Boston Red Sox 2006 Regular Season and Off Season

The Boston Red Sox 2006 regular season was disappointing for the organization and fans. While they finished the season with a winning record, they failed to make the playoffs. There was so good things that happened for them during the season and obviously some not so good things.

After finishing the season with an 86 and 76 record, Boston was going to need to make some much needed changes to the pitching staff. The staff allowed more runs than the offense scored. Runs against was 825 while runs scored was at 820. Closer Keith Foulke was injured and throw just 49.2 innings. Only 2 starting pitchers pitched over 200 innings. The rest of the starters were injured.

After coming off and injury year in 2005, Curt Schilling bounced back going 15 and 7 with an era of 3.97 while throwing 204 innings. Also recording a 200+ inning season was first year Red Sox Josh Beckett. However, Beckett's era went from 3.38 in 2005 to 5.01 in 2006. The only other pitcher with at least 20 starts was knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

On the good notes for the staff, rookie Jonathan Papelbon established himself as one of the top closers. He posted an era of 0.92 in 68.1 innings with 35 saves. Jon Lester, another rookie, had a 7 and 2 record in just 15 games started. Situational left Javier Lopez had an era of 2.70 in 27 games. While Beckett had the high era, it was also the first time in his big league career that the pitched 200 innings showing that he can stay healthy. In the past, he had blisters develop on his fingers that made him lose a few starts keeping him from that 200 inning mark.

On the offense side of the game, David Ortiz continued to increase his single season home run high to 54. He also drove in 137 runs and batted .287. His offense partner, Manny Ramirez, put up yet another Manny Ramirez season .321 batting average with 35 home runs and 102 runs batted in. Third Baseman Mike Lowell played very well during 2006. In 2005 he put up a .236 batting average with just 8 home runs and 58 runs batted in. During 2005 everything went wrong. For 2006 he increased his batting average back up to .284 while hitting 20 home runs and driving in 80 runs. 2006 was a more typical Mike Lowell season.

During the 2006 off season the Red Sox major several moves. They brought over a couple Japanese pitchers. Hideki Okajima a left handed pitcher signed a two-year contract. They also were the winning bidders for ace superstar Daisuke Matsuzaka with a 51.1 million bid. Matsuzaka signed a 6-year contract worth 52 million. They also upgraded the bullpen by acquiring Brendan Donnelly from the Angels and signed lefty J.C. Romero. They also signed Joel Pineiro to a one-year contract paying him more than they probably should have considering his awful 2006 season. J.D. Drew signed a five-year contract to help out the Red Sox offense and Julio Lugo to take over at shortstop.

The revamped Red Sox rotation will be Schilling, Beckett, Matsuzaka, and Wakefield. Joining them in it will be Papelbon moving from the closer role. He was a started during his minor league career. Pineiro might be given a shot at the closer job. If he is there closer it should make the end of the game interesting considering his failures the last few years. Offensively, Boston should once again be among the best in baseball.

If someone steps up as dominate closer Boston should once again be in the playoffs. They should also have a great shot at winning a World Series title again. If nobody takes over the closer role then they will need to go out an acquire someone for that job.