Short-A (Lowell Spinners)
I could highlight a duo or trio at any level and talk about how exciting they are. It would be really easy to point to a pair and say “these guys make watching this team more than worth it”. That task doesn’t get any easier than the Lowell Spinners though.
It all starts with the cover boy of this week, Gilberto Jimenez. Jimenez is 19. He’s a centerfielder with stupid speed (14 steals so far) and elite defense. Oh, and he’s hitting .370 with 11 doubles, three triples and three home runs. He’s driven in 18 runs and scored 35 more in 54 games. Seriously, Jimenez has already made himself one of the best, most exciting prospects in the Red Sox entire system and it will only go up from here.
Noah Song is the other name. It took a while, but the 22-year-old finally gave up a run. In 14 innings since getting drafted, Song has thrown 14 innings and given up just the one run (0.64 ERA). He has 17 strikeouts, a .130 BAA and a 0.71 WHIP. Song projects to be a top-tier starter in the Majors and has only reinforced that projection with his performance so far.
Joe Davis is hitting .295 with eight doubles and five home runs to this point. The first baseman has 27 RBI and 18 runs scored in 36 games and looks like someone that can hit for a ton of power and makes driving in runs look far too easy. He was a round-19 draft pick this year and has already made his mark in Short-A.
Nick Decker continues to have an up-and-down year. The outfielder is just 19 so that’s more than understandable. He’s hitting .237 with nine doubles, three triples, and six home runs in 49 games of far. The left-handed hitter was a second-round draft pick last year so the Red Sox should be patient with him. He’s managed a solid 23 RBI and 20 runs scored so far – proving he can definitely produce runs at a solid clip.
Song isn’t the only pitcher drafted this year that’s hard to score on. Chris Murphy was drafted in the sixth round and has a 0.61 ERA. That’s two earned runs over 29 1/3 innings. In other words, that’s nuts. The lefty has 33 strikeouts and just six walks, with a .204 BAA and 0.92 WHIP. It looks like the Red Sox hit a home run with this pick (which is ironic because Murphy’s yet to give up one of those).
Okay, that was a terrible joke and I apologize. Let’s just forget about it and quickly transition to Ryan Fernandez. The right-handed pitcher has a 1.55 ERA over 40 2/3 innings with Lowell. He’s 3-0 with four saves and has 37 strikeouts with a .170 BAA and 0.84 WHIP to this point. These are all marked improvements over 2018, which was far from a bad year itself.