Will Middlebrooks (DVM Sports/Courtesy Portland Sea Dogs)

After a month in the spotlight in Triple-A Pawtucket, Will Middlebrooks may be ready for his closeup.

With third baseman Kevin Youkilis having been sidelined for the last three games by a stiff back, the Red Sox’ top prospect likely would have been in line for his call-up on Tuesday, but a minor thumb issue (he jammed the digit while swinging over the weekend) resulted in Middlebrooks sitting out of Monday’s game, and the Sox wanted to verify that he was fine before a possible promotion. That led to the decision to add Jose Iglesias to the big league roster on Tuesday to provide infield depth behind Mike Aviles and Nick Punto.

Middlebrooks returned to the Pawtucket lineup and went 0-for-4 on Tuesday, but was deemed healthy. And so, the 23-year-old is now available for a recall and could receive a summons to the majors as soon as Wednesday, pending a determination about the health of Youkilis, according to an industry source. Assuming that Youkilis remains sidelined, it appears likely that Middlebrooks — who is hitting .333 with a .380 OBP, .677 slugging mark and 1.057 OPS, along with nine homers in 24 games — will be in line for his first major league summons.

Middlebrooks told WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan Show on Tuesday morning that he’s ready if called upon.

“Personally, I’d love to say yeah, I am [ready],” Middlebrooks said. “I came in here with a sense of urgency. I wanted to come in and show everybody that I’m a good player, and that it wasn’t just a freak year last year.”

TRIPLE-A PAWTUCKET RED SOX: 8-3 LOSS AT TOLEDO (TIGERS)

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– While the opt-out clock for Aaron Cook has been a focal point, the rehab clock for left-hander Andrew Miller is also close to expiring. His 30-day rehab assignment concludes on May 6, at which point the Red Sox will have to make a decision about whether to call him up. He had one of the most dominant outings of his stint in Pawtucket on Tuesday, striking out five (while walking two) in two innings. He punched out all three left-handers whom he faced.

Miller remains as puzzling as ever. He has been overpowering when in the strike zone, striking out 22 in 10 innings while limiting opponents to a .113 average. However, he has walked 13.

The reality is that he is too talented for the Sox to give up on him. There is a chance that Miller could become a pitcher like Matt Thornton, a towering lefty with lightning stuff but drastic command issues. Thornton walked well over six batters per nine innings in the majors and minors between ages 26 and 28, but after an organizational change (a move from the Mariners to the White Sox) paired him with Chicago pitching coach Don Cooper, he emerged as a dominant left-handed power arm. Since 2006 (his age 29 season), Thornton has 10.0 strikeouts and 3.0 walks per nine innings.

Miller has the stuff to follow a similar transformation, but the reality is that Thornton represents an atypical case of a pitcher who was able to find his command after enduring severe challenges on that front early in his career. Still, the upside of Miller remains undeniable, and outings such as Wednesday’s reinforce that point, underscoring why you don’t walk away from a player of his ability. Read the rest of this entry »

Right-hander Matt Barnes has thrown 16 scoreless innings to start his pro career. (John Corneau / Lowell Spinners)

Matt Barnes is three starts into his professional career, and thus far, he has been incredibly dominant.

On Wednesday morning, Barnes ripped through the Lexington Legends, the Single-A affiliate of the Astros. He breezed through six shutout innings, striking out nine and allowing three hits while walking none. Ho-hum — more of the same. After all, the right-hander, taken by the Red Sox with the No. 19 overall pick in the 2011 draft, has made three starts, pitched 16 innings, struck out 25 batters, walked two and allowed six hits for the Greenville Drive in the South Atlantic League. He features a mid-90s fastball and a swing-and-miss curveball that have simply overmatched opponents who are primarily trying to get settled in their first full season of pro ball.

“The fastball has had explosive, impressive life. He has a really good feel for the curveball. The changeups he’s thrown have been good ones,” said Sox farm director Ben Crockett, after Barnes’ first two starts.

He has been performing like the proverbial men among boys. That makes it fair to ask: When is the right time for the 21-year-old to move up in order to give him a greater challenge?

To answer that question, it’s worth considering why the Sox assigned Barnes to Greenville in the first place. After seeing Barnes touch 96 mph with his fastball with a good curve and changeup, there was certainly conversation about letting the right-hander start his career at High-A Salem. Unquestionably, his stuff would have justified such an assignment.

