Minor Notes: Walden, Lin back up with big club

Here are Thursday's minor league notes:

• Bobby Poyner was placed on the 10-day disabled list on Thursday with a hamstring strain and the Sox recalled Marcus Walden (pictured, right). SoxProspects relayed the news on Twitter.
• With Xander Bogaerts landing on the disabled list with a small crack in the talus bone in his left ankle, the Red Sox recalled infielder Tzu-Wei Lin from Triple-A Pawtucket on Tuesday. In two games with the PawSox this season, Lin is 3 for 6 with two walks. Last year, Lin spent 25 games with the Red Sox, hitting .268 in 56 at-bats.
• In case you missed it last season, Christopher Smith of MassLive.com detailed how the 24-year-old Taiwan native nearly gave up baseball when he was younger.
• In the third edition of Notes from the Field from Spring Training 2018, SoxProspects.com Director of Scouting Ian Cundall takes a look at two pitchers who were assigned to Salem to start the season. Cundall breaks down right-handers Joan Martinez and Hildemaro Requena, as both show promise of climbing the ladder of the Sox system this season.
• Cundall also joined Matt McCarthy of 98.5 The Sport’s Hub on his Hardcore Baseball podcast as the two talked about the suspension of Michael Chavis, which was detailed in our previous Minor Notes.
• Baseball America took its yearly look at the youngest players on active rosters in every league of the minors. Sox prospect Bryan Mata is the younger player in the High A Carolina League at 18 years and nine months old while teammates Roniel Raudes and Requena rank sixth and ninth, respectively, among the league’s 10 youngest.
• In Wednesday’s Cup of Coffee, SoxProspects.com staff writer James Dunne said "Mata is single-handedly skewing the age-advancement scale." Dunne goes on to say Mata's aggressive placement did not phase the 18-year-old in his season debut in the Salem’s 3-1 win over the Wilmington Blue Rocks on Tuesday night. Mata went five scoreless innings, allowing four hits and striking out four. His control was wobbly early, as he walked one in the second and two in the third, but he settled in and closed out his outing with a perfect fifth.

Photo credit: Marcus Walden by Kelly O'Connor

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