Lavarnway, Duckworth, Cecchini all bring home PotW honors

After suffering a few weeks without a regional Player or Pitcher of the Week, a few Red Sox prospects made up for lost time as Pawtucket's Ryan Lavarnway and Brandon Duckworth and Lowell's Garin Cecchini were all honored for the period of July 18th - 24th.

If you haven't heard word of Ryan Lavarnway as of late, then you must be living in a cave. It seems that every night over the past week or two he has launched another ball over the fence, helping the PawSox pull within one game of first place in the International League's North Divison. Lavarnway has been a beast since being called up from Portland earlier in the season. In 36 games with Pawtucket he has a .372 batting average with 13 home runs and 36 RBI. Pre-season he was ranked as the 16th best Red Sox prospect by Baseball America and their best catching prospect, which he is quickly proving. He is batting .441 over his last 10 games and .403 for the month of July. Here are the stats from Ryan's big week:
9-22, .409 BA, 3 2BS, 4 HRs, 11 RBI, 8 R

Brandon Duckworth has been a steady, veteran influence in the PawSox rotation this season, coming on as of late after a string of rough outings. Duckworth has notched three straight victories and during the period of July 18th-24th he picked up big wins over Lehigh Valley and Buffalo. He was named the International League's Most Valuable Pitcher back ion 2001 and has toiled between the minors and majors for six different organizations for the past decade plus. Duckworth is 7-6 with a 3.78 ERA in 18 apperances with the PawSox this year. Here are Duckworth's totals for the week:
2 Ws, 11 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 10 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks

Garin Cecchini was in the midst of a nine game hitting streak before getting drilled by a pitch that fractured his wrist in a game against Auburn on Saturday night, ending his first season with the organization. Cecchini was a 4th round pick by the Red Sox in the 2010 draft and was rated the 7th best prospect in the organization by Baseball America prior to the start of the season. In July Cecchini was batting .342 with 3 HRs, 18 RBI, 16 R and 6 SBs. Here was Cecchini's line for the period of 7/18 - 7/24:
12-21, .571 BA, 4 2Bs, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 9 R, 2 SBs

Pawtucket finally gets into the mix in a big way by picking up their first two PotW's of the season, and Lowell picks up their second honor of the year. Congrats to Ryan, Brandon and Garin and a get well soon to Mr. Cecchini as well.

2011 New England based Pitchers/Players of the Week
Lowell - 3B Garin Cecchini 7/18 - 7/24 (N.Y.P.L.)
Pawtucket - P Brandon Duckworth 7/18 - 7/24 (I.L.)
Pawtucket - C Ryan Lavarnway 7/18 - 7/24 (I.L.)
Lowell - 3B Travis Shaw 6/27 - 7/3 (N.Y.P.L.)
New Hampshire - SP Henderson Alvarez 6/20 - 6/26 (E.L.)
New Britain – SP Brett Jacobson 6/13 – 6/19 (E.L.)
Portland – SP Stephen Fife 6/6 - 6/12 (E.L.)
Portland – OF Chih-Hsien Chiang 5/30 – 6/5 (E.L.)
New Hampshire – SP Joel Carreno 5/16 – 5/22 (E.L.)
New Britain – IN/OF Yangervis Solarte 4/25 – 5/1 (E.L.)