Sox Prospects Collect PotW Honors

Lately it seems that we have had a weekly fixture in congratulating a local player winning Player of the Week honors in their respective league. This week is an unprecedented one as we honor not one...not two...but THREE local prospects who collected PotW awards for the week of August 2nd-8th. On top of that, all three play for a Boston Red Sox affiliate.

Starting in AAA Pawtucket the International League PotW honors were collected by outfielder Josh Reddick who has really turned around what once looked like a lost season. With high expectations starting in AAA, Reddick tripped coming out of the gate. Despite this and due to the injury bug that ravaged the Boston Red Sox, Reddick got a shot to show off for the big club. In 11 games in the majors he batted .160 with only 4 hits and 2 RBI. After being sent back down to Pawtucket, he slowly started turning things around and as of late he has hit full stride to the point where he is currently one of the hottest players in all of the minors. He is batting .435 over his last ten games. For the week of August 2nd through the 8th he had 13 hits, 5 of which were doubles, 2 home runs and 10 RBI.

Anthony Rizzo is the first Portland Sea Dog to take Easten League PotW honors this year. After starting the season with Single A Salem, Rizzo made a successful jump to AA and was hitting the ball well. He did end up slumping for a bit when he batted .245 for the month of June, but much like Reddick he has recently turned it on full bore at the plate and is batting an astounding .424 in the month of August with an .824 slugging percentage. During the week of August 2nd-8th he collected 12 hits in 6 games with 3 home runs and 12 RBI.

The Lowell Spinners Miguel Celestino rounds out the Sox trifecta of PotW winners on New England teams. Celestino used his 6'6" frame to simply intimidate his opponents on his way to becoming the New York-Penn League Pitcher of the Week. He picked up his first two wins of the season in starts on the 2nd against Connecticut and on the 7th versus Auburn. Celestino tossed 11 total innings allowing only 1 earned run and 4 hits while whiffing 11 batters.

So congrats to Josh Reddick, Anthony Rizzo and Miguel Celestino on the much deserved Player of the Week honors. I know it's been a tough season for Red Sox fans, so take the good with the bad, and for the affiliates, it's been a good week.

QUARTET - The honors weren't only regional for the Red Sox organization. They actually had four players win PotW honors. Two of the winners were pitchers named Miguel, with Salem's Miguel Gonzales collecting the honor in the Single A Carolina League. Gonzalez had one start on the week and made the most of it, going 6 2/3, allowing 0 earned runs, 3 hits and striking out 9 batters.