As we all know, it’s a dawn of a new age in Boston when young, vibrant players don the Red Sox uniforms and play integral parts of being a defending world champion team. The roster is littered with Red Sox born-and-bred players, and there are plenty reinforcements on the way. Everyone’s heard of Jed Lowrie, now manning shortstop and being compared to Bill Mueller. Michael Bowden is a rising star on the mound and Lars Anderson is supposed to be our answer to the question of who our long-term power hitter will be.
That’s not all the Red Sox have, however. Following is a position-by-position glance at what the Red Sox have to offer past the prospects that get plenty of ink…
- C: Luis Exposito, Lancaster — 21, Exposito may be the answer for the catching position long-term. He speaks English and Spanish, has a great arm and is a popular teammate. He was picked in the 31st round in 2005 and hit .283/.328/.508 for Greenville before moving up to Lancaster and hitting .272/.318/.494. He certainly needs work on plate discipline, but possesses the power and intangibles to be a major league starting catcher.
- 1B: Mike Jones, Lancaster — Jones, 23, was drafted in 2004 and signed in 2005. He used to play the outfield before moving to first and is destined to be a DH at the major league level if he makes it. He’s young for Single-A at 23, and was only just promoted to Lancaster.
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I like Reddick and Lin (although I would like to see Lin hit for more power). Almanzar looks like a beast at 17 and I would be thrilled to see him in a Red Sox uniform in 3 years, but he is a project and the club won’t rush him. Place has a ton of potential, but he developed a lot of bad habits in high school, when you’re being pitched around every time up you start swinging at a lot of bad pitches, still if he works on plate discipline, he could become valuable.
This entire group could be in Sox uniform in a few years . . . or not; but we really won’t know for sure until they start succeeding in Portland. Certainly Reddick, Almanzar, Lin have skills which make your heart beat a little faster. However, I pick Lenz because he has achieved Portland, has found his way back from surgery, is mature and gritty enough to know what he has to do, which is to aggressively pound the zone, like Bowden.
And for Red Sox fans, how great to know these young studs are hot on the heels of Anderson, Lowrie, Ellsbury, Pedroia, Smith, Bowden, Masterson, Buchholz, Hansen, MDC, Lester, Zink, Pauley, Hansack, Jones, Gronk, Moss, Murphy, Carter, Bailey, VanEvery, Thurston, Danielson. The Sox could field a couple of decent MLB teams out of these guys.