For any of the Red Sox fans out there, this is a podcast recorded by some of the guys at the SoxProspects.com website.  This week's episode looks at Ryan Kalish's future in the organization, Daniel Bard's prospects at being the future Red Sox closer, and other impressions from the early season.  We also got rid of the skips which plagued the earlier podcasts.  Check it out if you get a chance:

Link to MP3 site

iTunes Link

Hey guys, just wanted to let you know that SP.com is starting a monthly podcast revolving around minor league topics. This week's premier episode includes talk about the crew's trip down to minor league spring training at Fort Myers, the biggest minor league stories entering the year, the Sox difficulty producing corner outfielders, and the media's coverage of the minor leagues. Three other guys from SP.com and I conduct the podcast roundtable style. We'd really like you to give our first episode a listen and give us any feedback you can. I'm sure many of you are loyal podcast listeners and have a lot of productive input to add. Runtime is around 1:08. We will also be available on iTunes shortly, after we get past the initial iTunes approval process which should take 1-2 weeks.

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Hagadone had a disastrous first professional start, giving up 5 ER in 1.1 IP.  Since that outing, his line is:

23 IP, 8 H, 0.00 ERA, 32/7 K/BB

I had a chance to watch him pitch twice: once on Milb.tv and once live.  The game I saw him pitch, he topped out at 96 mph and displayed excellent control, a very good slider and a changeup which got better as his outing went on.  

In his next outing, he reportedly hit 98 once and got up to 97 mph a couple of times.

"Soxprospects.com's, Jonathan Singer has learned that prized pitching prospect Clay Buchholz will be called up to start game 1 of Friday's doubleheader against the Los Angeles Angels. Buchholz, who recently celebrated his 23rd birthday this week was 8-3 with a 2.15 ERA with 164 strikeouts between stops in Portland and Pawtucket. Buchholz makes his major league debut a little over 2 years since being selected in the supplemental first round of the 2005 amateur draft."

http://soxprospects.blogspot.com/2007/08/buchholz-to-start-on-friday.html

3 million dollars!!

Dicen que hijo de gato caza ratón: pues ése es el caso de Michael Almánzar, hijo del lanzador de los Medias Rojas de Boston, Carlos Almánzar.

Michael, de 16 años, firmó el lunes por la noche un contrato de 3 millones de dólares con los Medias Rojas de Boston para convertirse en profesional y se unió a la misma franquicia a la que pertenece su padre.

"Me siento muy orgulloso de conseguir este contrato con los Medias Rojas, ya que ahora tengo la oportunidad de que con Dios delante pueda jugar junto a mi papá", dijo Almánzar, un torpedero de seis pies y cinco pulgadas de estatura.

Por la firma, considerada una de las más altas jamás firmadas en la República Dominicana, recibirá inicialmente 1,5 millón de dólares y el restante 1,5 millón será entregado "de manera progresiva", informó el padre del jugador.

El joven Almánzar es definido como un pelotero de cinco herramientas, con capacidad para llegar a las mayores en unos tres años. Tiene como agente a Dominick Torres, quien maneja peloteros del calibre del inicialista de los Cardenales de San Luis, Albert Pujols.

El torpedero proviene de una familia corta y convive con su madre y su hermana en la República Dominicana mientras su padre juega en los Estados Unidos.

Carlos Almánzar se encuentra en proceso de rehabilitación de una operación de reemplazo de ligamento del codo derecho y espera comenzar a lanzar en las próximas semanas.

"Esto es algo grande, ver a mi hijo convertido en todo un pelotero profesional. La familia está muy contento por este logro", dijo Almánzar padre.

El bono de firma otorgado a Michael Almánzar es el más alto otorgado por los Medias Rojas en su historia de franquicia. El japonés Daisuke Matsuzaka recibió 2 millones de dólares de bono cuando fichó con Boston el año pasado.

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/317/story/61384.html

Michael Bowden has been promoted to double-A Portland, per a source with the JetHawks booster club.  

