Boston Red Sox Prospect Watch: New season, new headline names
By Hunter Noll
The Red Sox Prospect Watch is back!
That’s right, we’re back baby. Another year, another Boston Red Sox Prospect Watch. And it’s Monday. You know what that means.
The MiLB season is in full swing now. We’ve got all four levels of the minors going at it. With it, we’ve seen a lot of familiar names impressing early on. However, there are some new names this year that should take quite a few of the headlines.
Before we get into the minors though, let’s talk about the young players doing their thing in the Major Leagues right now.
We’re not really going to talk about Garrett Whitlock here much, he’s evolved past this stage. But he deserves a shoutout for being one of the best pitchers in baseball. Dude is always game ready.
Tanner Houck is filth. That’s led to a strong start for the right-handed pitcher. He has a 3.21 ERA, .229 BAA, and 1.29 WHIP in three starts so far. The walks have hurt him a bit (seven in 14 innings), but the strikeouts are there as well (11).
Kutter Crawford has struggled early on but put on a hell of a performance on Saturday. The righty threw three shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out five. He has the stuff to be great, let’s see if he can put it all together properly.
Tyler Danish was put in Triple-A as relief depth. And in his first chance up in the Majors, he’s done nothing but impress. The right-handed pitcher threw three shutout and hitless innings. He’s walked two and struck out five.
Due to COVID issues with Christian Vazquez and Kevin Plawecki, Connor Wong got a chance to play a bit in the Majors already. The catcher has deservedly so received plenty of praise for his abilities behind the plate. Many have been talking about his framing and athleticism, but also how calm he remains throughout the game. Wong is 1-for-6 with an RBI so far.