Red Sox Prospect Watch: Josh Ockimey has how many home runs?

Full-A (Greenville Drive)

Remember how I said Castellanos was tied for the Red Sox MiLB lead in RBI? That’s because Triston Casas also has 32. Yes, the 19-year-old. He’s also hitting .263 with 12 doubles and six home runs on the year.

What’s scary is Casas seems to be getting hot, in his last 10 games he’s hitting .353 and has 14 RBI. Big things are coming from the left-handed hitter and that’s exciting news for the Red Sox.

Brandon Howlett is also just 19, and he finds himself on a nice little three-game hitting-streak at the moment. The right-handed hitter has a .234 average to go along with three home runs early on in the year.

Let’s keep rolling with the 19-year-olds as we move on to Tyler Esplin. Esplin’s looked much better at the plate recently, as the left-handed hitter has risen his average to .232. He has eight doubles and two triples to go along with one home run. There’s definitely something in his bat if he can just crack the code.

Devlin Granberg is hitting .294 with a .393 OBP. The first baseman can do a little bit of everything at the plate (eight doubles, three triples, and three home runs) and is a great bat to have around the younger players. Although 23 isn’t exactly old himself, he has a much more mature bat.

Alan Marrero is still establishing himself nicely as a solid catching prospect. He’s hitting .246 and has four doubles and four home runs on the year. The 21-year-old has been getting more playing time recently and it will be interesting to see how he responds to it.

Thad Ward had an absolutely fantastic week. The 22-year-old made two starts, going a 7 1/3  scoreless innings in the first outing, then seven scoreless in the next. Ward’s 14 1/3 innings combined lowered his ERA to 2.50 on the year. The righty also has 58 strikeouts in 50 1/3 innings, while opponents are hitting just .204 against him.

Rio Gomez has a 1.09 ERA and is 5-for-5 on save opportunities over 14 appearances this year. The left-hander has 37 strikeouts and just four walks in 24 2/3 innings and has a 0.69 WHIP and .149 BAA this season. Full-A doesn’t seem like much of a challenge to him so far. I’d like to propose promoting Bazardo to Double-A and Gomez to Advanced-A sooner, rather than later.

Kris Jackson has now made two appearances on the year and has a 1.35 ERA over 6 2/3 innings. The right-hander has seven Ks and one walk in that time, and opponents are hitting just .182 (0.72 WHIP) against him. He’s currently 1-for-1 in save opportunities.

Yoan Aybar has thrown three straight scoreless innings. Even more importantly, he hasn’t walked anyone in that time. The 21-year-old left-hander has a 7.11 ERA on the year. That’s mostly due to his 17 walks in 12 2/3 innings though. He’s also struck out 18 and has a .149 BAA.