Honors Abound

The honors for local players have been flying furiously lately and we got backed up by a week on these matters...Our apologies! Let's not waste any time here and get you caught up on all the accolades.

One thing thing that we are definitely a week behind on is the International League Pitcher of the Week honors earned by Pawtucket's Ramon Ramirez. He took the honor for the week of August 16th-22nd when he went 2-0, worked 12 innings and allowed only 2 earned runs and 8 hits.

Sticking in the International League, Josh Reddick provided the PawSox with back-to-back weekly honors, taking the I.L. Player of the Week award for the week of August 23rd-29th. This is the second time that the Pawtucket outfielder has taken the award this season, winning back at the beginning of the month during the week of August 2nd-8th. Last week Reddick had a .500 average with 17 hits, 5 homers, 4 doubles and 12 RBI.

In the Eastern League another Red Sox prospect took Player of the Week honors as Portland's Ryan Lavarnway earned the distinction for the week of August 23rd-29th. The Sea Dogs catcher batted .421 with 4 home runs, 7 runs scored, 7 RBI and 9 walks on the week. Lavarnway reached base at least two times in the seven games played over the span.

Staying in the E.L., the league recently announced their annual, end-of-the-season All Star team. The Portland Sea Dogs were represented by Ray Chang who was selected in the Utility Player slot. New Britain Rock Cats Ben Revere was one of three local outfielders chosen for the team. He is flanked by Darin Mastroianni and Eric Thames of the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, who are both helping to rewrite the franchise record books. Another Fisher Cat rounded out the local All Stars as Kyle Drabek was named to the squad as the best right-handed pitcher in the league. The All Stars are voted on by Eastern League managers, coaching staffs, sportswriters, radio and television broadcast personnel and other members of the media.

Kyle Drabek was showered with even more (well-deserved) adoration by the Eastern League when he was named Pitcher of the Year. With one start to go in the regular season, Drabek has compiled the most wins in the Eastern League with a 14-9 record. He is first in the league with 159 innings pitched, second in the league with a 2.89 ERA, second with 127 strikeouts and fourth with a 1.19 WHIP. Drabek has picked up 5 wins and a no decision over his last 6 outings in helping lead the Fisher Cats to a playoff berth. The highlight of the season came back on July 4th when Drabek tossed a no-hitter, which helped him earn E.L. Player of the Week honors. The 22 year old was the key piece of the Toronto Blue Jays off season trade of Roy Halladay and is the son of former Major League Cy Young Award Winner Doug Drabek.

The last award on our hit list takes us to Vermont where Lake Monsters catcher David Freitas picked up the Tom Racine Award as team MVP. The award is voted on by the fans who thought Freitas' efforts this year were worthy of the honor. Freitas put together a franchise record 21 game hit streak earlier in the season, he made the New York Penn-League All Star game and won the Home Run Derby. The California native is hitting .308 on the year with 4 home runs, 17 doubles, 38 RBI and 30 runs scored.

Congrats to all the players on their much deserved recognition. Six new awards were probably announced while I wrote this, so I'll go check things out and report back on any other local laurels that come about.