem for most teams is that they don’t have enough talent, the problem for the Red Sox is that they have too much. Wade Miller, John Halama, and Byung-Hyun Kim are lying around as spare pitchers, and starting-caliber position players Jay Payton and Kevin Youkilis are coming off the bench.

Thus, the challenge of the spring for Boston manager Terry Francona is to design roles that will allow him to get the most out of all his players. Should Payton platoon with outfielder Trot Nixon, or would he be more valuable as a pinch hitter and defensive replacement?

With Curt Schilling possibly out of action for the first month of the season, should Halama be kept in the bullpen as a long reliever or should he take a rotation slot with knuckleballer Tim Wakefield ready in relief?

Should utility man Ramon Vazquez start over defensively-challenged second baseman Mark Bellhorn when sinkerballer Matt Clement is on the hill, or should Bellhorn’s superior bat keep him in the field?

How Francona solves dilemmas of this sort won’t make or break Boston’s season, but putting the talent at hand to the best possible use is always a good thing. Francona’s ability to use his entire roster probably made the difference in last year’s ALCS, and creating a well-defined role for every man on his team this year could give the Sox a similar advantage this October.

NEW YORK YANKEES

Like the Red Sox, the Yankees don’t really have many pressing issues to address in camp – witness last week’s charade over the burning question of whether or not the Sox like their third baseman. The exception, of course, is mystery man Jason Giambi.

Leaving the steroids issue entirely aside, Giambi, 34, is the type of unathletic player prone to falling completely off the map in his mid-30s. It’s not only unreasonable to expect him to again become an MVP candidate, it might be unreasonable to expect him to be much more than an average designated hitter.

Still, that’s what the Yankees need him to be: Should Giambi prove even a decent longball threat in a semi-reserve role, it will help compensate for a lineup that has several holes and a bench full of players who can’t hit their own weight.

BALTIMORE ORIOLES

It’s a shame for the Orioles that they’re stuck behind the Red Sox and Yankees, because they’ve put together an intriguing team. Behind Miguel Tejada, they have Melvin Mora, Javy Lopez, Sammy Sosa, and Rafael Palmeiro, which is a scary middle of the order, even accounting for the decline of the latter two. In fact, they’re really just a pitcher and a centerfielder away from wild card contention.

On the other hand, this team consistently refuses to give itself a clear shot at winning. For instance, the Orioles have developed a monster reliever in B.J. Ryan, who struck out 122 in 87 innings last year. With a patchy rotation full of young pitchers of questionable durability, keeping Ryan in the set-up role in which he’s succeeded would seem to make a great deal of sense. Having a relief ace come in and clean up messes made by the starters would do the Orioles more good than it would most teams.

Instead, the Orioles are trying to decide whether Ryan or the semi-competent incumbent Jorge Julio will be the closer. From here, it doesn’t seem a difficult choice; leave Julio to close the easy ones, when the Orioles are taking a three-run lead into the ninth, and use Ryan as needed.

This is especially a shame because the Orioles showed last year that they’re quite willing to defy conventional wisdom in the running of their bullpen, for instance stressing multiple-inning outings over situational matchups. It would be nice to see them take the next logical step and keep their best reliever available to come in whenever they need him. Not doing so won’t cost the team the pennant, but there’s no reason to throw away any of your advantages when you’re competing against powerhouses like the Yankees and Red Sox.

TORONTO BLUE JAYS

A year ago at this time, the Blue Jays looked primed to shock the baseball world by grabbing a playoff spot from the Yankees or Red Sox, but injuries to and subpar performances by Roy Halladay, Carlos Delgado, and Vernon Wells left them in last place. This year, with Delgado gone and his roster spot taken by Shea Hillenbrand, the team isn’t considered even a fringe contender.

Still, the Jays will be quite a lot better than they were last year. Returns to form from Halladay and Wells seem likely; right fielder Alexis Rios, who was rushed to the majors last year, will surely end up doing better than last year, when he hit one home run in 426 at-bats.

Beyond that, ownership has upped the team’s payroll limit from $50 million to $70 million this year, and it’s not too hard to find ways to improve your team when the amount you have to spend goes up by 40%. Should the Jays prove even to be a .500 club over the first third of the season, they have more than enough cash to load up on salaries other teams want to get rid of – possibly enough to make them a factor in the wild card race.

TAMPA BAY DEVIL RAYS

What a sad, clueless team.

The Devil Rays have long stuck to a strategy of drafting athletic youngsters and teaching them how to play baseball. Fruitless for years, the approach has started to pay off of late, as high-end talents like Rocco Baldelli and Carl Crawford came up through the system. For some reason, the Rays brought them to the majors years before they were ready, ensuring that Baldelli and Crawford will be able to wander off to real franchises before they’ve even hit their primes. But at least the team’s few fans have had the chance to watch fine young ballplayers developing before their eyes.

Last year, the team’s crown jewel, shortstop B.J. Upton, was brought up in late summer, a few weeks before his 20th birthday, for no evident reason other than that Alex Rodriguez, to whom he’s often compared, had a cup of coffee when he was 19.Of course, A-Rod was allowed to play shortstop in the majors; the Devil Rays, shockingly enough, found that the 19-year-old Upton’s defensive skills weren’t particularly refined, and so they played him at 3B, DH, and LF, in addition to shortstop.

This year, they’re making noise about shifting him to third or DHing him – if, that is, they don’t send him to the minors. Attention should be paid to Upton’s spring training to see if the team can even fix on a position for him. Anyone who can offer a remotely reasonable explanation of how this is supposed to help a player develop, please send me an e-mail. In the meantime, I will marvel at the incredible, mind-boggling incompetence of the Devil Rays, and their young players will count the days until they’re free to sign with the Yankees.

This is the fourth in a six-part series on baseball’s divisions. On Wednesday, the A.L. Central.