Bowden had a 46/8 K/BB ratio in 46 IP for Lancaster.  His miniscule 1.37 was an anomaly, since he played half his games in the worst offensive environment on the continent.  

Bowden will be paired with Clay Buchholz, forming one of the most imposing prospect combos on any one team in the minors, and perhaps the best in the Sox organization since Jon Papelbon and Michael Bowden were paired with each other in Portland.

Bryan Smith, who I'm sure many of you already know, debuted today at Baseball Prospectus. He wrote a very interesting article analyzing a college pitcher's performance against the 1-5 hitters in the lineup vs. the 6-9 hitters in a lineup. Some of the results are intriguing.

Smith focused on 8 college pitchers in particular:

James Simmons
Nick Schmidt
David Price
Ross Detwiler
Sean Morgan
Joe Savery
Jake Arrieta
Andrew Brackman

By and large, these pitchers are considered the top pitchers from college in the 07 draft.

Far and away, Andrew Brackman had the biggest disparity between his performance against the top of the lineup and the bottom of the lineup.

Brackman vs. 1-5 hitters: .280/.379/.466, 20.3 K%
Brackman vs. 6-9 hitters: .211/.268/.256, 26.7 K%

Brackman's K% against 1-5 hitters was by far the lowest out of any pitcher: 5.8% below James Simmons, who was the 2nd worst.

David Price displayed remarkable consistency in K%; striking out 41% of 1-5 hitters and 41.2% of 6-9 hitters. His lines against those two groups looked like this:

1-5: .208/.281/.271
6-9: .165/.257/.237

http://baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=6083

In sum: Brackman = bust

I'm absolutely in shock that he's not pitching up to form.  His numbers looked so good.  Here is what Allan Simpson had to say about him:

"Entering the 2007 season, North Carolina State junior Andrew Brackman, another pitcher with a limited pitching background, was touted as the college righthander with the best fastball. The 7-foot, 240-pounder was clocked at 99 mph last summer in the Cape Cod League. He was expected to continue his evolution into full-time pitcher this spring after abandoning his basketball career with the Wolfpack, but hasn't dominated as expected.

Brackman (4-2, 3.79, 40 IP/38 SO) pitched to expectations his first two or three times out, but has deteriorated with each outing since. Against Wake Forest in his most recent outing, he was the losing pitched as the Wolfpack was beaten 16-3. Brackman worked the first four innings, allowing nine hits and six runs (five earned).

"His velocity was consistent with most of his other appearances, meaning he sat between 93-95 mph for the most part with some higher readings thrown in," a scout said. "He had no command of his off-speed pitches, however, and Wake's hitters were sitting dead red. By the fifth, Andrew's pitch count was up around 85 and the command of his fastball waned to the point that he started leaving pitches out over the plate instead of on the corners. And the Deacons crushed them."

With Brackman not pitching to his potential, it has left a widening void in the crop of college righthanders in this year's draft. At this point, only Brackman is assured of going in the first round."

Bbbbbut...he looks so good on the mound and he can throw 99.

http://pgcrosschecker.com/2007/columnists/allansimpson/weeklycolumn/week8_32807.aspx

I was mocked and taunted before the start of the college season when I suggested that Andrew Brackman was just plain not very good.

"He can stay at 96 in the 6th"

"He's a freak talent"

Yada, yada, yada.

Can we get smart about this please?  This is truly a theater of the absurd.  When I draft a college pitcher, I would like someone who has exhibited a trace of dominance in his career.  Brackman has been mediocre AT BEST this season.  Can people get past the optimistic scouting reports and the numerous BA fluff pieces and finally realize that he's nothing more than a gimmick.  I know a sucker is born every minute, but if Brack goes in the 1st round, some team is really looking to throw away 1 million dollars.

From Newsdsay...

"Last night's midnight deadline passed without the Mets reaching a contract agreement with former Xaverian High School righthander Pedro Beato, so last year's 17th-round draft pick will go back into the draft."

