Weekly Notes: Award Season

Here are this week's weekly notes:

• After an impressive 2012 season, Keury De La Cruz (pictured) spent the entire 2013 season with the Salem Red Sox and finished with an overall line of.258/.297/.398 with nine home runs in 535 at-bats. His performance was strong enough to make the end of season Carolina League All-Star Team. He was the only Salem player to make the team.
• De La Cruz was not the only player to take home a recent award, as Portland Sea Dogs outfielder JC Linares was named the Eastern League Player of the Month for the month of August. Splitting time in 2013 between Pawtucket and Portland, Linares finally settled in and finished the month with an impressive 1.065 OPS along with six home runs and 12 doubles in 28 games.
• The Portland Sea Dogs also announced their yearly team awards this week, as catcher Christian Vazquez and right-hander Anthony Ranaudo earned the two biggest honors, team MVP and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
• Awards were not only earned by individuals either. The Salem Red Sox took home the 2013 Mills Cup as the winners of the Carolina League, completing the sweep of the Potomac Nationals (WAS). A Red Sox affiliate had not won a High A league title since the Winston-Salem Red Sox won in 1973.
• While Salem clinched their league's championship, the Pawtucket Red Sox are in a tightly contested Governors' Cup Finals series against the Durham Bulls (TB). The 1-1 series shifts to Pawtucket for Game 3 tonight at 7:05 p.m.
• Not to be outdone, we also came out with the SoxProspects.com season-end award winners this week. Awards were given for Offensive Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and DSL Players of the Year. One player even took home two awards. Check out the full post here.
• Now that the regular season is over for all of the Red Sox affiliates, SoxProspects.com put together the statistical leaderboard for the farm system over at ESPNBoston.
• Sean Coyle took home the Mills Cup MVP for Salem after returning from injury, but he is not a conventional second base prospect. WEEI.com’s Alex Speier takes a closer look and tries to make sense of it all.
• Brandon Workman has impressive mental toughness and bounceback ability, as WEEI’s Rob Bradford writes.
• Can you learn how to win? WEEI.com’s Katie Morrison takes a look at why Pawtucket's playoff run may be important in player development.
  
• Could Jackie Bradley, Jr. and Xander Bogaerts (pictured) be starters next year for the Red Sox? Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal examines the possibility of that occurring.
• Also on the Bradley, Jr.-Bogaerts front, Scott Lauber talks to manager John Farrell about the future of the two star prospects for the Boston Herald. 
• Lauber also notes that Bogaerts is being mentored by the same man who taught Derek Jeter 20 years ago, Red Sox third base coach Brian Butterfield.
• SBNation’s Steven Goldman asks a bold question: is the recent Red Sox farm system the best of all time at producing players? 

Photo Credit: Kelly O'Connor 

Will Woodward and Kevin Pereira are Staff Writers for SoxProspects.com. Follow them on Twitter @SPWill and @kevinrpereira.

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