Salem Red Sox Game Notes
April 8, 2011 - Carolina League (CarL1)
Salem Red Sox News Release
April 8, 2011 7:05 PM
Frederick Keys (0-0) vs Salem Red Sox (0-0) Game #1
LewisGale Field
Salem, VA
Home Game #1
A Familiar Matchup: Salem begins its 2011 slate with the first of 20 regular season matchups against the Frederick Keys. It's the third time in the last five years that Salem and Frederick meet to open the campaign, with Salem having dropped both of those recent ballgames by an eyelash. The then-Salem Avalanche fell 5-4 in 2007, while the debut of Red Sox baseball in the Roanoke Valley was foiled by Frederick in 2009, with the Keys triumphing 8-6 in 12 innings.
Home Opening: Salem opens the 2011 season at home for the 9th time in the last ten years. The lone road opener in the past decade occurred a year ago, when the Sox began the year in Woodbridge, VA against the Potomac Nationals. The season lid-lifter spanned two days because of rain, but the Red Sox prevailed 6-4 thanks to Oscar Tejeda's two-run double in the top of the ninth, breaking a tie score at Pfitzner Stadium. Salem has played six consecutive tight openers, all of which have been decided by one or two runs.
Salem Seeks Fifth Mills Cup Crown: It's never too early to think about the playoffs. Though the Red Sox are in their third year back in the Roanoke Valley, Salem professional baseball is looking for its fifth Carolina League Championship and first in the last ten years. In 2001, the Rockies-affiliated Salem Avalanche garnered the league title behind players like Garrett Atkins, Matt Holliday, and Aaron Cook. Salem also won it all in 1987, 1974, and 1972, each of those times as a Pirates affiliate.
A Veteran Table-Setter: Peter Hissey is poised to join a pretty small club, as the 21-year-old is likely to become just the fifth player in Salem's Carolina League history (since 1968) to lead off on Opening Day in consecutive seasons. The West Chester, PA-native went 2-5 and scored two runs in Salem's victory on April 8, 2010. He hit .234 as a 20-year-old last season, stealing 25 bases and only making two errors. Of the previous four players who have sat atop the Opening Day lineup in back-to-back years, two went on to play in the major leagues: Infielders Luis Quinones (1981-82) and Chone Figgins (1999- 2000) each progressed from Salem to the Show, with Figgins currently entrenched in his 10th MLB season. Hissey also joins Jerry McDonald and Miguel Vilorio.
The Rear-View Mirror: The 2010 Salem Red Sox finished with one of the top records in the Carolina League, but failed to make the postseason due to the quirky nature of playoff qualification. Salem opened the year with 21 wins in its first 28 games, including a season-best seven-game winning streak in the first seven days of May. The Red Sox also finished the first half strong, winning 12 of 15 before dropping the final game before the All-Star Break. In the second half, Salem dropped seven of nine before winning 20 of the next 30. Injuries and promotions hurt the Sox in August, eliminating the club from postseason contention in the season's final week. Oscar Tejeda led the 2010 Salem Sox with a .307 average, Ryan Lavarnway hit 14 homers, and Will Middlebrooks was tops with 70 RBI.
Meet the 2011 Red Sox
Among the position players are a bunch of high draft picks with an abundance of talent, including Boston's top selection from the 2010 draft. Third-baseman Kolbrin Vitek, chosen with the 20th overall pick, advances to Salem after playing in Lowell and Greenville during his professional debut a year ago. An All-American and Conference Player of the Year award winner at Ball State, Vitek hit .270 in 68 games for the Spinners and Drive. Shortstop Derrik Gibson arrives in Salem after leading the South Atlantic League in fielding percentage (.960) in 2010. A second round pick in 2008, Gibson also stole 39 bases for the Drive last year. Reynoldo Rodriguez, Michael Almanzar, Zach Gentile, and Vladimir Frias also join the Salem infield. Rodriguez led last year's Greenville squad with 14 homers and earned SAL Player of the Week honors on three separate occasions. Almanzar, the son of former Major League pitcher Carlos Almanzar, led the Drive with 120 hits and hit a career-high ten homers.
Salem's outfield features the most prolific minor league base-stealer that Boston's farm-system has seen in 30 years. Jeremy Hazelbaker, a college teammate of Vitek, recorded a remarkable 63 steals in 2010. If that was not enough, the Indiana-native also led the organization with nine triples and bopped 12 dingers. Joining Hazelbaker in the pasture are Ronald Bermudez, Peter Hissey, David Mailman, and Shannon Wilkerson, with all but the latter returning to Salem for a second season. Hissey, a defensive wizard in center field, played 112 games last year for the Salem Sox, while Bermudez and Mailman were on the field for 24 and 23 appearances, respectively. Wilkerson, who won the Division II National Player of the Year award as a student-athlete at Augusta State in 2009, joined Boston's organization as a sixth round pick in the '09 draft.
Dan Butler and Matt Spring open the year as Salem's backstops, the former of which is a familiar face in the Roanoke Valley. Butler appeared in two games for the Sox in 2009, then piggy-backed a monster 2010 firsthalf for Greenville by joining Salem for 35 games in the second half. Overall, Butler led all Red Sox farmhands with a .310 batting average last season, earning All-Star honors in the South Atlantic League. In spring training, Butler's bat ascended to the major league level, and the undrafted catcher from the University of Arizona belted a two-run homer in Boston's final exhibition game, a 10-0 triumph over the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
Joining the 13 position players are a dozen pitchers, nine of which are poised to make their Advanced -A debuts. Left-hander Drake Britton and righties Ryan Pressly, Pete Ruiz, and Kendal Volz ascend to Salem after being regulars in the 2010 Greenville rotation, each making at least 20 starts for last year's Drive club. Chris Balcom-Miller also was a top arm in the South Atlantic League last season, making all but one of his 20 starts for the Asheville Tourists, a Rockies affiliate. Boston acquired Balcom-Miller in exchange for big-leaguer Manny Delcarmen at the 2010 trade deadline. Other newcomers to the Salem pitching staff include Anatanaer Batista, Jeremiah Bayer, Tom Ebert, and Chris Hernandez. A trio of lefthanders, Cesar Cabral, Mitch Herold, and Will Latimer, return to the Roanoke Valley for a second straight year.
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