If this is true, that's a terrible job by the Mets, who are without a 1st round pick.

Michael Bowden, of 2005 1S pick of the Red Sox fame, has been on a tear in his last two starts.

4/26- 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 9/0 K/BB, 5/1 GB/FB

5/1- 5 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 10/1 K/BB, 4/2 GB/FB

Composite?

10 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 19/1 K/BB, 9/3 GB/FB

YTD: 19 IP, 18 H, 4.26 ERA, 28/3 K/BB

Great pitcher or THE greatest pitcher?

Baseball America has kicked off its annual top 10 lists, and the Braves do the honors of going first.  Ranking the Braves farm system is tough because a lot of the upper talent was raided this year.  Nonetheless, here is what BA thought:

1. Andy Marte, 3B
   
2. Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
   
3. Elvis Andrus, SS
   
4. Yunel Escobar, SS
   
5. Anthony Lerew, RHP
   
6. Joey Devine, RHP
   
7. Chuck James, LHP
   
8. Brandon Jones, OF
   
9. Eric Campbell, 3B
   
10. Beau Jones, LHP

Nothing out of the ordinary for the EL.  5 Red Sox in the top 12 is impressive if I do say so myself.  I hope its OK to post the entire list.

1. Francisco Liriano
   
2. Lastings Milledge
   
3. Hanley Ramirez
   
4. Jon Lester
   
5. Ryan Zimmerman
   
6. Nick Markakis
   
7. Jon Papelbon
   
8. Jeremy Sowers
   
9. Anibal Sanchez
   
10. Joel Zumaya
    
11. Yusmeiro Petit
    
12. Dustin Pedroia
    
13. Hayden Penn
    
14. Denard Span
    
15. Merkin Valdez
    
16. Matt Moses
    
17. Eric Duncan
    
18. Michael Bourn
    
19. Paul Maholm
    
20. Franklin Gutierrez
    

With this monumental draft, the Red Sox are looking to solidify an average farm system.  We have keyed in on players such as Jacoby Ellsbury, Trevor Crowe, Matt Torra, Colby Rasmus, Henry Smoak, Lance Broadway, and Cliff Pennington among others.  I will need YOUR help to select the player we all can agree is the best player available.  Do you have what it takes to sit in the Red Sox war room and make decisions in nut-cutting time?

In this monumental Red Sox draft, we have 6 of the first 59 picks.  More specifically, we have picks 23, 26, 42, 45, 47, and 59.  The 05 Draft probably rates pretty average in terms of overall talent.  However it has above average depth.  Although the Red Sox system has come a significant way since several years ago, we have a long way to go.  GM Theo Epstein and Scouting Director Jason McLeod have remarked on several occasions that due to our dirth in early picks, perhaps we could take 1 or 2 gambles.  The Red Sox, a notoriously perfomance based sabre-team, might be looking to go the high school route early.  Lets first identify the weaknesses of our farm system and then see what picks we can take to fill in those holes.  I would venture to guess that the most glaring hole in the sox system is power, but perhaps some of you feel differently.  Good luck everyone and thanks.

In this monumental Red Sox draft, we have 6 of the first 59 picks.  More specifically, we have picks 23, 26, 42, 45, 47, and 59.  The 05 Draft probably rates pretty average in terms of overall talent.  However it has above average depth.  Although the Red Sox system has come a significant way since several years ago, we have a long way to go.  GM Theo Epstein and Scouting Director Jason McLeod have remarked on several occasions that due to our dirth in early picks, perhaps we could take 1 or 2 gambles.  The Red Sox, a notoriously perfomance based sabre-team, might be looking to go the high school route early.  Lets first identify the weaknesses of our farm system and then see what picks we can take to fill in those holes.  I would venture to guess that the most glaring hole in the sox system is power, but perhaps some of you feel differently.  Good luck everyone and thanks.