The Portland Sea Dogs had the best regular season record in the Eastern League in their second season of existence a year ago: 86-56.

Nine players who saw time in Portland last season will open the season in Sea Dog colors on Thursday when they travel to play the Reading (Pa.) Phillies.

“I think we’ll have a solid team,” said third-year Sea Dog Manager Carlos Tosca. “We’ve got guys back from last year like [Mike] Redmond, [Chris] Sheff and [Pookie] Wilson who will give us stability. We’ve also got some returning pitchers and a good blend of younger players.

“We’ll have pretty good balance. We’ll be more of a one-run-at-a-time team. I’d be surprised if we had a lot of big innings. But based on what I’ve seen in spring training, we’ll move the ball around pretty well. Our situation hitting has been pretty good and we’ve been pretty good at getting runners home from third [with less than two outs],” added Tosca.

The Sea Dogs, who were eliminated in the playoffs by New Haven a year ago, may not hit many homers but they will have the speed and bat control necessary to manufacture runs which suits the 42-year-old Tosca just fine.

“If I had a preference, this is the kind of baseball I’d rather play,” said Tosca.

The Sea Dogs have four players who stole 23 or more bases a year ago. Speedy second baseman Luis Castillo and center fielder Todd Dunwoody stole 41 and 39 bases, respectively, for Kane County of the Midwest League; outfielder Doug O’Neill swiped 24 for St. Paul of the Northern League and RF Sheff stole 23 for the Sea Dogs.

Tosca said Castillo and Dunwoody are “very exciting players” who have exceptional range and defensive instincts.

Tosca said his pitching staff possesses “some experience and some real good arms. The bullpen should have a real good mix of lefties and righties. We should be able to get some pretty good matchups lefty against lefty and righty against righty.”

The starting rotation will feature righties Will Cunnane, who was 9-2 with a 3.67 earned run average for the Sea Dogs last year and Rey Mendoza, who was 9-10 with a 3.43 ERA for the Sea Dogs.

Robbie Beckett, Bryan Ward and Tony Saunders will be the other starters and all three are lefties.

The bullpen will be comprised of righties Dan Chergey, Bill Hurst, Greg Mix and Clemente Nunez and leftys Jeff Alkire and Felix Heredia. Ward, Chergey and Mix were 19-14 with seven saves for Portland last year. Hurst will be the closer.

Redmond, who hit .255 with three homers and 39 runs batted in for Portland, returns behind the plate and power-hitting newcomer John Roskos will play first. Castillo will play second with Lionel Hastings and Tony Torres switching off at short. Newcomer Dave Berg will play third.

Wilson will be in left; Dunwoody will be in center and Sheff, who drove in 91 runs for the Sea Dogs, will be in right. O’Neill and Ron Brown will be the backup outfielders.

“Defensively, we won’t be flashy,” said Tosca. “Our outfield defense will be above average. Our infield situation is solid.”

Redmond is a take-charge catcher who is “outstanding at running the game” according to Tosca.

Things are also going well for the Sea Dogs off the field. Assistant general manager John Kameisha said the Sea Dogs have sold approximately 300,000 tickets already with five sellouts. They have 500 names on the waiting list for their 2,500 season tickets.

The home opener will be April 12 against Harrisburg beginning at 6 p.m. at Hadlock Field.