Minor Notes: Hart debuts and Johnson departs

 Here are Monday's minor league notes:

• 
  On Tuesday, the 10th edition of the Draft Retrospective series came out, taking a look at the pick-by-pick sections by the Red Sox during the 2012 draft. An impressive nine players selected and signed made it to the major leagues. However, none are currently with the Red Sox, and only one selection was ever named one of Baseball America's Top 100 prospects.
• On Thursday, the series broke down the 2012 draft, one that had a lot of potential with the Red Sox having control over three of the first 37 picks. Despite that potential, the draft was largely seen as a disappointment, which was part of the focus of Part 2 of the 2012 Draft Retrospective, producing only 2.8 WAR. It also saw the Red Sox pass on several players who developed into impact players.
• Moving away from the draft, the SoxProspects.com scouting staff updated five scouting reports this past week: left-hander Kyle Hart (pictured above) and four members of the 2019 Lowell Spinners rotation, righties Noah Song, Aldo Ramirez, and Ryan Zeferjahn and lefty Chris Murphy. 
• Hart made his major league debut for the Red Sox on Thursday. Red Sox minor league director Ben Crockett decided to have a little fun with Hart when he broke the good news to him on Wednesday as the Boston Globe's Peter Abraham chronicles.
• The fun did not continue through the end of the start against the Tampa Bay Rays. Hart pitched two innings and struck out four, but he gave up seven hits including two home runs, walked three, and gave up seven runs with five of them earned.
• Hart, a 19th-round pick in 2016, is lined up to make his second start on Wednesday against the Phillies. The Boston Globe's Alex Speier writes that the Red Sox have been reluctant to give a young starter more than one start during his first callup. In fact, Speier notes that that has not happened since 2015. Hart bucking that trend is possibly more a result of desperation than anything for the Red Sox whose starting pitchers have really struggled to begin 2020.
• Speier also discussed how the struggles of the Red Sox go deeper than just the struggle of the major league starters. His dire perspective was that a "case can be made that the organization’s talent base in the big leagues and minors is at a low point since the current owners took over in 2002".
• That is not to say the prospects in the player pool in Pawtucket are without value or potential. The Providence Journal's Bill Koch spoke with coach Bruce Crabbe and veteran catcher Jonathan Lucroy about the prospects down in Pawtucket and there futures.
• 
  As first reported by MassLive.com's Chris Cotillo, one player no longer in Pawtucket is lefty Brian Johnson (pictured, left) who flew home to Florida before eventually being granted his release. Johnson was the last remaining player from the 2012 Red Sox draft with major league experience who was still with the team. Despite the major league rotation struggling, Johnson was not given an opportunity to try and plug any of those holes this year.
• With the cancellation of the minor league season, many prospects are without a summer job and have lost the structure they expected. Kevin Thomas of the Portland Press Herald takes a look at how some of the Red Sox prospects are adapting during this unusual and difficult summer.

Photo Credit: Kyle Hart and Brian Johnson by Kelly O'Connor.

Will Woodward is a Co-Owner and Senior Staff Writer for SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPWill.

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