21 June 2007

Red Sox walk a roster tightrope

By Dave Colantuono
GateHouse News Service
Thu Jun 21, 2007, 11:53 AM EDT 

    Cape Cod - Draft eligible collegians are like forbidden fruit to Cape League general managers. The talent is tempting but comes fraught with peril.

    Most years a team will take a flyer on one or two such players, hoping to get a full summer of production before the scouts come calling. Last year the gamble paid off for the Red Sox, who rode the talented arm of closer David Robertson to the Cape League Championship. The hard throwing righty went on to sign with New York Yankees just weeks after closing out Y-D’s second league title in the last three years.

    This year’s Y-D roster is loaded with pitchers whose stuff was good enough to have major league clubs come calling on draft day. 

    But it wasn’t by design.

    The Red Sox lost 10 of the 12 pitchers they had originally signed throughout the fall, and still don’t have a contracted lefty in the pen.

    “From March to May we were losing guys left to right,” says Y-D General Manager Jim Martin. “We were forced to go out there and scramble to find pitchers.”

    From injuries and Team USA invitations, to summer school and pitchers shut down by their college coaches, the Red Sox pitching staff was left in ruins with just weeks left before the season opener. The result is a pitching staff that includes four drafted starters, all of whom are just a phone call away from bolting to the minor leagues.

    In all four cases the players were taken late in the draft and are on the Cape to prove that they’re worth more than their draft day position would indicate.

    The plan worked for Robertson, who was sure he was headed back to the University of Alabama before his summer performance convinced the Yankees to up their offer. 

    It is not uncommon for a late-round pick to head to the Cape to improve their leverage come negotiating time. And the clubs don’t mind watching their draft picks compete in a wood bat league against some of the nation’s top talent.

    “Scouts have been calling me to get our pitching rotation because they want to come and see their guys,” says Martin, who mentioned Red Sox draftee Scott Green as a player of interest. “I know the Red Sox are going to make a hard run at him once they see him pitch.”

    The Kentucky product got his summer off to a strong start, throwing five innings of three-hit ball during the Red Sox 5-3 Father’s Day victory over Wareham.

    It was Y-D’s third win in a row, all of which came as the result of dominating pitching performances by players who had been drafted earlier this month.

    Terry Doyle, last summer’s Cape League Co-Pitcher of the Year and a 21st round pick of the Dodgers, looked strong in Y-D’s opening day win over the Mets. Georgia’s Steve Dodson came back the next day to throw seven innings of one-hit ball in Y-D’s 4-1 victory over the Chatham A’s. 

    The red shirt sophomore’s dominating performance was sure to catch the eyes of the Kansas City scouts who selected him in the 18th round of the draft.

    The fourth member of the group, 6 foot, 8 inch Georgia Tech righty Eddie Burns, displayed what made the Atlanta Braves come calling with six innings of one run ball in Monday’s 15-1 bashing of Cotuit.

    Four games, four dominating pitching performances, all from pitchers who could be gone in an instant.

    This wasn’t exactly the plan for head coach Scott Pickler and Martin, who spent the fall signing some of the top young arms in the nation. Then spring arrived and the phone started to ring with the bad news. By then the rest of the league had locked up the best available collegiate freshmen and sophomore arms, leaving the Red Sox brain trust little choice but to roll the dice on the likes of Doyle, Green, Burns and Dodson. 

    So far the results couldn’t have been better. 

    The Red Sox have jumped to a 5-0 start through Tuesday’s game in defense of their title while leading the league with a miniscule 1.64 ERA.

    Will it last? We’ll find out in the next few weeks when the players begin to hear the ca-ching of the bonus dollars from the major league clubs. Until then Pickler and Martin will walk a tight rope of talent as far as it will carry them.

By Dave Colantuono