Still, the Sox wanted Barnes to establish his footing as a professional at the lower level in Greenville. They wanted to familiarize himself with the five-day pitching routine and to have an environment in which he could comfortably begin the process of growing into a pitcher, learning to incorporate his changeup into his mix in a place where he would likely enjoy good results while doing so. At least through his first two starts, the Sox were still hoping to see Barnes work his changeup into the mix with greater frequency.

The Sox have had other top draft choices dominate while making their debuts at Greenville, most notably Clay Buchholz (2006), Casey Kelly (2009) and Anthony Ranaudo (2011). Here’s a look at the first four starts in Greenville for all three: Read the rest of this entry »

Padres coach Dave Roberts joined the Dennis & Callahan show Wednesday morning, prior to the third game of San Diego’s interleague series with the Red Sox at Fenway Park. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

Roberts was a part of the Red Sox’ 2004 World Series championship team, and he said he never had a similar experience during his major league career. “No, I haven’t,” he said. “And I played on some very good teams, a lot of fun teams with some good guys and some nice ballplayers. But as far as the atmosphere here every single night and the group that we had and what we accomplished, it doesn’t compare.”

Roberts continues to maintain an optimistic approach despite the Padres’ slow start this season.

“Obviously, everyone knows that it’s a different market, San Diego and Boston,” he said. “But we’re going to go out there and keep playing and try to play the game the right way and see what happens after 162 games.”

The Padres acquired two high-profile Red Sox minor leaguers as part of the trade for Adrian Gonzalez in the offseason. Anthony Rizzo already has joined the major league club, while pitcher Casey Kelly remains in the minors. Roberts said it doesn’t appear likely that Kelly will be added to the major league roster this season.

“I think at some point, but I don’t know if he’s a September call-up candidate,” Roberts said. “He’s having a nice year in Double-A. He’s moving along, he’s moving along. But I don’t think they want to rush him. I think that Rizzo, he was just playing so well that he forced our hand. Casey, I had a chance to see him in spring training. There’s a lot to like.”

In the latest edition of the Minor Details, Baseball America’s Jim Callis joins the podcast to discuss the players whom the Red Sox selected in the 2011 draft. The Sox had four of the first 40 picks — the first time in roughly three decades since they had such a confluence of picks at that early stage of the process — and in a now-familiar pattern, they continued to select high-ceiling players (many of whom will require signing bonuses in excess of Major League Baseball’s slot recommendations) after their top picks.

“For me, it was business as usual for the Red Sox,” Callis suggested. “Let’s get the best players and go from there.”

A few of Callis’ observations:

–He described top selection Matt Barnes (1st round, No. 19 overall) as a pitcher for whom “the ceiling’s a No. 2 starter, and maybe being more realistic, a really good No. 3 starter. … What the difference is going to be for him is how consistent he gets with the breaking ball, which is very good at times, and how consistent he gets with control, which comes and goes a little bit. I think that will determine whether he’s a No. 2 or a No. 3. I don’t think he has the same ceiling as Anthony Ranaudo did last year, but he’s a very good arm.”

–Barnes was the seventh college pitcher selected in this year’s draft. Given the wealth of advanced college arms, Callis suggested that had the Sox not signed Casey Kelly for $3 million when they selected him out of high school in the first round of the 2008 draft, the right-hander would have been unlikely to get similar money this year had he enrolled at Tennessee and returned to the draft this year.

“It’s not like he’s an overwhelming stuff guy,” said Callis, who still views Kelly as a terrific pitching prospect. “I don’t know that he would have gotten the same money now that he got out of high school having the two-sport leverage that he did at this point.”

–Callis spoke highly of the Sox’ second first-round pick, Blake Swihart. However, he noted that the switch-hitting high school catcher with a very strong commitment to the University of Texas could be one of the most difficult players to sign in this year’s draft.

“He’s really exciting. I guess the operative phrase on Blake would be, he’s really easy to dream on,” said Callis. “It sounds like he’s going to hit. I haven’t talked to anyone who’s doubted his offensive potential. I think he’s got the athleticism and the arm strength to figure out catching and to be a good catcher. I think the question becomes, if the bat is as good as you think it is, do you want him to catch which maybe adds a couple years to his development or do you want to expedite his bat to the big leagues? …

“[But] of the guys who went in the first round of the draft, the top 33 picks, he’s probably going to be the toughest sign of all of them,” he added. “If another team had drafted him, I think I’d be more concerned that he’d go to college. But since it’s the Red Sox and they obviously have the money and they’re aggressive, I bet they wind up signing him.”

Callis said that he wasn’t sure how much credence to put into the number, but he heard in the spring that Swihart might be seeking a bonus in the vicinity of $2.5 million.

