Minor Notes: Casas stays hot, Duran's hitting streak continues

Here are Thursday's Minor League notes:

• Fresh off of winning the Carolina League Player of the Week, the red hot Jarren Duran extended his hit streak to 14 games this week. It's hard to believe given that this is his first full professional season, but Duran still has some work to do to reach his career high streak of 20 games from 2018. 

• The system has seen a number of terrific pitching performances this week, with Daniel Gonzales, Enmanuel De Jesus and Thaddeus Ward distinguishing themselves. The trio combined for 21 innings while only surrendering one run and striking out 22 batters in total. 

• Triston Casas (pictured) stumbled out of the gates in his first full professional season but has quickly turned things around in May by putting up a tremendous .324/.392/.603 batting line. Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald details the former first-round pick's rapid turn around and how he has quickly adjusted to life as a professional baseball player. 

• While Gonzalez is a veteran of the Red Sox system Ward has been turning heads in his first full year as a pro. For his performance on Monday night, Ward earned a mention in MiLB.com's daily prospect roundup as well as a feature from Over the Monster, in which fans were advised to take notice of the right-hander if they haven't already.

• Another Greenville pitcher who has found success in 2019 is Rio Gomez, who earned a promotion to Salem to fill in for the injured Alex Demchak. This will be the first trip to High A for the son of ESPN's Pedro Gomez and 2017 draftee.

• It's been a while since Shawn Haviland has donned a Red Sox uniform, but he is back contributing to the organization as a coach. Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic describes Haviland's journey from Harvard pitcher, to career minor leaguer, to analytics coach for Boston's lower level affiliates.

• Almost two months into the 2019 season, things are heating up in the AL rookie of the year race. With his performance thus far it comes as no surprise that Michael Chavis is among the early contenders for the honor. MLB.com's Richard Justice published his first poll of the season, and Chavis came in second behind only the Ray's Brandon Lowe.

• Many expected Chavis to have an impact upon the 2019 Red Sox, but few foresaw just how tremendous his impact would be. Jay Jaffe of Fangraphs took a look at Chavis' career thus far and how he went from troubled prospect with major question marks, to the savior of a World Series contender's season.

• The 2019 MLB Draft is right around the corner and Matt Collins of Over the Monster has begun looking back at Boston's recent drafts. Thus far he has gotten through the high school and college bats, with the lauded 2018 draft taking a high place among each category.

• Elsewhere on SB Nation, Anderson Pickard of MLB Daily Dish broke down each AL East team's needs in the upcoming MLB Draft. Pickard singled out catcher and second base as areas of need for the Red Sox, pointing towards the lack of depth in the minor leagues at either position

• The Red Sox farm system has received it's a fair share of criticism in the past few years given its dearth of high-end prospects, but John Tomase of NBC Sports Boston argues in defense of the farm. Given Chavis's production and the quality of depth it has produced with players such as Marcus Walden, Tomase claims that despite the system's lack of blue-chip prospects it has still been a valuable asset to recent Red Sox teams.

Photo Credit: Triston Casas by Kelly O'Connor

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