Pawtucket Red Sox: An early view
By Rick McNair
The Pawtucket Red Sox roster is starting to take shape and here is an early peek.
Things are shaping up for the 2016 edition of the Pawtucket Red Sox (PawSox) that started 2015 in the upper echelon of the International League until need hit the Big Club and the PawSox roster was picked clean. The PawSox went from a first place near the end of May and sunk to dead last with a 59-85 record.
The PawSox finished off 2015 with a depressing slash of .238/.309/.341 that included a 13th place out of 14 teams in runs with 508. The offensive drudgery went into a former strength that routinely presents itself at Pawtucket – extra base hits. A fifth place finish in league home runs – not bad, but bad was last in doubles (192), last in triples (12) and an inability to scrounge up runs.
The bright spot was the pitching that finished third in the ponderous collection of pitching statistics. The bulk of that performance was readily visable in Boston with Henry Owens and Eduardo Rodriguez slipping into the Red Sox rotation and Brian Johnson being shut down for the season with an elbow issue.
And for a sub-plot just where will the team eventually land? Providence? Worcester? Hartford? Springfield? Meanwhile, the season will commence on April seventh against Buffalo at McCoy Stadium with the top ticket being $13.