–Callis suggested that South Carolina center fielder Jackie Bradley (sandwich round, No. 40) could be similar to Ranaudo, whom the Sox took in the sandwich round last year with the No. 39 overall pick. Like Ranaudo, Bradley had a junior year in which he underperformed and then suffered an injury. Yet if Bradley bounces back as a professional, he could be an impact player.

“I think if he’s healthy, and had the year he was supposed to have, goes somewhere in the teens,” said Callis. “If he had the year people thought he would have, he might not have even been available when the Red Sox picked at 19. He might be a steal for them.”

To hear more of Callis’ observations on these and several other Sox draftees, as well as how the possibility of a more rigid draft slotting system going forward could impact how the Sox approach this year’s draft class, click here.

Darnell McDonald offers insight into the challenges of scouting two-sport stars. (AP)

Judging whether or not a young man has enough potential for a future in Major League Baseball is hard enough. Judging whether or not he has the desire to pursue it and dealing with his family and agents takes it to a whole other level.

That’s what amateur scouts and big league executives get paid to judge this week as they deal with thousands of high school and college-age athletes and their representatives. The challenge of understanding a player’s makeup is viewed as almost as important — sometimes more important — than scrutinizing his tools on the field.

“It’s a huge factor. I remember when I first started in the draft room in San Diego in 1998, I was shocked how much of the conversation was about makeup and personality and a player’s background, talking about what his parents did for a living, if his parents were still together, what his guidance counselor thought, what this kid did off the field,” Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said. “It was at least 50 percent of the conversation and it still is.

“You have to think about, you’re drafting a high school kid and you’re making him a professional. He’s never been away from home before. So, you’re dealing with homesickness, and you’re dealing with how disciplined and independent an individual this person is, and whether he can survive off the field to put himself in a position to let his baseball ability manifest. You’re projecting a 17-year-old kid from a small town in the middle of nowhere and how he’s going to be 10 years later when he’s 27, pitching in a pennant race at Fenway Park with 40,000 people looking at him. You really have to figure out what makes a kid tick.”

That challenge is significant enough in its own right. It becomes even greater when it comes to the question of multisport stars who have scholarship offers to pursue a path in other sports.

The Sox have made such multisport talents a staple of their recent drafts. In 2006, they signed Ryan Kalish away from a football commitment at the University of Virginia. In 2007, one of their top prospects, Will Middlebrooks, passed on a two-sport scholarship at Texas A&M to begin his career with the Sox. In 2008, Casey Kelly walked away from the opportunity to quarterback at the University of Tennessee to sign with Boston. The following year, powerful running back Brandon Jacobs passed on a chance to play football at Auburn to start his pro career. And in 2010, the team signed Kendrick Perkins away from a football scholarship at Texas A&M to begin the long process of honing his baseball skills as a minor leaguer.

There is a concern about giving a player money to pull him away from a second sport only to have him second-guess the decision when he finds life in the minor leagues challenging. Read the rest of this entry »

Red Sox prospect Stolmy Pimentel will open the exhibition calendar against Boston College on Saturday (Salem Red Sox)

He’s not Casey Kelly. But as these things go, he’s not a bad alternative.

This year, with Stolmy Pimentel getting the ball to open the Red Sox’ spring training calendar against Boston College, the fanfare is decidedly more muted than it was a year ago, when Casey Kelly took the mound against Northeastern. Kelly’s outing was greeted with breathless anticipation; the hype about the much-ballyhooed 20-year-old was far-reaching. He only threw one perfect inning that day, but each of his 10 pitches was, in its own way, worthy of intense scrutiny. (Guilty as charged.)

But while Pimentel’s reputation as a prospect does not carry the same weight as did Kelly’s a year ago, among Sox coaches and team officials, he has been turning heads this spring. When the Sox signed Pimentel out of the Dominican as an overlooked 16-year-old with a mid-80s fastball and what the team thought/hoped was a projectable body, he was a tall (6-foot-2), lanky kid who looked like he could get blown over by a stiff breeze. While Pimentel guessed that he weighed about 170 pounds when he signed for $25,000 in 2006, team officials believe that he was closer to 150 or so.

Now? Physically, he appears as robust as did Kelly a year ago. He has put in the hard work in the offseason to bulk up to 225 pounds, and he has also added a couple of inches to check in at 6-foot-4. When he has been on the mound for bullpen or live batting practice sessions, he has commanded the attention of members of the Red Sox.

