10. STARTING OUTFIELD- With Hanley Ramirez holding down left field the other two spots in the outfield should be an interesting storyline all season long. Shane Victorino, Mookie Betts, Allen Craig, and Rusney Castillo are all competing for the two available spots.
9. HANLEY RAMIREZ- Screw Lebron James and Darrelle Revis. The real homecoming story worth celebrating is the triumphant return of former top Sox prospect Hanley Ramirez. Previously Ramirez has been a shortstop and third baseman but this year he will be patrolling left field. With Ramirez having the athleticism to play shortstop I can't imagine that he will have much trouble (especially at Fenway Park). Still, with Hanley's lack of experience at the position its worth keeping an eye on it.
8. PABLO SANDOVAL- Sandoval will be entering his first season with Red Sox and while he has always had tremendous success in high pressure situations, it remains an unknown how Sandoval will handle the scrutiny of the Boston market. The former San Francisco Giant was just given a 95 million dollar contract to play for the Red Sox. Will a fat baseball player without the motivation of a new contract perform the way we expect him to.
7. DUSTIN PEDROIA- Although the second baseman has not missed any serious time he has been riddled with injuries. Pedroia has still been bringing gold glove caliber defense to the ballpark everyday but nagging injuries have seen his home run and slugging percentage decline over the past four seasons. This offseason Pedroia recovered from wrist surgery and by all accounts he has showed this spring feeling physically strong and confident. Since showing up for spring training Pedroia has been telling anybody who will listen that he is back to former self and to expect a big time year. I am one of the biggest Dustin Pedroia fans you will ever find but due to the recent track record of a noticeable four season offensive decline I am skeptical we will ever see anything resembling the MVP Dustin Pedroia again.
6. XANDER BOGAERTS- The Red Sox starting shortstop's rookie campaign was certainly one filled with ups and downs. Bogaerts did finish his rookie season with a strong month of play but there are still questions looming about his sophomore season. Offensively I believe Xander has made the adjustments needed to consistently perform at an elite caliber level but watching how he adjusts to the inevitable opposing pitchers adjustments will be something to keep an eye on. The real question mark for Bogaerts lies with his defensive game. In 144 games Bogaerts had a handful of costly errors with 20 in total. Xander played 99 games at shortstop and 44 games at third base. After many struggles at shortstop the then Redsox rookie was moved to third base last May with the re-acquisition of Steven Drew. After Steven Drew put together about 2 months worth of pathetic at-bats he was shipped to the New York Yankees last July. Many thought the struggles of Bogaerts could have been attributed to the Drew acquisition and being moved to third base. It would appear those thoughts may have some merit seeing Bogaerts did turn his season around both offensively and defensively after Drew departure. This spring many are saying the shortstop is noticeably better with his footwork defensively. Seeing how all of this translates over the 2015 season could be a storyline all season long.
5. MIKE NAPOLI- The Sox bearded first baseman saw his 2014 season negatively effected by a case of sleep apnea so severe he needed facial surgery to address the issue. Napoli claims his sleeping situation has drastically improved after his surgery which should translate into a more productive output in 2015. In 2014 Napoli's home run production was lower than 20 (17) for the first time since the 2007 season. Lets hope the Sox first baseman sleeps well this season.
4. THE BULLBEN- I really don't know what to expect from the Red Sox 2015 bullpen. I am going to get to Koji Uehara later but as for the rest of the bunch the only pitchers that can I confidently count on would be Junichi Tazawa and hesitantly Edward Mujica. I am definitely intrigued by the talent of Alexi Ogando but due to his recent injury history I am not about to count on him for late inning production. Matt Barnes is a pitcher that I predict to have a breakout season. He has the stuff of a closer with a dominant fast (hitting the upper 90s), but Barnes is just a rookie so no one knows for sure whether he will be ready this season. Needless to say there are many question about the 2015 incarnation of the Boston Red Sox bullpen.
3. DAVID ORTIZ- Over last few seasons many media members routinely offer their yearly preseason prediction that this will be the year that father time catches up with David Ortiz. Judging by Ortiz's 2014 season (35 homeruns/104 RBIs/.873 OPS) the Red Sox still have one of the best 3 whole hitters in the game. Ortiz is now 39 years old and the season soon will come when father time does finally catch up with Big Papi. As a Sox fan, I hope all the yearly Ortiz doubters will be proven wrong for at least one more year.
2. KOJI UEHARA- The Red Sox closer started out the 2014 season picking up right where he left off from his incredibly dominant 2013 season. In months March-July Uehara post an ERA under 2. Then came August. In the month of August in 12 games Uehara posted a 5.56 ERA allowing opposing batters to hit a dreadful .327. In the months of September/October the Sox closer wrapped up his season with a 6.23 ERA with batters hitting .278 in only 5 games. Uehara (now 39 years old) showed up this spring claiming that last season he was dealing with some type of injury but would not specify on what exactly. Koji also says he feels great and is ready for a strong season. Uehara is almost 40 years old coming off an off season and he has looked like crap this spring, this should be a concern for all of Red Sox Nation.
1. THE STARTING ROTATION- With John Lester signing with Theo Epstein's Chicago Cubs the Boston Red Sox starting rotation looks like this: Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Wade Miley, Joe Kelly, and Justin Masterson. Im not seeing anything looking like a clear cut number one Ace on this pitching staff. In fact i'll go as far to say as every starting pitcher Boston has are 3 or 4 quality starters. Porcello has the best chance to become something close to resembling an ace having his break out season in 2014. In 2014 Porcello went 15-13 with a 3.43 ERA in 204.2 innings pitched. Buchholz and Masterson both had off-years in 2014 and Miley is making the ominous jump from National League to AL East. With so many question marks in the Red Sox starting rotation look for the Sox to allow their offense (which appears to be stacked 1-9) to carry the pitching staff to the July 31st trading deadline where they will re-access the pitching staff and look for available options via trade (i.e. Cole Hamels).
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