The Red Sox promoted seven members of their front office, including four members of the baseball operations department.

–Craig Shipley, who had served as the Vice President of International Scouting for the past five years, was named Senior Vice President of Player Personnel and International Scouting. During Shipley’s time in charge of the Sox’ International Scouting efforts, the team has expanded its global operations, signing players from the Dominican (just from the 40-man roster, Stolmy Pimentel, Oscar Tejeda and Yamaico Navarro were all signed under Shipley), Cuba (Jose Iglesias), Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Japan (Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima and Junichi Tazawa), Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and more.

–Allard Baird, previously the Assistant to GM Theo Epstein, was named Vice President of Player Personnel and Professional Scouting. Baird, formerly the Royals GM, is involved in most player personnel decisions already. He was the one in charge of the Sox’ efforts to scout Carl Crawford, and his imprint has also been felt on anything from the Sox’ efforts to more aggressively scout and sign players from the independent leagues (such as Daniel Nava) to the teams’ discussions of players going in both directions in potential trade discussions.

–Mike Hazen, who has been the Sox’ Director of Player Development since early-2006, was named Vice President of Player Development and Amateur Scouting. Since he joined the Sox five years ago, players such as Dustin Pedroia, Clay Buchholz, Daniel Bard, Justin Masterson, Jed Lowrie and Jacoby Ellsbury have graduated from prospect status to regular big league roles.

–Brian O’Halloran was promoted from Director of Baseball Operations to Vice President of Baseball Operations. He plays a key role in the organization’s contract negotiations and payroll management, as well as compliance with Major League rules. His imprint has been on a number of creative contracts that the Sox have reached, notably including that of Adrian Beltre before last season.

Here is the full announcement: Read the rest of this entry »

The Red Sox Rookie Development Program, a two-week program for prospects considered to be 12 to 18 months from the major leagues, is in full swing. Players work out twice a day and get acclimated to major league life both on and off the field, whether through trips into the Fenway Park clubhouse or visits to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute to meet with Jimmy Fund patients. Perhaps most importantly for the participants, they gain the opportunity to work with and meet the major league coaching staff, and to make first impressions that may carry into spring training.

This year’s participants are Robert Coello, Tim Federowicz, Stephen Fife, Ryan Lavarnway, Juan Carlos Linares, Will Middlebrooks, Stolmy Pimentel, Jason Rice, Clevelan Santeliz, Oscar Tejeda and Alex Wilson. For a closer look at that group, click here.

On Wednesday, the players players and farm director Mike Hazen met with the media. Some highlights:

–There is no doubt that the Red Sox farm system looks different after three top prospects — Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo and Reymond Fuentes — were dealt to the Padres for Adrian Gonzalez. But Hazen said that the team still feels good about its prospect pool, particularly about a group of players who will offer depth to the big league club this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Red Sox outfielder Ryan Westmoreland is in Fort Myers continuing his rehab from brain surgery. (Red Sox)

Truth be told, the Red Sox’ Rookie Development Program features a number of important prospects in the team’s farm system, but it does not have the one projected superstar who ranks among the most prominent minor league talents in the game. Now, that may change, with a few extremely talented, high-ceiling players such as pitcher Stolmy Pimentel, infielders Oscar Tejeda and Will Middlebrooks and catcher Ryan Lavarnway representing players of particular note. But right now, the superstar-in-waiting buzz that typically has greeted at least one player in the Rookie Development Program wasn’t evident.

There might have been such a player, however. Had Ryan Westmoreland remained healthy, had he not been struck by a life-threatening condition that required major brain surgery in March 2010, he might have been a participant in this year’s Rookie Development Program, a 20-year-old with unlimited potential and who was generating immense anticipation for his major league debut.

But Westmoreland, who one year ago at this time had been christened the top prospect in the Red Sox system by several publications, is instead working out in Fort Myers, continuing his extraordinary efforts to put his career back on track as he continues to rehab from the surgery to remove a cavernous malformation in his brain. When Westmoreland might be able to return to games remains an open question. But his efforts, in the words of farm director Mike Hazen, have been “inspiring.” There has been too much progress in his rehab — not just as a baseball player, but more importantly, as a person — to lament what could have been.

“He’s doing well,” said Hazen. “He’s hitting. He’s throwing. He’s going through all the workouts, the lifting. I still think the original diagnosis, it’s still going to take some time to get back to where he was. I’m not going to make, we’re not making, any hard-line predictions on a timeframe on when he’s going to actually come out and play a game. We’re just going to, like we have, we’re taking it day by day.

