5/15 MiLB Gameday: A couple in the morning

[Cuzittt]

Today's Games:

IL:Pawtucket (Anthony Ranaudo) @ Indianapolis (Adam Wilk) [11:05am]
EL: Portland (Brian Johnson) @ New Britain (Sean Gilmartin) [10:35am]
CL:Salem (Corey Littrell) @ Carolina (Michael Peoples) [7:05pm]
SAL: Greenville (Jamie Callahan/Jonathan Aro) @ Savannah (TBD/Miller Diaz) [5:05pm]
NYPL: Lowell - Opening Day - June 13th vs. Vermont
GCL: GCL Sox - Opening Day - June 20th vs GCL Twins
DSL: DSL Sox - Opening Day - May 31st

Notes:

Mookie Betts has reached safely in 64 consecutive regular season games. He has reached safely in 69 consecutive games (including playoffs).

Scoreboard:

Boston Red Sox Minor League Scores

Media:

MiLB TV
MiLB Radio

Local Media:

Pawsox:

Providence Journal
Pawtucket Times

Seadogs: Portland Press Herald

Salem: Roanoke Times

Greenville: Greenville Online

Lowell: Lowell Sun

 

[topps148]

Mookie singles in a run in the second. 

 

[SouthernBoSox]

70 games.

Thats unbelievable.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Henry Ramos is 2/2 with a 3b, and is now hitting .343.

Johnson 4ip 2h 3bb 1k, 3r 2 er. Meh.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

So far this May (with the 2/2), he has hit .468/.509/.723 in 51 PA. 4bb/5k and 7xbh.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Betts hit a HR, Ramos now 3/4 and up to .346/.386/.485. Wow.

 

[ehaz]

Can we just bring him up and stick him at 3rd or left now just to see what happens?  I'm so damn giddy, I should never work in a front office. 

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Ranuado with a good outing. 7ip 5h 1bb 5k.

 

[Cuzittt]

Pawsox win 4-0.

Boxscore

Anthony Ranaudo went 7 innings, giving up 5 hits and a walk; striking out 5. Rich Hill went 1 1/3 innings, striking out one. Alex Wilson went 2/3rds of an inning, striking out one.

Bryce Brentz went 3/4 with 2 doubles and a HR. Garin Cecchini and Dan Butler each went 2/4. Daniel Nava went 1/3 with a double and a walk. Brock Holt went 1/5. Mike McCoy went 0/3 with a sacrifice. Alex Hassan, Christian Vazquez and Ryan Roberts each went 0/4.

 

[Cuzittt]

Seadogs win 13-5.

Boxscore

Brian Johnson went 5 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 3 hits and 5 walks; striking out 3. Matty Ott went 2 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits and a walk; striking out one. Mike McCarthy went 2 innings, giving up 3 hits and striking out 2.

Derrik Gibson went 3/4 with a walk. Mookie Betts went 3/5 with a HR, walk and SB. Henry Ramos went 3/5 with a double and a triple. Shannon Wilkerson went 3/5. Travis Shaw went 3/6 with a double. Carlos Rivero went 2/5. Deven Marrero went 2/6 with a double. Heiker Meneses went 1/5 with a double. Matt Spring went 0/4 with a walk.

 

[Drek717]

Very interesting to see Ramos' raw athleticism start to translate in to production this year, and at the AA level no less.  If he keeps this up much longer he's going to start looking like a legitimate prospect.

 

[Cuzittt]

It appears the Drive Doubleheader scheduled for today has been moved to tomorrow. One game tonight.

 

[RoDaddy]

I wonder if this year's Portland team will end up rivaling that great Trenton Thunder team from 1999 (92-50) as our AA gold standard?
 
They will have a lot of promotion decisions to make.  For position players, I'd promote Shaw now; Mookie when he hits around 200 ABs so that he's had a reasonable amount of AA ball seasoning; and wait for most of the season for Marrero and Ramos to make sure they're the real deal, since neither one has come close to this year's output before.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Very interesting to see Ramos' raw athleticism start to translate in to production this year, and at the AA level no less.  If he keeps this up much longer he's going to start looking like a legitimate prospect.

Guess is depends what you mean by legitimate, but I'd argue he has been for 4 years.

The one thing holding him back is contact. His ISO and ISOd are healthy and have improved every year in full season ball and he just turned 22 in April. He isn't going to hit .343, but he's hit .252-.262 the last 3 years, so hopefully the ISO and ISOd normalize and Ramos can hit .290-.300.

Unless I'm forgetting someone, he is our best OF prospect? Maybe Margot, who is putting up a better line the first time around in Greenville than Ramos did the 2nd time around, but he has only shown flashes.

 

[Cuzittt]

Salem postponed by rain. Drive game delayed by rain.

 

[Merkle's Boner]

FWIW, Sox Prospects has Ramos at #23 behind Margot and Brentz.

Ranaudo is so frustrating. His pedigree and tools make you want to rank him near the top of the SP prospects. His results make you think he'll never be more than a reliever. Then he had a great game like today. I guess it's the nature of pitching prospects but it would really be nice to get some consistency out of those guys in Pawtucket.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Brentz has 20bb this year in 155 PA. He had 21in 364 last year. Nice to see. .230/.335/.430.

