Farmer John #2: An Average Week for the Farm Hands

We start up again with the Portland Sea Dogs. An average week for this year's Sea Dogs, who are in no place to compete for any type of recognition. They went 3-4 on the week against the New Hampshire and Binghamton, and now tout a horrendous 21-41 record. It was, however, a great week to be Luke Tender, who ripped 11 hits in 21 ABs - good for a .523 average. Over that stretch, he drove in five and drilled a HR. He struggled last season after a good year. In what seemed like a breakout season in 2016, Tender hit to the tune of a .908 OPS while knocking 23 bombs in High-A ball. This is a guy who seemed to have platooned, but someone who still has a chance to make his presence felt in the organization. The rest of the team has really been struggling offensively, as the farm system is looking as desolate as ever, but his impressive line is enough to earn the 26 year old out of NC A&T the Farmer John AA POTW #2.

What a disastrous week for the PawSox. If you haven't heard already, Pomeranz got shelled for 5 ER (4 off of HRs) in 2 2/3 innings during his rehab start at Pawtucket. He took the loss, of course, and seems to be in no position to return to the starting rotation. The team's pitching gave up 34 runs in this seven game stretch, and the offense was stagnant. The PawSox scored a total of only seventeen runs in the past 7 games. That's good for an average of 2.42 runs/game. The difference of 5:2.5 is not going to win you baseball games, and they now stand at 39-43. I just spent way too much time trying to find the right guy to give this award to, but I've found him. Coming into this week, Josh A. Smith had been getting shelled. Not sure what happened, but he managed to drop his ERA from a 10.19 to a 6.92 after three appearances. In three showings, he pitched a total of 8 1/3 innings, allowing 5 hits, no runs while striking out 11. I think he was the only PawSox pitcher to not get rocked in any games this week, and his impressive turnaround earns him this week's Farmer John Triple AAA POTW award.

The big news out of the Sox farm system this week were the injuries to the Sox first two draft picks, Triston Casas and Nick Decker. Casas underwent successful surgery to repair a damaged ligament in his thumb, an injury that was suffered while fielding a ground ball. Nick Decker fractured his wrist on a swing this week, and is set to be reevaluated in three weeks. These two seemed like the turning point in DD's farm mechanics, but we will not have to wait and see the results.

All in all, very tough week for a farm system that is in desperate need of some sort of star.