August 1, 2018 at 1:00 PM
July Players of the Month: Bobby Dalbec and Denyi Reyes
The minor league regular season is rapidly coming to a close as the stretch run begins, with only a month remaining before the playoffs begin after Labor Day. None of the teams in the upper minors are in postseason contention, but Greenville rebounded from a rough first half and leads its division headed into August, Lowell is two games behind the Wild Card spot in the New York-Penn League and the GCL squad is one-half game behind the division lead.
Part of the Drive's second-half resurgence has been because of Denyi Reyes (pictured, left) putting together incredible performances in July, earning SoxProspects.com's pitcher of the month award for the third consecutive month. He is joined by player of the month Bobby Dalbec (pictured, below) who blew the competition away with strong power numbers.
Reyes is up to No. 28 in the SoxProespcts rankings after beginning the year unranked as he has shown strong potential in his second year stateside. He did not pitch fewer than six innings in his five starts this month and was exceptional at preventing baserunners with a 0.65 WHIP, which was lowest among starters in full-season ball. He was able to do that with the fourth-most innings pitched in the system and helped him to a 1.85 ERA.
Perhaps the most impressive stat the 21-year-old Dominican put up was his K/BB ratio, at 30/0. He caught 10 of those batters looking while also limiting hard contact, as batters hit line drives only 22.6 percent of the time.
Reyes was signed as an international free agent in 2014 and allowed an impressive .177/.177/.274 with a headlining performance of seven shutout innings on July 15, allowing only two hits. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.
As for Dalbec, he drilled 10 homers to lead the Red Sox system by four. That puts him at 25 home runs for the year to lead the South Atlantic League in addition to a tie for third in all of the minor leagues.
The 2016 fourth-round pick did not just rely on power to take the player of the month honors as he slashed .319/.414/.747, leading the system in slugging percentage and OPS among batters with more than 50 plate appearances. His strikeout rate, at 29.7 percent, was close to his season average, Dalbec just did an excellent job of drilling the pitches he was given, grabbing 18 extra-base hits.
Those extra-base hits led the system, while he also was in charge with 68 total bases and Dalbec now ranked No. 6 in the SoxProspects rankings.
Photo Credit: Denyi Reyes and Bobby Dalbec by Kelly O'Connor
Reyes is up to No. 28 in the SoxProespcts rankings after beginning the year unranked as he has shown strong potential in his second year stateside. He did not pitch fewer than six innings in his five starts this month and was exceptional at preventing baserunners with a 0.65 WHIP, which was lowest among starters in full-season ball. He was able to do that with the fourth-most innings pitched in the system and helped him to a 1.85 ERA.
Perhaps the most impressive stat the 21-year-old Dominican put up was his K/BB ratio, at 30/0. He caught 10 of those batters looking while also limiting hard contact, as batters hit line drives only 22.6 percent of the time.
Reyes was signed as an international free agent in 2014 and allowed an impressive .177/.177/.274 with a headlining performance of seven shutout innings on July 15, allowing only two hits. He struck out six and did not walk a batter.
As for Dalbec, he drilled 10 homers to lead the Red Sox system by four. That puts him at 25 home runs for the year to lead the South Atlantic League in addition to a tie for third in all of the minor leagues.
The 2016 fourth-round pick did not just rely on power to take the player of the month honors as he slashed .319/.414/.747, leading the system in slugging percentage and OPS among batters with more than 50 plate appearances. His strikeout rate, at 29.7 percent, was close to his season average, Dalbec just did an excellent job of drilling the pitches he was given, grabbing 18 extra-base hits.
Those extra-base hits led the system, while he also was in charge with 68 total bases and Dalbec now ranked No. 6 in the SoxProspects rankings.
Photo Credit: Denyi Reyes and Bobby Dalbec by Kelly O'Connor