For the first time in nearly a decade, Pawtucket is loaded with young prospects rather than veteran retreads.

08:38 AM EDT on Wednesday, April 7, 2004

BY PAUL KENYON
Journal Sports Writer

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson The Pawtucket Red Sox have some bona fide major-league prospects on their roster. Outfielder Justin Sherrod fits the mold as a star of the future after hitting 15 homers and driving in 74 runs last year at Double A Portland.

PAWTUCKET -- The new edition of the Pawtucket Red Sox arrived in town yesterday and manager Buddy Bailey brought with him a bunch of rarely seen specimens around McCoy Stadium in recent years.

They're called prospects. Young, exciting players with lots of potential who have been developed primarily in the Boston minor league system.

Catcher Kelly Shoppach is one. So are third baseman Kevin Youkilis and outfielders Jeremy Owens and Justin Sherrod.

Lefty pitcher Phil Seibel, who will take the mound when the season begins tomorrow night when the PawSox host Buffalo, is a prospect, too, as is Josh Stevens, who will follow Seibel in the rotation. There even is a potential big-time closer in hard-throwing Anastacio Martinez.

"If you look around this club, we've got prospects again," said team president Mike Tamburro at yesterday's media day. "It should be fun again."

Last season, when the team was loaded with veterans, many of whom had major league experience, was also fun. The PawSox won the North Division title. This year could be about more than wins and losses.

"I think kids create a different energy and make it fun," Tamburro said. The team has to go back a decade or so, he said, to find as many young players with this much potential. Tamburro thinks it is the start of a new trend.

"What's nice about the job Theo Epstein and the new Red Sox ownership is doing is that they are comitted to [developing young players]. This is just the beginning," he said. "Their first draft is still a couple years away (from getting to Pawtucket), but we do have some kids that are up and coming.

The "kids," several of whom got a taste of action with Pawtucket late last season, seem nonplussed by the attention they are drawing.

"Obviously, in the past they thought for this team they needed to bring in veteran players, that some of the younger players weren't ready to play in Triple A," said Shoppach, 23, perhaps the best of the prospects. "I don't know a whole lot about it. It's only my third year in pro ball."

Shoppach, who is thickly built with strong legs, hit .282 with 12 homers and 60 RBI in Portland (Maine) last season. He has seen enough already to know how the business works. He has seen players dealt away before they could get to Pawtucket.

"The way the Red Sox do it at the major league level, they play to win every year," he said. "If they have to trade some prospects away to get some major league players, they do.

"It gets down to where a lot of people don't talk about it a lot. It's the business aspect of it. There's not a whole lot we can control as players. We just do the things we can do and hopefully get a chance."

Still, the fact that a number of players have climbed through the system and gotten to know each other does make it better, he said.

"Where the prides comes in is being a Red Sox guy," Shoppach added. "You don't really get a feel for the type of tradition, the type of atmosphere it is, if you haven't been here. For me, hopefully my chance will be in Boston. To be part of this is something special."

Bailey, the International League manager of the year in 2003, feels the younger players will help each other.

"I think if you have just one or a bunch, it's better than having two or three," he said. "We've got six or seven. All of them hopefully are going to watch what the others are doing and learn. Sometimes you see the other guy going through the same thing as you and it makes it easier.

"It's good to have veterans, too, that they can lean on for that experience. With younger guys, if they go 1-for-15 they worry about it. A veteran knows it's no big deal. He can come back and go 5-for-8 and get his numbers back the way he needs them. A lot of times younger guys, inexperienced guys, will press harder or to a deeper level than guys with experience. That's what you've got to be careful of -- getting them through those times."

Veterans like Earl Snyder, Andy Dominique, Carlos Febles and Adam Hyzdu should be a big help in providing an example for the younger players, the manager said.

Bailey does not expect to manage any differently. He expects both his youngsters and veterans to have a common thread.

"You have to have a good work ethic. You have to bust your butt every day and prepare yourself," he said. "You do that, then take it to the game and trust what you're working on to work for you in the game."