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Garrabrants Signed By Boston Organization

July 5, 2007 - South Coast League (SCL)
South Georgia Peanuts News Release


The South Georgia Peanuts, presented by Security Bank, are pleased to announce that Steve Garrabrants has had his contract purchased by the Boston Red Sox organization. The signing came one day after Garrabrants was named the South Coast League player of the month for June. In 31 games for the Peanuts, he hit .364 with eight home runs and 32 RBI.

Garrabrants is expected to report to the Red Sox High-A team in Lancaster, CA. This will not be the first time he has played in Lancaster. The JetHawks served as the Diamondbacks California league team for many years. Garrabrants has played there parts of two different seasons including in 2004 when Peanuts manager Wally Backman was the manager there. He has also been assured that he will be playing every day and will have the opportunity to move up in the system. The Boston minor league system is currently getting very little production from middle infielders, which gives Garrabrants a chance to jet his way through the system.

"I am real excited and real happy to get there and get another chance to make it to the big leagues," Garrabrants said. "A chance to move up and get playing time, that is all you can ask for."

Garrabrants was one of the first players that Backman identified as a guy he wanted to be part of the Peanuts. Garrabrants had been released from the Arizona organization after spending 2006 at AA Tennessee. Garrabrants was a major force in the Peanuts line-up since the beginning of the season. Besides leading the league in batting average, Garrabrants was also either the league leader or amongst the league leaders in home runs, RBI's, stolen bases, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

"This is a great move for Stevie to get into a situation where he can play every day and also move through a system very quickly," Backman said. "He is a guy who I have always believed should be in a system because he will be able to perform as a super utility guy in the big leagues."

Garrabrants is the second Peanut in less than a week to be signed by an affiliated organization after Jon Zeringue was signed late last week. In all, the South Coast League has had three players who were not draft-eligible be signed by affiliated organizations and all of them have come from the Peanuts roster.

"Steve is a great ball player and he absolutely crushes the ball," Peanuts center fielder Jasha Balcom said. "In his time here, we enjoyed having him. He was a big bat in our lineup. We are defiantly going to miss him. We wish him all the best as he heads out to Boston. We know he is going to do well. We look forward to seeing him in Double-A, Triple-A or the big leagues this year or next year."

Garrabrants left immediately when he got the call and is currently driving the 33 hours to Lancaster, CA. Ironically enough, Lancaster will be playing Stockton this weekend with Stockton being the team that Zeringue reported to earlier this week. Coming into the 2007 season, he had a career .276 professional average with 17 home runs and 152 RBI. He was a ninth round draft pick out of Arizona State in 2003.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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