Red Sox Prospect Watch: Pedro Castellanos finding his power

Full-A (Greenville Drive)

My apologies to Tyler Esplin and Brandon Howlett. I made both of them the headline last week – and both are hitless since then. Esplin is 0-for-24, which has dropped his average to .235. Meanwhile, Howlett is 0-for-17 – dropping his average to .246. Overall both are still having strong seasons though.

Everlouis Lozada is on an 0-for-14 himself, dropping to a .255 average. The second baseman has shown a proclivity for big games though, so he could turn this around quickly

Triston Casas is on the cooler side as well. His average has dropped down to .252 on the year. The 19-year-old has shown such a good ability to drive the ball (17 homers) and bring in runs (68 RBI) that a middling-average isn’t bad though.

Kole Cottam is hot though. The catcher is on a three-game hitting streak that includes back-to-back multi-hit days. On Saturday, Cottam went 2-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored. On Monday he went 2-for-4 with a walk again – this time he had two RBI and three runs scored through, hitting an inside-the-park home run. Cottam has a .261/.380/.425 average on the year now, driving him 32 runs and scoring 39 more.

Chase Shugart gave up four runs on eight hits in five innings in one start this week. He still managed six strikeouts though and now has 58 through 67 1/3 innings. The right-handed pitcher has a 2.00 ERA to go along with a .243 BAA and 1.17 WHIP.

Brayan Bello had another strong week following back-to-back fantastic outings. The 20-year-old combined for one earned run allowed over 12 innings in his last two starts – striking out 19 while allowing just 11 hits and no walks. Now, the right-handed starter went six strong innings again. This time he allowed one run on four hits and one walk, striking out six. His ERA has dropped from 7.49 to 6.06 thanks to these three starts.

Yoan Aybar is down to a 5.18 ERA. Could we see him drop down into the 4.00s by the end of the year? The lefty has a .151 WHIP but a .172 BAA so far. He’s struck out 58 batters in 41 2/3 innings.

Alex Scherff is down to a 5.00 ERA on the year. The righty gave up two runs on nine hits in six innings this week. The hits were far too many but at least he kept the runs low – that’s something he struggles to do when giving up hits. Hopefully, this is another turnaround sign for the 21-year-old. Truthfully he’s had a really strong year outside of a few “implosion” starts.