“We’re seeing steady progress. He’s seeing steady progress. It’s still going to take him a little while to get back to where he was. But we’re still confident and optimistic. Like we’ve said before, if you’re betting on any one person to get back and make it to that place, it’s him.”

Westmoreland hasn’t been in games. He’s been able to run the bases, throw and take fly balls, but he has not progressed to facing live pitching. He will be treated as a rehabbing minor leaguer this spring.

“He’ll go through all his workouts. We’ll push him when we can push him. We’ll have to pull him back when we need to pull him back. There’s no timeframe on when he may see game action or anything like that,” said Hazen. “But I know he’s chomping, wanting to get out there and do some stuff. Like I said, I feel like we’ve pushed him repeatedly to where he’s wanted to be pushed. Who knows at this point? But spring training is going to be very similar to what he is now, which is on a rehab progression. As he accomplishes those goals, those physical things, he’ll get more to do.”

It remains to be seen when or even whether Westmoreland takes the field again in a game. That said, there appears little doubt that he will do everything that he can to maximize his potential as a baseball player.

“You’d be amazed at the amount of drive in this kid, given what he’s had with the setbacks and all the things he’s had to go through. It’s inspiring is what it is,” said Hazen. “You just hope that he’s going to be able to take the field again one day because you know how bad he wants it.”

The blockbuster deal between the Red Sox and Padres that sent Adrian Gonzalez to Boston was examined from any number of angles. Almost all of them, however, revolved around the on-field impact of the players moving to the two clubs.

But there is also a very real human component of these deals, especially in the case of a trade involving prospects with far-reaching relationships to their organization. In this episode of Minor Details, we talk to prospect Anthony Rizzo, Red Sox farm director Mike Hazen and Red Sox scout Laz Gutierrez (who details how the Sox unexpectedly discovered Rizzo in the 2007 draft) about the human relationships involved in a deal of a prospect.

We also talk to Baseball America’s Jim Callis about the state of the Sox system in light of the deal, as well as the two relievers selected from the Red Sox in the Rule 5 draft: left-hander Cesar Cabral, who was drafted by the Rays, and right-hander Daniel Turpen, who was taken by the Yankees. To listen to the episode, click here.

Previous episodes of Minor Details:

Ep. 4: Evaluating prospects and making blockbusters, with former Diamondbacks GM/Red Sox Assistant GM Josh Byrnes and former Red Sox manager Butch Hobson (who was Jeff Bagwell‘s manager in the Red Sox system when he was traded to the Astros)

Ep. 3: Red Sox catching prospects, with Sox roving catching instructor Chadd Epperson, as well as a conversation with Arizona Fall League manager Mike Sarbaugh about the Sox’ prospects in the AFL

Ep. 2: Red Sox trade chips with Keith Law of ESPN.com

Ep. 1: Baseball America’s list of the Top 10 Red Sox prospects, with Mike Hazen and Jim Callis

This week marks the debut of the Minor Details podcast, a regular look at the players and state of the Red Sox farm system. This week’s episode focuses on the recent Baseball America list of the Top 10 prospects in the Sox system.

The podcast is joined by WEEI.com colleague Rob Bradford for the introductory segment, Red Sox farm director Mike Hazen (who joins at the 9:25 mark), and Baseball America Executive Editor Jim Callis (31:56). The process of assembling the Top 10 list is discussed, as is the significance of the list to a baseball organization.

Players discussed include Casey Kelly, Jose Iglesias, Anthony Rizzo, Anthony Ranaudo, Garin Cecchini (after much bungling of the pronunciation, for the record, we wanted to clarify: Cheh-Key-Nee), Lars Anderson, Ryan Lavarnway and Ryan Westmoreland, among others. The outrageously awesome musical introduction is by The Porch Cops, featuring members of Tallahassee.

To listen to the podcast, click here.

For suggestions for future podcast topics and guests, or to offer feedback (good or hate-filled), email me at aspeier@weei.com or contact me via Twitter.

With the Red Sox Rookie Program currently taking place, Red Sox Director of Player Development Mike Hazen checked in with the Dale & Holley Show on Thursday.

Hazen offered some insight into what the program tries to teach young players about playing under the bright lights in Boston and some of the pressures they face in a tough media market. He also talked about some of the prospects in the Red Sox farm system, including Jose Iglesias and Casey Kelly, while refusing to say who is the best prospect in the organization.

