With all the bitching I have done about the underwhelming Red Sox starting rotation, the 2015 squad's offense should be exciting and fun to watch. Besides the high-profile additions of Hanley Ramirez and Pablo "Panda" Sandoval, on of the key reasons for watching while the Sox are up at bat is Mookie Betts. Mookie, who played 52 games for the moribund 2014 team was one of the few bright spots last summer as he slashed .291/.368/.444 with 5 HR and 18 RBI and adjusted remarkably well to a position switch from 2B to CF. Mookie is charismatic, high-energy, and fills the leadoff hitter void left by Jacoby Ellsbury. Only 22, he has advanced plate discipline and can frustrate pitchers at the plate and on the basepaths.
At the start of Spring Training, Victorino was named the starting right fielder and it was up to Mookie Betts and Rusney Castillo to duke it out for the right to patrol center field. Rusney injured his oblique before Grapefruit League games even started and Mookie made absolutely certain that center field was his for the taking, hitting a blistering .452 so far, making some webgem catches along the way. For his part, Castillo has recovered from his injury and made a case of his own, but Mookie has nailed down center field, meaning Castillo has to upset the oft-injured vet Shane "Shanf" Victorino for RF, with LF belonging to Hanley Ramirez.
With the addition of two middle-of-the-order bats, Dustin Pedroia can return to his familiar spot in the two-hole while Mookie bats leadoff. Big Papi will bat third, with Hanley in cleanup and the Panda fifth. Mike Napoli, rejuvenated after a gruesome-but-necessary sleep apnea surgery, bats sixth, which leaves either Rusney or Shanf in the seven-hole, Xander Bogaerts eight and Ryan Hanigan ninth. That lineup should do a lot more damage than the flimsy 2014 edition. The pitching is a dead horse I've already beaten, but the ascension of Mookie Betts, in addition to Xander Bogaerts, should once again make the Red Sox a weapon of pitcher destruction when they're up to bat.
