Weekly Notes: Arizona Fall League and Fall Instructs start up

The last two weeks' minor league notes:

• The Arizona Fall League opened its season yesterday. Red Sox prospects will play for the Surprise Saguaros along with prospects from the Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, and Texas Rangers. The roster features four Red Sox pitchers (Keith Couch, Aaron Kurcz, Robby Scott, and Madison Younginer) and three position players (infielders Sean Coyle and Deven Marrero (pictured, right) and outfielder Rusney Castillo). The Saguaros started with a 5-4 loss to Peoria, but none of the Red Sox players participated in the game. The entire schedule for all teams can be found here.
• SoxProspects.com director of scouting Ian Cundall headed down to Fort Myers this week to get his eyes on the Fall Instructional League. This morning he posted his first fall edition of Scouting Scratch, which has scouting information on several prospects including third basemen Rafael Devers and 2014 first-round pick Michael Kopech. 
• As a refresher, here is the Fall Instructional League schedule and roster.
• The SoxProspects.com awards winners were announced recently. The categories up for grabs included: Offensive Player of the Year, Pitcher of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year, Graduate of the Year, Comeback Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Ex-Prospect of the Year, and DSL Player of the year.
• We also asked all SoxProspects.com readers to vote and select their All-Stars teams. Here are the results of those polls.
• In the latest edition of the SoxProspects.com podcast, Chris Hatfield and Ian Cundall discuss the Arizona Fall League rosters and also the prospects who might be selected in this December’s Rule 5 Draft. 
• The Red Sox will select 7th in the 2015 First-Year Player Draft after finishing with the sixth worst record in the league at 71-91. The reason they will select seventh and not sixth is because the Astros have a compensation pick (second overall) for failing to sign 2014 top pick, Brady Aiken. The last time the Red Sox selected seventh was in 2013 when they selected left-hander Trey Ball, currently ranked 11th on the SoxProspects.com rankings.
• The SoxProspects.com brass selected their personal Top 40 Rankings last week with rankings from editor-in chief Mike Andrews, executive editor Chris Hatfield, managing editor Matt Huegel, and director of scouting Ian Cundall.
• Mike Andrews also covered the top 10 prospects in more detail over at ESPNBoston.
• Two Red Sox prospects made the South Atlantic League top 20 rankings from Baseball America, outfielder Manual Margot ranked ninth and second basemen Wendell Rijo came in at 17.
  
• You may not of even noticed, but outfielder Alex Hassan (pictured, left) very quietly had a fantastic 2014 season, hitting .321/.431/.460 while at Pawtucket. Don’t worry if you missed it because Marc Normandin at Over the Monster took notice, and looks deeper into Hassan’s impressive season.
• Yasmani Tomas is the latest Cuban outfielder to hit the market, but as WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford notes, the Red Sox will not host him for a private workout and likely will not be serious bidders, at least partially due to their glut of outfielders.
• One area the Red Sox will need to sort out this off-season is third base, and the prime candidate coming into the year seemed to be Garin Cecchini. However, as Scott Lauber writes for the Boston Herald, Cecchini’s stock fell a bit this year as he hit his first bump in his developmental path. He rebounded to end the season, but was it enough to persuade the Red Sox not to turn to free agency and give him a shot at opening the 2015 season with the Red Sox?
• Mookie Betts started his professional career as a second basemen after being a high school shortstop, and this year he was moved to the outfield where he adapted well. With the aforementioned third base opening, would the Red Sox consider him there? John Farrell addressed that possibility saying “we see Mookie as an outfielder” notes the Providence Journal’s Brian MacPherson.
• Red Sox GM Ben Cherington spoke on the plans to fix the Red Sox going forward and ESPNBoston’s Gordon Edes has the summary. Some prospect related highlights are that Cecchini or Will Middlebrooks could fill the third base void, and Christian Vazquez is ready to step in and be the everyday catcher.
• WEEI.com’s Alex Speier spoke with shortstop Deven Marrero who said, “I want to be the Derek Jeter of the Red Sox.”
• The Red Sox honored their minor-league award winners over the last weekend of the season and Tim Britton of the Providence Journal has quotes from some of the winners. The winners of the two biggest awards were Mookie Betts who won Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight year, and Brian Johnson who won Pitcher of the Year.
• Last week the staff at Baseball Prospectus highlighted potential 2015 breakout prospects in their Monday Morning Ten Pack, and among them was third basemen Rafael Devers.

Photo Credit: Deven Marrero and Alex Hassan by Kelly O'Connor

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

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