2015 Pawtucket Red Sox

I was just going by the Team Rosters section. Joe Kelly is about ready. Wright will be sent down at that point. Koji is starting to amp up too. They'll probably get one of the lefties. Do they normally carry 3 catchers?

Last year's Portland team was going to have an epic season. But, they played so well individually. They kept getting promoted. There isn't much room on the Bosox for this group. Until guys start to get hurt. Gonna be fun to follow. I'm going to try to catch a game in Lehigh Valley on Sat or Sun.
And, they're in Scranton in a couple of weeks. Will catch one there too.

To AA or the BP? Because when Koji will be back and Tommy Layne is sent down, there will be a logjam.

Shannon Wilkerson assigned to Pawtucket.  Not sure why he's listed as "released" under the transactions page, as well as Matty Ott. 

They are listed as released because they were released.

This looks like the single best minor league team in Red Sox history. Somebody else might remember better Sox minor league teams but, in my lifetime, only 2 jump out as notable. First, my hometown 1965 Pittsfield Red Sox, featuring triple crown winning George Scott and Reggie Smith:

www.baseball-reference.com/minors/team.cgi?id=55d03b96

Both stars were instrumental to the unexpected success of the 1967 Impossible Dream team.

Second, despite their losing record, the 1974 Pawtucket Red Sox who promoted Fred Lynn and Jim Rice to the 1975 team that endured until losing their 7th World Series game to the Big Red Machine:

www.baseball-reference.com/minors/team.cgi?id=6b508b80

Any other nominees?

The 2015 Pawtucket Red Sox are not only probably better than these or any other Sox farm system teams that somebody recollects but they are so talented, in part, because of the level of talent already in the majors this season that is blocking (at least temporarily) some of these players. Furthermore, I can't remember a team with such a promising combination of every day talent and pitching. Rodriguez, Johnson, Owens and Barnes are one of their best minor league rotations ever. Baseball America and other top 100 prospects evaluating organizations didn't exist in 1967 or 1974. However, my feeling is that few if any minor league teams for any organization ever compiled so many previous and current top 100 prospects on a single team.

This sounds like a stupid homer question - but seriously "if the Pawsox played the Astros 100 times, who wins more games?"

Yeah, the 2005 Sea Dogs are still the standard bearers.

If you look at the roster through pessimist-colored shades, you could see Marrero and Shaw never hitting enough to become more than backups, Cecchini being unable to field a position or hit enough to play 1B or DH, Coyle being a fringy utility guy, Bradley never getting his mojo back, & Brentz never hitting enough to tap into his power. Of the starters, Owens doesn't get his control right and the deception doesn't play in the majors, Rodriguez's progress late last season doesn't stick, Barnes winds up, say, as a middle reliever, and Johnson doesn't wind up with an out pitch, and none of the relievers stick in the majors. In the extreme cases, maybe something goes wrong with Swihart or Castillo that keeps them from reaching their ceilings. And this doesn't even consider injuries.

Gotta look at these things a couple years out. Now, I don't think that all of the above happens, but just saying, it's not like it's a given that this team even produces enough talent to top Pedroia/Hanley/Lester/Papelbon/Sanchez, never mind the Moss/Murphy/Delcarmen/Meredith/Gabbard/Pauley tier.

Even looking at that 2005 roster at that time, you'd probably think Cla Meredith and Manny Delcarmen would've stuck at least in middle relief for longer than they did, that Kason Gabbard may have stuck in a relief role, that David Pauley would be an up-and-down guy, that Edgar Martinez would've made the majors at all at least, etc. Oh, and Chris Durbin had arguably better numbers than Moss or Murphy that year.

And yes, any MLB team wins probably 60% of their games with the PawSox, minimum. Doesn't sound like a lot but that's a 97 win season.

Decided to take jimed's advice and look at the Phillies (who currently have the lowest projected war from Fangraphs Depth Charts) and compare them to the Pawsox

I extrapolated the starters at all positions (minus DH) and accounted for 5 SP and 7 RP - taking projections using fWAR and ZIPs and here are the results:

Phillies:
Positions players: 11.07 fWAR (based on 600 PA per player - no DH)
Starting pitchers: 6.47 fWAR (based on 200 Innings per player)
Relief pitchers: 1.49 fWAR (based on 50 innings per player)
Total: 19.03 fWAR

Pawsox:
Positions players: 12.07 fWAR (based on 600 PA per player - no DH)
Starting pitchers: 3.03 fWAR (based on 200 Innings per player)
Relief pitchers: 0.41 fWAR (based on 50 innings per player)
Total: 15.51 fWAR

Zips projections were used for all Pawsox players where available (there were a couple of zeroes).

So Phillies come out on top by an amount that winning ~60 of 100 games sounds about right. But I still think it pretty funny that a AAA team could be that closed to a Major Leage team based on statistical projections.

Many of the Pawsox seem to have low ceilings for MLB players - but compared to that 2005 Sea Dog team, I would be surprised if there weren't more multiple-season major league players in this bunch (if even bench and platoon guys).