Red Sox Minor League Mid-Season Report

C Tim Federowicz

Federowicz earned a recent promotion to Salem after dominating the Carolina League. He is posting a .979 OPS and an impressive .579 slugging percentage. He leads all Red Sox minor leaguers with 11 homeruns and also has a Gross Production Average of .317.

1B Anthony Rizzo

Rizzo, just 19 years old, also was recently promoted to Salem. Rizzo had an OPS of .859 with Greenville. His extra base hit % was an outstanding 41%. His wOBA was .374 and his secondary average was .302.

2B Ryan Khoury

Khoury's .378 OBP and 15% walk rate stand out here. Although he is struggling from the plate a bit, his secondary average is still .315.

3B Jorge Jimenez

Jimenez sports a .811 OPS and .369 wOBA. He has also drawn nearly as many walks (24) as strikeouts (30), an impressive feat for a young hitter.

SS Oscar Tejeda

From an offensive statistics standpoint, this is the organization's weakest position. Tejeda gets the nod here, although his .310 wOBA and .351 slugging are from good.

OF Josh Reddick

Reddick has since cooled off from his blistering start, but his overall stat line is still impressive. He is slugging .514. His secondart average is .354 and his wOBA stands at .373.

OF Che-Hsuan Lin

Lin's .361 OBP and speed (16 sb) make him an interesting prospect. His plate discipline is well-beyond his experience level and he is drawing walks at a rate of nearly 13%.. His speed also translates to stellar range in the outfield.

OF Dave Mailman

Mailman's performance in Greenville earned him a promotion to Salem this past week.. He posted a .824 OPS with the Drive. He had a secA of .297 and also stole 10 bases in 12 tries.

DH Aaron Bates

Bates has come back down to earth since his call-up to Pawtucket; however, for the season he still has a combined OPS of .818 and a .370 OBP. Bates isn't walking as much this season, but his raw power is still there and it should be just a mater of time before he adjusts to AAA pitching.

Honorable Mention

Mark Wagner

Ryan Lavarnway

SP Stolmy Pimentel

Pimentel's 2.70 FIP is impressive especially despite allowing a .378 BABIP. Just 19 years old, Pimentel has averaged over 8 Ks per 9 innings this season.

SP Clay Buchholz

Buchholz' 1.90 ERA and 3.13 K/BB ratio. His WHIP is .92. His BABIP is absurdly low at .212 which suggests it may be hard for him to continue his dominance, but Buchholz will continue to showcase his stuff for the front office.

SP Casey Kelly

Kelly will likely switch back to shortstop soon after the all-star break, but his future appears brightest on the mound. Between Greenville and Salem this season he has a 3.14 FIP and a 4.6 K/BB rate. His command has been superb, as is his 4.3% HR/F rate.

Mid-Season MVP -- Tim Federowicz

Mid-Season Cy Young -- Casey Kelly

Surprise Prospect -- Anthony Rizzo

Disappointing Prospect -- Michael Almanzar

Aaron Bates continues to rake

Aaron Bates promotion to Pawtucket has done little to slow him down this season. After posting a .910 OPS in 52 games in AA, he has increased that number to .940 in his 10 games in AAA. In his 4 minor league seasons he has an OPS of .886

One cause for concern is his BB%, which has declined each of the past 2 seasons. In 2007 he walked at a rate of 14.9% per PA. In '08 this went down to 9.4% and so far this season it's at 8.1%. During this time his K% has remained steady around 20%. However, Bates has a knack for getting on base via the hit by pitch. He has been hit by 57 pitches in his minor league career, good for 3.4% of his Plate Appearances. This rate is well above average and is certainly a reason why his OBP in the minors is .399 for his career.

Aaron Bates promoted to Pawtucket

Aaron Bates has earned a promotion to AAA yesterday. Bates was tearing up the Eastern League with a .340 average and .910 OPS (Eastern League Average is .722). What is more impressive is his .414 babip. Bates was leading the team with 42 Runs Created

One area of concern for Bates is his plate discipline. Bates strikes out nearly three times as much as he walks (.35 bb/k ratio). As I mentioned, Bates is a .400 hitter when he puts the ball in play, but right now his high strikeout rate is holding him back. He must continue to develop his command of the strike zone.