Boston Red Sox

This might be the last one folks, but Brian MacPherson tweets that Michael Bowden is on the way back as possibly the last September call-up.

Bowden being the last man up makes a lot of sense. The MILB season ended yesterday, leaving no other reason to keep guys behind past today. If you’re not up now, you’re probably not coming up this year. But that remains to be seen.

Most of you readers know all about Michael Bowden’s up-and-down career with the Red Sox from top prospect to guy who gets hit in the majors. We’ll see if he can break free from that reputation with a strong month. Given how Tito is running the pen lately, he should at least get a shot.

Pawtucket W 4-3

Box Score

Josh Reddick: 2-3, 2B, HR
-An up-and-down season for Reddick, but he finishes on a very high note. We’ll see if his no walks, no strikeout approach can transfer to the majors.
Jason Varitek: 1-3, K
Aaron Bates: 1-2, 2 BB
-Not a good year for Mr. Bates. A relatively low BABIP explains some of it, but a K-rate over 25% explains more.
Mark Wagner: 0-4
-A lost year for Wagner, who really needed this season as an opportunity to show his high notes were for real and his low notes were adjustment periods. But he broke his hand early, and never really recovered.
Jorge Jimenez: 1-3, 3B, BB, K
-After nearly making a major league roster thanks to the Rule-5 draft, Jimenez ended up OPSing under .600 in Triple-A.

Tony ends the year strong after the jump.

Portland W 7-4

Box Score

Nate Spears: 1-3, HR, 2 BB
-Not a bad minor league pickup for the Sox. Spears may never make headlines, but combining some of the best walk numbers with surprisingly good pop out of a MI, and Spears may have made a name for himself this season. He’s struggled to bring his game to the Triple-A level before, though, so we’ll see.
Jose Iglesias: 0-3
-What started out as a promising season was derailed some by a hand injury. The AFL will be a nice proving ground, though.
Anthony Rizzo: 2-3, HR, BB, K
-Nobody needs to be told how Rizzo has been doing recently. 20 homers in Portland alone, discipline numbers on the rise, same ol’ top notch defense.
Ryan Lavarnway: 1-4, K
-After being made to languish in Greenville last year despite big numbers, Lavarnway went and killed High-A Salem early on, and then did even better in Portland. Defense is still a question mark, but he has effectively lest FedEx in his dust.
Luis Exposito: 1-3, 2B, 2 K
-Expo saved his year with a nice finish to the year, putting up lines of .288/.364/.452 and .256/.354/.477 in July and August respectively. He’ll probably find himself in Triple-A next year.

Alex Wilson: 5 IP, 9 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 K
-The beginning of the year proved that Alex Wilson can pitch. The end of the season proved that Alex Wilson was a reliever as expected.

Salem L 5-10

Box Score

Ryan Dent: 2-5, 2B, K
-Probably about time to close the book on this first rounder. Decent in Greenville, and not since.
Adalberto Ibarra: 1-3, BB, K
-Haven’t seen much from Ibarra, but what we have seen shows us he’s very much willing to take a walk or a strikeout. Hasn’t shown any power so far, but might not be getting much to hit.

Cesar Cabral: 2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 K
-As I’ve been saying, this has been an impressively difficult promotion for Cesar. He absolutely dominated the Sally, but the Carolina league has dominated him. Still, groundball pitcher with big sstrikeout numbers and a BB/9 under three. Worth watching.

Greenville L 3-5

Ah, the only team to make the postseason.

Jeremy Hazelbaker: 1-5, K
-He’s too old for the league, strikes out a lot, and has mixed reviews on his defense. But I’m kind of sold on Hazelbaker for some reason. He can take a walk (59 in about 500 plate appearances), he’s got decent pop (50 XBH), and he has some serious wheels (9 triples, 63 SB). Give me more, by all means.
Kolbrin Vitek: 1-2, 3B, 2 BB
-Not a bad start for the Red Sox‘ first rounder. He struck out quite a bit, and had some defensive issues at third, but he did well enough to earn an early promotion to Greenville, and didn’t suffer from that big drop-off a lot of guys tend to experience after leaving short-season ball.
Reymond Fuentes: 1-4
-I remain unimpressed with Fuentes. A little bit of pop and wheels cannot save a .328 OBP.
Ken Roque: 0-3
-Completely unable to capitalize on his 2009 success.

Yeiper Castillo: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 HR
-A good year around a lot of missed time. Still not exactly a marquee name, though.
Manny Rivera: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
-His 4.10 ERA might not suggest it, but this was something of a breakout year for Manny, who leaped past his struggling counterpart in Roman Mendez. A K:BB of over 5 should be producing better results, and hopefully will next year.

