Pawtucket Red Sox

[Zen653]

The thread on Lester got me thinking about what we can expect from the PawSox this year. I'm thinking that our AAA team should have an excellent chance of winning the Governor's Cup.

We know with pretty much 99% certainty that the top six guys in the Red Sox bullpen will be: 1) Pineiro, 2) Timlin, 3) Donnelly, 4) Romero, 5) Okajima, 6) Tavarez. Francona wants to open the season with 7 relief pitchers, which means that only one spot is temporarily up for grabs from among Lopez, Corey, Burns, Delcarmen, Hansen, Hansack, Breslow, Snyder, and Gabbard. Once May rolls around and the team decides to go with a 6-man bullpen, all or most of those guys will be down in AAA. This should give us a loaded Pawtucket roster that would probably beat a handful of major league teams on any given night.

Probable Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA) Lineup:

C George Kottaras
1B Jeff Bailey
2B Joe McEwing
SS Ed Rogers
3B Chad Spann
LF David Murphy
CF Jacoby Ellsbury
RF Brandon Moss
DH Alex Ochoa

Bench
C Alberto Castillo
C Kevin Cash
INF Bobby Scales
OF Kerry Robinson

Starting Rotation
SP Jon Lester
SP Devern Hansack
SP Kason Gabbard
SP Dave Pauley
SP Abe Alvarez
SP Kyle Snyder
SP Runlevys Hernandez
SP Matt Clement

Bullpen
RP Craig Hansen
RP Manny Delcarmen
RP Kyle Jackson
RP Bryan Corey
RP Mike Burns
RP Javier Lopez
RP Edgar Martinez
RP Craig Breslow

[AutomatedTeller]

That's not bad... who are rogers and spann? I've never heard of them before ST. Are they any sort of prospects?

I like the OF - it's not Rice/Lynn/Evans, but they can play.

[Rice4HoF]

Chad Spann has been with our organization at least since 2002. He had a great season at single-A in 2003 and there were high hopes for him, but he then kind of fizzled out for a while, before bouncing back with a decent season at AA Portland last year. Has a decent bat and eye, but not a lot of power. (Sort of like a mini Youkilis). Not much of a glove at 3rd base.

Ed Rogers has been an Oriole prospect since forever! He first got a September call up in 2002.... I first heard of him playing Baseball Mogul. I drafted him, and he ended up with a Hall of Fame type career in the game, so I kept my eyes on him and noticed with anticipation when he came up. Alas, in reality he is nowhere near the player he was in the game. I'm not sure how we ended up with him, but I think he's too old to be thought of as much of a prospect any longer.

[AutomatedTeller]

I gotta say, it's exciting to see good OF in the Sox system. It's been a long time since the Sox came up with good OF from the system. Trot, yes, but he was just good - there hasn't been a star since Burks/Greenwell, and neither of them were quite in the Rice/Lynn/Evans/Yaz/Williams mold. Not that any of the guys in AAA are that necessarily - but it's nice to see some Greenwell/Burks/trot calibre players, too

[Zen653]

With Julian Tavarez pitching abysmally yet again, why not call up one of our young pitchers to take his turn in the rotation against the Yankees this Sunday? It seems to me like we'd be better off rolling the dice with one of our prospects than conceding the game by letting Tavarez get hammered.

The guy I'd call up is Dave Pauley. I don't want him to take the No. 5 spot permanently, I think Lester, Gabbard and Hansack are all better prospects. My reason for calling up is Pauley is that he's already pitched at Yankee Stadium before and actually silenced the Yankee bats. He's also off to the best start of any Pawtucket starter, posting a 1.00 ERA and averaging almost a strikeout per inning. Why not call him up for the one start and then reassess the situation after the game?

To make room for Pauley, the Red Sox could try to sneak Snyder through waivers. If someone claims him, no big loss, we've got plenty of arguably superior replacements available at Pawtucket (Corey, Delcarmen, Hansen, Gabbard, Lopez, etc.)

I'd just hate to see the Red Sox give a game away. I don't care if it's only April. We should put ourselves in a position to win every game. Tavarez just isn't getting it done right now. We can mix and match No. 5 starters until Lester is ready (which might be as soon as early to mid-May.)

[AutomatedTeller]

I'd even be ok with giving Snyder the start.

I wouldn't mind them bringing someone up, but right now, i am certain that Snyder woulnd't make it through waivers. He's got an ERA around 3.40. I think Tavarez might make it through, though.

[Zen653]

I went down to the Pawtucket vs. Durham matinee game today and watched Abe Alvarez pick up the win in a 5-inning, 4 run effort. Alvarez's fastball was a Foulkesque 86 mph, and his breaking pitches didn't really break. He served up two homeruns and didn't seem to fool anyone with his pitches. As a starting pitcher, Alvarez has AAA journeyman written all over him. I am hopeful, however, that he could be converted into an effective lefthanded specialist a la Mike Myers. Alvarez has a deceptive delivery and I heard someone at McCoy mention that Alvarez had only given up two homeruns entering today's game - the implication being that he normally induces a lot of groundballs, or at the very least keeps the ball within the park. If true, that could make Alvarez a potentially decent major league relief pitcher. When you go to the bullpen to fetch someone for an out or two, you're looking for someone who isn't the reincarnation of Upper Deck Beck or Way Back Wasdin.

Jacoby Ellsbury started in center field and did a really nice job of tracking fly balls and firing the ball back into the infield to hold runners to base hits. I wouldn't say that the has a rocket arm, but he had very good throwing accuracy and did not need a cut-off man to reach third base from deep center. Offensively, Ellsbury didn't do much of anything - he grounded into a double play, struck out, and just looked uncomfortable at the plate in general. It was probably an uncharacteristic day for him, given his solid overall statistics.

