Red Sox Preview As Of April 1st

The Red Sox are striking back on April 4th after a disappointing season last year with the new additions of Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. General Manager, Dave Dombrowski, went to work this offseason adding new recruits to their roster and they look set to take on the competition in the AL East. One of the Red Sox’s weak points is in the corners. Their first baseman, the powerhouse hitter Hanley Ramirez, was struggling with his transition to the outfield last season and now looks set to take on first base this year and Pablo Sandoval, their third baseman has been replaced by the rookie star Travis Shaw because of his atrocious playing on the field.

On his last year with the Red Sox, Papi is hoping to make a big stand and hopefully lead his team to victory. Last season he broke the five hundred home run mark on the 12th of September and is the 27th player in MLB history to reach the 500 home run milestone and is the 3rd active in the league as well. David Ortiz has hit 503 home runs in his career counting the ones that he hit in Minnesota, and 2,303 hits along with 1641 runs batted in. Also, he has won 6 silver slugger awards and has made it to the all star game a whopping 9 times! His statistics are monstrous and he will surely make the Hall of Fame in the nearby future because of them and hopefully will lead the Sox to their 4th World Series during his era.

The Red Sox starting rotation as of April 6th 2016 starts off with the 7 year, 217 million dollar lefty, David Price, and then the former ace, Clay Buchholz. Some other players featured in the Red Sox pitching arsenal are big name players such as Craig Kimbrel, who is the former closer for the San Diego Padres, and Carson Smith who was the former reliever for the Seattle Mariners. Last year, the general manager, Ben Cherington, spent lots and lots of money on signing legit players, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley and Justin Masterson and they all did worse than what was expected of them. However, this season, the Sox made it mandatory that they had a great pitching rotation and a great bullpen to relieve the starters and reduce runs from being scored.

On Thursday, March 31st the Red Sox announced who is the official starter for the third base position. All spring training, rookie star Travis Shaw has been pushing veteran Pablo Sandoval to his limits for the third base position. Sandoval didn’t make the cut this season because of his poor hitting and transition from national league pitching to american pitching last year and because of his weight gain during the off season. Travis Shaw, on the other hand, has had very good stats after moving up from AAA last season and has been hitting .367 this spring training! Now he has took over the third base role and maybe the Red Sox and the San Diego Padres might be able to pull off a deal. The possible blockbuster deal is to trade Sandoval for Shields so they could add another great starter to the rotation. If the two teams can pull off the trade, Shields might be reunited with his former teammates David Price and Craig Kimbrel which would be absolutely dynamite for the Sox and could really put them a significant amount ahead of the competition in the AL East this season.

This year could be the year for the Red Sox. They have all the players they need and have the rotation that could pitch up a storm. David Price is a great asset to the team and is set to lead the rotation for the season and start off the year at Fenway. Even though David Price and David Ortiz have had some bad blood over the past couple years, they are set to be good friends so they can take down the competition this year on the pitching side of baseball and the hitting side of baseball. Red Sox fans have a lot to look forward to this season with the new players and the high expectations and hopefully the Sox can just finalize Ortiz's career and let him walk into the sunset after all of his tiring work and appreciation to the Red Sox Organization.