Weekly Notes: June 29th

This week's minor league notes:

• Last week, Jackie Bradley, Jr. was promoted to Portland after hitting .359/.480/.526 over 67 games for High A Salem. The promotion has not slowed down his production one bit--as of Thursday, he was hitting .367/.441/.533 in his first seven Double-A games. Chris Mellen, SoxProspects.com's Director of Scouting, takes a closer look at Bradley this week in The Book while focusing on the areas of his game that he can continue to work on as he begins to face higher level competition. 
• SoxProspects.com's Executive Editor, Chris Hatfield, gives his view on the moves associated with the promotion of Bradley in his First Take column. The column touches on many of the events of the past several weeks in more detail, including the Kevin Youkilis deal, Jose Iglesias's rehab stint, and Mark Prior heading to the disabled list with a strained oblique.
• This week Mike Andrews, SoxProspects.com's Editor-in-Chief, broke the news that the Red Sox have signed the top ranked international free-agent out of Asia in Taiwan's Tzu-Wei Lin. The 18-year-old shortstop has an intriguing set of skills, and The Taiwan Baseball Blog provides a more in-depth scouting report. Lin will be assigned to the Gulf Coast League.
• Mike also wrote a piece this week for ESPNBoston about 23 players who played high school baseball in New England and played in the Major Leagues in the 2012 season.
• This week the Red Sox finished signing all of their picks in the top 10 rounds of the 2012 draft when they signed left-hander Brian Johnson, the 31st overall pick, and their third-round pick, right-hander Austin Maddox.  Both players are out of the University of Florida, and the signings were slightly delayed while UF made their run in the College World Series. Johnson signed for his exact slot value of $1.575 million, while Maddox signed for $350,000, which was just below his slot number of $400,500.
• The new collective bargaining agreement states that a team can exceed its bonus pool by up to five percent by paying a 75 percent tax on the amount over the pool.  If a team goes over its bonus poll by more than five percent, it would be required to forfeit future draft picks, something the Red Sox would almost certainly not be willing to do.  They are currently $157,200 over their bonus pool, meaning they have an additional $187,040 available to spend on any unsigned draftees, for whom any bonus money above $100,000 would count against the pool. This limited flexibility makes it unlikely the Red Sox will have any other big signings unless some of their picks are willing to sign for less than expected.
• Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal discusses the Red Sox' strategy under the new CBA, and how they were able to land high upside high school players like Ty Buttrey.
• 2012 draft picks have begun being assigned to the Red Sox affiliates. Deven Marrero hit his first professional home run after being assigned to the Lowell Spinners this week. High school draft picks Ty Buttrey and Jamie Callahan were assigned to the Gulf Coast League. As always, check out the team roster page for the most up to date roster assignments. 
• Not that you don't love our voices, but this week the SoxProspects.com Podcast let you hear from the players directly, featuring interviews with Iglesias, Marrero and supplemental round selection Pat Light.
• The International League announced its All-Star roster this week, and four PawSox made the cut. Catcher Ryan Lavarnway, first baseman Mauro Gomez, infielder Pedro Ciriaco, and starting pitcher Justin Germano will all partake in the game and Arnie Beyeler will manage the IL squad.
• Tim Britton of the Providence Journal talked to Pat Light about another former New Jersey high school pitcher, Anthony Ranaudo.
• Alex Speier of WEEI.com compared Oscar Tejeda to Will Middlebrooks after both were teammates at Salem in 2010. Tejeda was claimed by the Pittsburgh Pirates when the Red Sox had to make room when Zach Stewart and Brent Lillibridge who came over in the Youkilis deal.
• Matt Eddy of Baseball America reported this week that the Cubs released former Red Sox minor league first baseman Jair Bogaerts, younger brother of Xander Bogaerts. Jair was the player who went to the Cubs as part of the Theo Epstein compensation package.

Will Woodward is a Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com.  Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.

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