Boston Red Sox Prospect Watch: Ceddanne Rafaela has signature game
By Hunter Noll
Red Sox Double-A (Portland)
Pedro Castellanos is on an absolute warpath in May. The right-handed hitter ended April with a .116/.171/.217 slash line. However, he’s picked up at least one hit in 15-of-16 games this month and is currently riding a 13-game hitting-streak. Castellanos is slashing .323/.338/.597 in May. And that has brought his overall line up to .214/.248/.397 with seven doubles, one triple, and five home runs. Castellanos has nine runs scored and leads Portland with an impressive 29 RBI.
Devlin Granberg continues to dominate in Double-A. The right-handed hitter now has a .327/.452/.505 slash line with nine doubles, three triples, and one home run. He’s driven in seven runs and scored 18 more, stealing four bases. Granberg has more walks (18) this season than strikeouts (14).
Kole Cottam is slashing .278/.375/.400 with eight doubles and one home runs. The right-handed hitter has seven runs batted in and 14 more runs scored. Cottam is still playing great defensively at catcher, and has gotten unlucky with some really hard hit balls getting robbed or going right to someone. Expect the power to surge soon.
Christian Koss has had an interesting season. The right-handed hitting shortstop has a .287/.321/.426 slash line with three doubles, three triples, and three home runs. He’s driven in 21 runs and scored 15 more, stealing six bases. Good speed and better pop than his numbers at the moment indicate.
David Hamilton has been mired in a pretty long slump. But the left-handed hitter still has pretty strong numbers overall. The .242/.329/.406 slash line isn’t terrible, hitting three doubles, three triples, and four home runs. It’s the run production that’s still great. Hamilton has 17 RBI and 17 runs scored, to go along with a ridiculous 17 steals.
Chris Murphy really doesn’t get talked about enough. Now that Bello is in Triple-A maybe people will start to notice Murph more. The left-handed pitcher has a 1.91 ERA, .160 BAA, and 0.97 WHIP on the year. In 42 1/3 innings, he’s racked up 51 strikeouts. He’s given up two or fewer earned runs in every single appearance this year.
Dylan Spacke has been great all year. This week the right-hander tossed four shutout innings, giving up just four hits and striking out four. He now holds a 2.41 ERA, .150 BAA, and 1.23 WHIP in 18 2/3 innings. Spacke does have 14 walks compared to 16 strikeouts, which is a bit of an issue. But his no-walk outing this week definitely gives some hope in that area.
Brandon Walter had an incredible bounce-back performance this week after two bad outings last week. The left-handed pitcher gave up just one run on four hits over seven innings. In that game, he walked none while striking out a season-high 11 batters. Walter now has a 3.14 ERA, .211 BAA, 0.88 WHIP, and 60 strikeouts compared to just three walks over 43 innings this season.
Jay Groome had one of the weirdest outings of the week. In six innings he gave up seven hits, walked two batters, hit another one, and only struck out one (despite that usually being a strength of his game). However, Groome also didn’t give up a run. The left-handed pitcher has a 3.45 ERA, .229 BAA, 1.24 WHIP, and 29 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings this year.
Oddanier Mosqueda tossed three innings over two appearances this week. The lefty gave up no runs on just one hit, striking out five. He now has a 3.38 ERA, .190 BAA, 0.94 WHIP, and 19 strikeouts over 16 innings pitched.
Chase Shugart’s fantastic year out of the bullpen continues. The right-handed pitcher has a 2.37 ERA, .206 BAA, and 1.05 WHIP in 13 appearances. He’s struck out 18 batters compared to six walks over 19 innings.
Frank German has some absurd numbers this season. The right-handed pitcher has a 3.18 ERA, .158 BAA, and 0.79 WHIP in 11 appearances. He has already racked up 18 strikeouts compared to three walks in just 11 1/3 innings pitched.