I did not get an opportunity to see George Kottaras. Kevin Cash started behind the dish and did an okay defensive job. I can't remember if he did anything offensively.

The two hitters who stood out most in the game were David Murphy and Brandon Moss. Both players had clutch hits in this game - especially the 2-out hit by Moss which put Pawtucket ahead for good in a 5 run 5th inning that erased a 4-1 deficit. Murphy and Moss both have excellent hand-eye coordination. They swung early in the count but were able to pull out of 0-2 and 1-2 holes by fouling off tough pitches and laying off the breaking stuff low and outside. Murphy is hitting at around .319 and I think he's more than ready to at least be a major league utility outfielder. Moss seems like a similar player and I think he's ready too.

On the pitching side, I found it interesting to see that Mike Burns, not Craig Hansen, is now closing out games for the PawSox. Burns got the job done in the 9th, without much flash. This was in stark contrast to Manny Delcarmen who had electric stuff in this game. Delcarmen consistently hit the mid to high 90s on the radar gun and he mowed down the Bulls, without giving them a chance. He pitched the 6th and 7th innings and struck out three or four batters with an array of well-placed fastballs and 12 to 8 curve balls. He was clearly a cut above the other pitchers who performed today (on either side.)

[kelleigh1]

I haven't been around the boards much and missed a fair number of Pawsox games through April, but maybe now that we're there a little more regularly, I can add a little more insight to the prospects.

As for last nights game, despite what they said during the Sox game, Lester didn't look stellar last night. He had a good line, but individual pitches...there were quite a few that went low, high, wide. Thankfully, he'd throw one way off target when it didn't matter and then come back with a gem or two to keep himself out of trouble.

Hanson relieved Lester but didn't last long. Injury of some sort, although since I couldn't tell what it was and he walked off on his own, I'm hopeful that it's not too serious. (I haven't had a chance to look and see if there is anything being reported yet.)

Craig Breslow replaced Hanson and did ok. Then it was time for Timlin and he was missing badly. We left in the 7th, so I can't report on anything after that point.

In the lineup, Ellsbury didn't play last night, but he had been on quite a tear for the earlier part of the homestand. Moss looked awful last night against Columbus' starter. The guy had one heck of a curve, but a monster ERA too, and you could see why. But Moss couldn't figure him out. Murphy struggled against him also, but didn't look quite as bad as Moss.

Two more games at home this week - tonight and tomorrow, then they're on the road until next weekend...which reminds me, I need to find someone to take a few pairs of tickets off my hands before the homestand starts.

As I said, I'll try to come back more often and give updates on. Let me know if there is anyone in particular you want to know about.

Oh, and as for Kottaras...he's looking young. He's struggling at the plate and seems to be swinging at bad pitches. Not big ugly swings, but he seems to get to the point where he doesn't know if he should swing or not so he's hesitant and ends up getting caught up in a lot of half swings or "oops" swings. Defensively, he's looking ok. He stopped a good number of wild pitches last night, which really helped Lester.

[Zen653]

2008 Pawtucket Red Sox

C Dusty Brown/George Kottaras
1B Chris Carter/Jeff Bailey
2B Jeff Natale
SS Gil Velazquez/Aaron Reza
3B Keith Ginter/Chad Spann
OF Brandon Moss
OF Bobby Kielty/Bryan Pritz
OF Jonathan Van Every

SP Chris Smith
SP Kyle Snyder
SP Abe Alvarez
SP Michael Tejera
SP Charlie Zink

RP Lincoln Holdzkom
RP Lee Gronkiewicz
RP Eric Hull
RP Dan Kolb
RP Edgar Martinez
RP Jon Switzer
RP Craig Hansen

DL - Bartolo Colon, Devern Hansack
Reserve - Bryan Corey

When Joe Thurston clears waivers, we can add him back to the Pawtucket roster. Dave Pauley will probably return to AAA soon as well.

Here's someone who deserves a promotion:

RP Craig Hansen W(1-0), 12 1/3 IP, 3 H, 13 K's, 4 BB, 0 ER.

And if Varitek is going to be out for a few more days, the Red Sox might want to consider adding:

C George Kottaras .254 AVG, 5 HR, 16 RBI

It'll be interesting to see whether the Red Sox send Pauley back down before tonight's game. Even if Beckett misses a second start, the Red Sox could use Pauley's roster spot on Kottaras for a few days until Varitek recovers, or they could call up Hansen and shift Tavarez to the rotation. Pauley just doesn't seem to have major league stuff. He's been whacked around in three of his four major league starts. Oddly, he was the only non-injured Pawtucket starter on the 40-man roster. Unless the Red Sox plan on designating someone for assignment, Pauley and Tavarez are the only current options to back up Beckett. And with Colon and Hansack still out, there aren't a lot of attractive non-roster minor league alternatives. Chris Smith has been pretty good so far for Pawtucket (2.40 ERA), albeit in a very small sample size. Kyle Snyder could aways get called up again, though we already know about his failures as a major league starter. Justin Masterson has been phenomenal for Portland (1-0, 0.95 ERA) in 4 starts, but do the Red Sox really want to dip down two levels to find a replacement starter?

[jackmcmanus21]

I've been watching AAA for a while. We have the AAA Yankee affiliate here and we used to have the AAA Phillies affiliate. Pawtucket is good every year, alot of quality players.