Weekly Notes: Let the games begin

This week's minor league notes:

• At the start of last week, rosters for the full season affiliates began to be released in advance of the start of their respective seasons, and we had them all covered. Check out the rosters and quick analysis for each team: Pawtucket, Portland, Salem, and Greenville. You can also check out the Team Rosters' page throughout the season, which will be updated to reflect the latest moves, injuries, and promotions.
• Once rosters were released, several sites sorted through all of them and ranked the best ones. Baseball America listed the Pawtucket Red Sox as their top minor league roster, noting that it featured five of their top 100 prospects and 11 of their Red Sox Top 30. Jim Callis at MLBPipeline.com had the Twins' Double-A roster as the only one better than Pawtucket's.
• The SoxProspects.com Cup of Coffee series is back for another season. Catch up on the previous day's results and standout performances with news and updates from every affiliate every morning.
• The System Restart series also continued to chug along this past week. Part four came out on Wednesday and featured Manuel Margot and the outfielders, while Friday's part five had the upper level pitchers including Henry Owens and Eduardo Rodriguez (pictured, top).
• Currently ranked 11th in the SoxProspects.com rankings, Deven Marerro is the highest ranked shortstop in the system. He was taken in the first round of the 2012 draft because of his outstanding defense and offensive upside. His bat remains a work in progress, but Marerro is working on his approach at the plate as managing editor Matt Huegel writes.
• Another first rounder, 2013's seventh overall pick, left-hander Trey Ball, had a ERA over seven in the first half of 2014, but rebounded in the second half to finish with a 4.68 ERA by season's end.  Senior columnist Jon Meoli spoke with Greenville pitching coach Paul Abbott about Ball and why he predicted that turnaround was coming.
• For their 72nd episode, the SoxProspects.com podcast crew welcomed in guest Matthew Kory, man of the internet, to talk about some story lines they were looking forward to in the 2015 season.
• Rodriguez caught everyone's attention with his dominance in Portland after the Red Sox acquired him in the deadline deal for Andrew Miller, and also this spring with a strong performance. That run continued into the season, as Rodriguez fired off 5 2/3 innings, allowing only five hits, one earned run, and four strikeouts. Marc Normandin at Over the Monster wonders if Rodriguez is now the best pitcher in the Red Sox system.
• Another player had a great debut as Michael Chavis hit a home run and had a walk-off double in Greenville's win on Thursday. MiLB.com's Robert Emrich spoke with the Drive's manager, Darren Fenster, about Chavis' performance and potential.
• Jackie Bradley Jr. was the second ranked player on the SoxProspects.com rankings at this time last year. Despite a tough 2014 season, the outfielder is only focusing on what he can control writes WEEI.com's Ryan Hannable.

• Brandon Workman was viewed as one of the top bullpen depth options at the start of the season, but he recently felt pain in his elbow and has landed on the DL. The Red Sox are hoping it will only require rest, but he will get a second opinion according to Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
• In addition to Workman, left-hander Edwin Escobar also hit the DL with elbow inflammation, There were a few other players added to the disabled list as well, and all roster moves throughout the season can be found on the SoxProspects.com Transactions page.
• Catcher Christian Vazquez had Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire 2015 season. Lauber spoke with ex-catcher Ben Davis about what a catcher can expect as he works his way back from Tommy John.
• Some speculated that the injury to Vazquez could mean that top prospect, Blake Swihart, may be forced into action for the big league team sooner than expected. That was not the case, and during his interview on the Middays with MFB show on WEEI, Red Sox assistant general manager Mike Hazen says there is no timetable for Swihard to be called up.
• The Red Sox select seventh in the 2015 MLB Draft. The top of the draft has become very cloudy after highly ranked pitchers Mike Matuella of Duke University and Brady Aiken of the IMG Accademy both underwent Tommy John Surgery. Despite that, ESPN's Keith Law still lists both players in his recently released rankings of the top 50 draft eligible players.
• MLB Pipeline takes this optimistic view of the pitchers who recently had Tommy John to a new level, as they still have Matuella and Aiken in the top 10 of their 2015 MLB draft rankings.
• Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald checks in to see where the players the Red Sox recently traded ended up to start the year. Players mentioned are Rubby De La Rosa, Allen Webster, Anthony Ranaudo and more.

Players of the Week 4/9/15 - 4/12/15: This season the SoxProspects.com staff will select the best hitter and pitcher of each week throughout the season and feature them in the Weekly Notes:

Jacob Dahlstrand, SP, Salem Red Sox
1 G, 1-0, 6.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Not only was it a short week for Salem, but their season opener was also cut short due to rain. Dahlstrand (pictured, bottom) started their opener and threw six no-hit innings. He combined with piggyback starter Joe Gunkel for a no-hitter in the game which ended up being called with one out in the bottom of the sixth.

Aneury Tavarez, RF, Salem Red Sox
4 G, 15 PA, 7 H, 1 2B, 1 R, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 SB, .500/.533/.571
Player of the Week was a tighter race, but in the end, it was another Salem Red Sox who took home the award after getting a hit in every game he played over the shortened week.

Photo Credit: Eduardo Rodriguez & Jacob Dahlstrand by Kelly O'Connor.

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

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