“I don’t think any of us dreamed that he was going to grow and fill in and have quite that big a stature. He’s quite a figure in a uniform. There’s a presence about him because of his size,” said Goose Gregson, the Sox’ Latin American pitching coordinator. “He’s got something you can’t teach: he’s got a presence about him, a game awareness and savvy when he crosses that white line that you can’t teach.”

The Sox have long viewed Pimentel as a starter with enough talent that a future in the Red Sox rotation is a legitimate possibility. He shows good command of a low-90s fastball that touched 94-95 mph last year, an offering that Pimentel hopes will continue to play up as he adds more size and strength.

“When you can feel stronger and bigger, you have more power. You can throw harder,” said Pimentel. “Last year was my first time that I hit 95. This year, I feel stronger. I feel like I can throw harder than that. I was working really hard in the offseason to come in shape, come in ready for spring training.”

He has a swing-and-miss changeup that has long been his out pitch, dating to the days when, as a young boy watching his idol from the Dominican, he was inspired by Pedro Martinez to work on it. Now, he is concentrating his efforts on improving his curveball.

At times, he shows good spin on the pitch, resulting in an offering that dives towards the ground. But it remains an inconsistent offering whose improvement Pimentel has prioritized.

“Sometimes I hang it a little bit, but I’ve been working to keep it down,” he said. “It’s good when you can see what you need to work on. That helps a lot when you can see that by yourself. When I do something wrong, I feel it and I try to get better.”

Pimentel has consistently held his own at every level he’s pitched at, despite being young at each minor league stop he’s made. Last year, he was 9-11 with a 4.06 ERA and 7.1 strikeouts per nine innings in 26 starts for Hi-A Salem, solid numbers considering he was the fourth youngest pitcher in the Carolina League to make at least 10 starts. While those are impressive numbers, however, it is worth noting that his ERA and strikeouts per nine innings have slipped in each of his four professional seasons.

Even so, the Sox have seen steady progress in Pimentel’s stuff as he has grown. As was the case with Kelly last year after he added roughly 20 pounds of muscle, the team anticipates that Pimentel’s new-found strength could create some command challenges this year, which he will most likely start in Double-A Portland.

“For the last two years, we’ve seen the power increase year over year, a couple miles an hour on the fastball each year. As he continues to gain size and strength, hopefully that will continue to improve. He’s always had a pretty good feel for throwing strikes with his fastball,” said Sox farm director Mike Hazen. “With the added size, sometimes it gets a little bit more difficult to sync it up. But he’s doing a good job of it.”

The team hopes to see him maintain that fastball command, repeating his delivery and improving both the consistency of arm speed and power on his curveball. If he can do that in 2011, then Pimentel — who was added to the 40-man roster this winter and is in big league camp or the first time — could see his prospect status elevate in the coming year.

He will take the first step in that process on Saturday.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — As long as the Red Sox have the funds available they want their fans to know that they are going to invest it in putting a championship caliber team on the field.

The returning players certainly got that message loud and clear this winter and showed their appreciation by giving ownership a standing ovation during Saturday’ meeting held by skipper Terry Franacona, prior to the first full-squad workout.

And it’s only going to get better.

After addressing the media for 23 minutes, Red Sox president Larry Lucchino announced that the team paid $85 million in revenue sharing to MLB in 2010, including a $1.5 million luxury tax. According to Baseball-Reference.com, the Red Sox have an estimated payroll of $161.5 million in 2011, third behind the Yankees ($202.5 million) and the Phillies ($164.6 million).

And, despite the addition of big-ticket stars Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, Red Sox president Lucchino said Saturday the team still has financial flexibility to add even more artillery in the battle to win the AL East in 2011.

“We always have some amount of money to be determined each year, but we will certainly look to make improvements if the team is in the hunt and has a specific need and there’s a specific opportunity,” Lucchino said. “Yeah. I think that’s a specific obligation of ownership.”

In two megadeals, the Red Sox commited $142 million over seven years to Crawford five days after sending blue chip prospects Anthony Rizzo, Casey Kelly and Reymond Fuentes and Eric Patterson to San Diego for Gonzalez. The Red Sox are said to be on the verge of a $164 million extension with Gonzalez over seven years. J.D. Drew is in the final season of a five-year, $70 million contract.

“Every team has limits,” Red Sox principal owner John Henry said. “We have a strong commitment to winning, every year, every offseason. But you can’t always do everything that you want to do because you have long-term considerations as well as short-term considerations. The right piece for what you’re looking for as far as a particular player at a particular position doesn’t always match up. This year it did.” Read the rest of this entry »