Figure he wont hit .230 all year but he's also 25.

He's been dreadful vs R this year, .191/.308/.292. Killing L, .304/.373/.696

Ramos has no real split, fwiw.

 

[Cuzittt]

Greenville officially postponed.

 

[ehaz]

Mookie's hitting over .400 again thank god we don't have to demote him to the DSL

 

[Cuzittt]

STORIES

PAWSOX

Game Story

Anthony Ranaudo tossed seven shutout innings and Bryce Brentz collected three extra base hits including a home run before leaving with an injury as the Pawtucket Red Sox blanked the Indianapolis Indians, 4-0, in a Thursday matinee at Victory Field for their first victory of the four-game series.

Ranaudo (4-2) permitted only five hits and one walk while striking out five and throwing a season-high 109 pitches. He combined with relievers Rich Hill and Alex Wilson on a five-hitter, the second shutout of the current road trip for the Pawtucket pitching staff.

Brentz went 3-for-4 with a home run (6) and two doubles against Indianapolis starter Adam Wilk (3-3), scoring three of the PawSox's four runs and driving in two of them. Brentz appeared to injure himself while running to first base on a fielder's choice ground out in the seventh, and the extent of the injury is unclear.

Pawtucket opened the scoring in the second on Brentz's deep drive to left center, a 400-foot blast that tied him with Brandon Snyder for the team lead in long balls. After a one-out double by Brentz in the fourth, Wilk allowed an RBI single to Garin Cecchini with two outs that doubled the lead.

The PawSox added two more runs against Wilk in the sixth, starting with back-to-back doubles by Daniel Nava and Brentz. Two batters later Cecchini singled to right advancing Brentz to third, and a fielding error on right fielder Gregory Polanco allowed Brentz to score the fourth and final Pawtucket run.

Cecchini made a dazzling defensive play with runners on second and third base and two outs in the third, helping out Ranaudo keep his shutout. Brent Morel's ground ball was fielded behind the third-base bag, and Cecchini then throw off-balanced from foul ground on the fly to first base to retire Morel by an eyelash.

SEADOGS

Game Story

The exciting second baseman went 3 for 5 with three RBI, including a tiebreaking two-run homer in a six-run seventh inning as the Sea Dogs defeated the New Britain Rock Cats 13-5 before 5,216 at New Britain Stadium.

Portland, which totaled 20 hits, salvaged the finale of the three-game set and snapped the Rock Cats’ four-game winning streak.

Now batting .401, Betts has made it look easy through the first six weeks of the season but insists it hasn’t been easy at all.

“I’ve had a little success now but next month I could be (batting) .150 and easily decline,” he said. “It’s definitely not easy. I have to work each and every day.”

Betts, who also had an RBI single in the second inning, has reached safely in all 35 of his starts for the Sea Dogs and 65 straight games in the regular season, dating to last Aug. 2 when he was in the Class A Carolina League.

His home run off Adrian Salcedo (0-5) gave the Sea Dogs a 5-3 lead.

“It’s fun to be watching it,” said Portland hitting coach Rich Gedman. “He’s certainly been a spark for us. He has a consistent approach daily; he’s put good at-bats together throughout the course of the season. He finds ways to get on base and seems to be in the right spot at the right time.”

 

[Drek717]

Guess is depends what you mean by legitimate, but I'd argue he has been for 4 years.

The one thing holding him back is contact. His ISO and ISOd are healthy and have improved every year in full season ball and he just turned 22 in April. He isn't going to hit .343, but he's hit .252-.262 the last 3 years, so hopefully the ISO and ISOd normalize and Ramos can hit .290-.300.

Unless I'm forgetting someone, he is our best OF prospect? Maybe Margot, who is putting up a better line the first time around in Greenville than Ramos did the 2nd time around, but he has only shown flashes.

A guy who has a reasonable projection as a ML regular.  Up until this point he's been a coin toss as to if the light would go on.  It is now.
 
For a comparative to what I mean, Bryce Brentz was a legit prospect for a few years.  I'd say now he's declining down from that standard and instead looking like a worthwhile short side of a platoon/4th OF type but not a regular, so he's de-legitimizing in my book.  Ramos is moving in the opposite direction.

 

[SouthernBoSox]

A guy who has a reasonable projection as a ML regular.  Up until this point he's been a coin toss as to if the light would go on.  It is now.
 
For a comparative to what I mean, Bryce Brentz was a legit prospect for a few years.  I'd say now he's declining down from that standard and instead looking like a worthwhile short side of a platoon/4th OF type but not a regular, so he's de-legitimizing in my book.  Ramos is moving in the opposite direction.

Brentz can play plus defense at the corners with a great arm and can crush lefties.

There is a lot of value in that finite skillset on a major league roster. I look at the A's and it is filled with guys who have specific skillsets and it absolutely works if managed correctly.

 

[LeftyTG]

Brentz can play plus defense at the corners with a great arm and can crush lefties.

There is a lot of value in that finite skillset on a major league roster. I look at the A's and it is filled with guys who have specific skillsets and it absolutely works if managed correctly.

Brentz certainly has the arm, but I'm not sure I've ever heard him described as a plus defender when it comes to range and routes to track down balls.