Ubaldo Jimenez was finally able to record his 18th win of the season, but it was definitely an uglier win. He struck out 8, but walked 6 and allowed 4 earned runs over 6 innings. It was his first win in over a month, and he’s now sporting a 2.79 ERA and 178 strikeouts in 190 1/3 innings pitched. I am really not sure yet, but I don’t think he’s going to be in my top 5 pitchers for next year. But I could see him ending up at #6 or #7 pretty easily.

Chris Johnson hit his 7th home run of the season, and now has 38 runs batted in to go along with it. He’s hitting .325 and clearly having a very solid year, but I’m wondering what his upside would be overall. I don’t think he’s necessarily a 20 homerun type, and I’m not sold on the batting average being this high permanently either.

Alex Rodriguez hit his 22nd home run of the season and now has 100 runs batted in as well. I think he’s going to finish just shy of 30 and 120 overall, and I really can’t figure where I will put him for next season. He clearly belongs behind Evan Longoria and David Wright in my opinion, but would there be anyone else in front of him at 3B?

Danny Espinosa looks like he’s going to be here to stay after hitting 2 homeruns and driving in 6 yesterday. Ray wrote about him last week, and I was unable to grab him in my keeper league unfortunately. I think him and Desmond are going to be playing well in Washington for a few years now.

Mike Stanton went 3 for 5 yesterday with 3 runs batted in and his 16th home run of the season. I am really wondering what a full season of Stanton is going to look like, and it seems like the comparison I keep coming to in my head is Mark Reynolds (minus the steals). Stanton seems like he has the potential to hit 40+ homeruns in spite of playing so many games in pitchers’ parks. But the strikeouts are going to continue to kill his batting average.

Corey Hart hit 2 home runs, scored 3 times and drove in 3 runs yesterday in the loss to the Cardinals. He is now hitting .283 with 26 HR and 88 RBI. I think he’s going to end up as a top 25 outfielder for next season, but probably not as high as his numbers would dictate simply because I don’t think anyone believes he can do this again next year.

Madison Bumgarner threw 7 1/3 shutout innings against the Diamondbacks, and I really think he can be an asset to teams for the last 4 weeks of the season. He struck out 7 batters, and walked just 1, and as long as you avoid any killer starts, he should provide a lot of value for the remainder of the year.

Ryan Kalish went 2 for 3 with a grand slam last night for the Red Sox, and he’s a definite target in deep keeper leagues. He hit .294 with 13 homeruns and 25 stolen bases in the minors this season, and could definitely be a 15-20 threat in the future.

Going into the game tonight, the Red Sox‘ lineup spoke of surrender. Ryan Kalish, Lars Anderson, and Yamaico Navarro were batting 7th, 8th, and 9th respective while Daniel Nava was in the leadoff spot.

Well, Navarro could only manage a sacrifice fly, and Lars Anderson certainly looked overmatched in his Major League debut.

But Daniel Nava got on base three times, and Kalish…Well, Kalish walked, he singled, and he took a 3-1 Andy Sonnanstine fastball and deposited in the bleacher seats. With the bases loaded.

It was Kalish’ second career grand slam in under 100 at bats, and while it was perhaps the loudest hit of the night, the fact is that the game was already all-but-over by that point.

After Jon Lester ran into some more first inning trouble, allowing Tampa to get on the board first with a run, Boston came out shooting in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Victor Martinez drew a walk, setting up David Ortiz for the first homer of the night, curling around Pesky’s Pole. Three pitches later, and Adrian Beltre swatted the second into the monster seats.

The Sox didn’t let up at all in the second, either. A parade of, again, two out baserunners resulted in three runs thanks to a Victor Martinez single and David Ortiz double. Ortiz would add two walks in a very successful night. Jeff Niemann fled the game with just five outs recorded, and six runs allowed.

After allowing runs in the first and third innings, Lester settled down, and actually ended up with a pretty nice line for the night, including his third straight game with ten strikeouts. Lester was pulled with just 95 pitches thrown through the first six innings, giving Terry Francona a chance to get a look at some of the young guys and call-ups. What he saw was not pretty.

Out came Robert Coello, the most recent call-up from Triple-A Pawtucket, and an alumnus of the same independent league of Daniel Nava. And with him came baserunners. The Rays surrounded a flyout with a trio of singles, loading the bases. What followed was almost as funny as it was sad.

After fighting Brad Hawpe to a full count, Coello gave up a bases loaded walk on the seventh pitch of the at bat. Four pitches later, and he walked in hitless rookie Desmond Jennings. In came Dustin Richardson, and in walked another run. Finally, Tito called on Scott Atchison, who recorded five mercifully quiet outs. Hideki Okajima followed it up with a quiet ninth, giving the Red Sox the 12-5 win.

No matter how “out” of it you think the Sox are, it’s always nice to beat up on a rival. All the better when it’s the kids getting the job done. Here’s to another rout of Tampa tomorrow.

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