A transcript is below. To hear the interview, click here.

Daniel Bard was one of the notable participants in the program last year.

Yeah, and he went on in 2009 to have a very good season. We hope that these guys engage in this program and take little bits and pieces out of all the speakers and out of all the people that they meet in the hopes that when they get up there for the first time, or maybe in the cases of [Josh] Reddick or [Junichi] Tazawa for a second time, that they can put some of these things into the back of their minds and just focus on going out and playing the game on the field, and not really worry about the distractions that would come either on the field or in the clubhouse or anywhere else.

Did you come up with the program because the Boston media can be overwhelming at times?

We sort of modeled it a little bit off the Cleveland Indians program that has been running for about 10 years now, and not really. Each market obviously brings a different set of challenges and Boston is no different. It’s more about being acclimated to the major league level, and playing in the majors on the field is probably no different in Cleveland or in Boston than anywhere else. We just feel like Boston offers a few unique challenges, whether it be the size of the media, the responsibilities, their intentions and we want to prepare them for that. Not that we are going to take away the first-day jitters maybe when they have to come up, perform and win. But again, maybe trying to focus their energy a little bit more on coming out and doing their job as opposed to being worried about, “Oh hey, I have to go meet with the media right now. What are people going to think about me? When I get up here, what are the expectations going to be of me?” Read the rest of this entry »

The Red Sox have hired Torey Lovullo as their new manager of Triple A Pawtucket, replacing Ron Johnson, who was promoted last week from PawSox manager to the first-base coach on the Red Sox’ big-league coaching staff.

Lovullo has spent the last four years managing the Triple A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians, and spent the last eight seasons as a manager in the Indians system, working with current Sox pitching coach (and former Indians farm director) John Farrell, as well as current Sox farm director (and former Indians assistant farm director) Mike Hazen. The 44-year-old was a finalist to replace Indians manager Eric Wedge this offseason, but was bypassed in favor of Manny Acta.

Lovullo has cited Terry Francona as his biggest influence as a manager. He played his final major-league season, in 1999, under Francona in Philadelphia.

Here is the official press release announcing Lovullo as manager and Gerald Perry as hitting coach for Pawtucket:

The Boston Red Sox today announced that Torey Lovullo has been named manager of the club’s Triple-A Pawtucket affiliate. Additionally, the club announced Gerald Perry will serve as the PawSox hitting coach.

The announcements were made by Director of Player Development Mike Hazen.

Lovullo, 44, was at the helm of the Cleveland Indians Triple-A club for the last four seasons and has managed in the Indians system for eight seasons overall since 2002. He has compiled a 595-531 (.528) record while leading Single-A Columbus (2002), Single-A Kinston (2003-04), Double-A Akron (2005) and Triple-A Buffalo (2006-08) and Columbus (2009). Lovullo was named Baseball America Double-A Manager of the Year and Eastern League Manager of the Year in 2005 and also earned Carolina League Manager of the Year honors in 2004. He joined the Cleveland organization in 2001 as a roving coordinator.

A fifth-round pick by the Detroit Tigers in the 1987 draft, Lovullo played parts of eight Major League seasons with the Tigers (1988-89), New York Yankees (1991), California Angels (1993), Seattle Mariners (1994), Oakland Athletics (1996), Indians (1998) and Philadelphia Phillies (1999). Primarily a second baseman, he hit .224 (165-for-737) with 15 home runs and 60 RBI in 303 career Major League games.

Perry, 49, was the Chicago Cubs hitting coach for parts of the last three seasons from 2007-June 2009. He has also served as the Major League hitting coach for the Mariners (2000-02), Pittsburgh Pirates (2003-05) and Athletics (2006). Perry previously spent three seasons in the Boston organization as a minor league hitting coach with Single-A Michigan (1997) and Triple-A Pawtucket (1998) and was the club’s minor league hitting coordinator in 1999.

Selected by the Atlanta Braves in the 11th round of the 1978 June Draft, Perry played parts of 13 Major League seasons with the Braves (1983-89), Kansas City Royals (1990) and St. Louis Cardinals (1991-95). He hit .265 (832-for-3,144) with 59 home runs and 396 RBI in 1,193 career Major League games. Predominantly a first baseman, Perry was selected to the National League All-Star Team in 1988.