1B/3B Travis Shaw has been called up to AA Portland according to his Facebook page.

In 99 games and 354 at bats for the Salem Red Sox, Shaw hit .305/.411/.545 with 16 home runs, 31 doubles, and 3 triples. He drove in 73 runs and stole 11 bases in 13 tries.

I interviewed him after he was drafted by the Red Sox in the 32nd round of the 2011 MLB draft. Since then he’s done nothing but impress. In time split between Lowell, Greenville, and Salem, Shaw has hit .292/.398/.511 with 24 home runs, 45 doubles, and 3 triples in 157 games and 562 at bats.

It’ll be interesting to see how he does in Portland. Some scouts have concerns that he’ll struggle to adjust to AA pitching, but with the way he’s hammered the ball so far in professional ball, signs point to Shaw hitting well in AA. He has an advanced approach at the plate which bodes well for him.

When the Red Sox went Dumpster Diving at the 99 cent store on May 2nd and signed Mark Prior, it generated some eye rolling and a few laughs.

Mark Prior had a seemingly long and bright career in front of him when he went 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA as a 22 year old for the 2003  Chicago Cubs that were prevented from getting to the World Series by Steve Bartman’s catch of a foul ball.  He threw 211 innings that season, but in the ensuing 3 seasons, he never came close to that mark.  Prior has seemingly been on a long term contract with the Disabled List since 2006.   He had shoulder surgery in 2008 and an assortment of other injuries that have derailed his comebacks for the last 6 or 7 years.  His most recent comeback attempt prior to signing with the Red Sox was last year (2011) with the New York Yankees and that attempt was ended by a groin injury.

Since being assigned to the AAA Pawtucket Red Sox on June 2nd, Prior has made 5 appearances and pitched 6 2/3 innings.  He has not surrendered an earned run and  given up only 3 hits and 4 walks.  The real eye-popping stat is that out of the 20 outs he has gotten in the 6 2/3 innings, 15 of those outs have been strikeouts.  Granted, that it is a very small number of innings pitched, but no one on the PawSox has a strikeout ratio (20.25 k’s/9 innings) like that this season.  Andrew Miller in 11 innings for the PawSox struck out 23 for a ratio of 18.8 k’s/9 innings.  Is Prior finally healthy and able to contribute at the major league level?  We can hope, but how would the Sox use him– in the bullpen, possibly as a starter?

As a Red Sox fan of 45 years, I am hoping for Prior to have a comeback reminiscent of another Red Sox reclamation project of a premier pitcher from years gone by.  In 1971, the Red Sox took a chance signing a washed up, injured Luis Tiant who had been released by the Twins and the Braves that season.  The Sox initially used Tiant as a starter that season and the results were pretty uninspiring.  In 10 starts, El Tiante was 0-6 with a 6.46 ERA.  He seemed to be headed back to the scrap heap, but Boston put him in the bullpen where he found his old magic.  In 11 games in relief in 1971, he pitched to a 1.80 ERA and it was a foreshadowing of things to come.   He started 1972 in the Red Sox bullpen taking an occasional spot start.  He didn’t take a regular turn in the rotation until July 22nd after Ray Culp’s season ended with an injury.  It was in the second half of 1972 that Luis Tiant became El Tiante and a Red Sox legend was born.  In the second half of the season, El Tiante was 11-3 with a 1.36 ERA and 6 shutouts in 14 starts.

The chances that Prior has a Luis Tiant-type rebirth in a Red Sox uniform are slim, but his stats in AAA are starting to intrigue me.  He has my attention.

According to Nick Cafardo the Boston Globe, Ryan Sweeney has been placed on the 15 day DL with an injured toe. Ryan Kalish has been added to the major league roster to fill Sweeney’s roster spot.

Kalish had hit .378/.477/.757 with 4 home runs and 2 doubles in 9 games for the AAA PawSox. He missed a lot of last season with a shoulder injury, and some of this season, but he came back swinging this year and now he’s back with the big league club.

In 2010, he hit .252/.305/.405 with 4 home runs, 11 doubles, and a triple in 53 games with the big league club. Needless to say, Red Sox fans are hoping that Kalish can provide the spark that this team desperately needs.

Taiwanese shortstop and outfielder Tzu-Wei Lin has signed with the Red Sox and the deal is close to being official, according to Peter Abraham at the Boston Globe and a couple Taiwanese news sources.

Also, according to NextMedia in Taiwan, Lin apparently left on an 11 PM flight (no idea on what time zone) to Boston to finalize the deal and the signing bonus is $2,090,000. It is the biggest bonus ever for a non-pitcher out of Asia. Obviously the deal isn’t official yet, and it’s still unclear if he’s completed the physical yet. But all signs point to the deal being done very soon.

Lin was selected IBAF World Big League Championship held in Seoul, South Korea. The Yankees attempted to sign him a few years back, but they failed to as he was only 16 at the time and not allowed to sign yet.

Here is a scouting report, from Taiwan Baseball.

According to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe, Daniel Bard has been sent down to Pawtucket. The Red Sox were expected to make a decision on Bard today, and they decided that Bard needs time in AAA. Darnell McDonald is expected to be added to the roster as a corresponding move, as he is done rehabbing with the PawSox.

The Red Sox had high hopes that Daniel Bard could become a great starter for the Red Sox, but the experiment has not gone well. Bard is 5-6 with a 5.24 ERA and a 1.62 WHIP in 10 starts for the Red Sox this year. Even worse,  Bard has walked 37 batters in only 55 innings of work, while last year he walked 24 batters in 73 innings of work. He also has 3 more walks than strikeouts, which is very un-Bard like.

It is very likely that Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has a 3.33 ERA in 5 rehab starts with the PawSox, will be added to the roster this week (with Marlon Byrd likely being DFA’d) and he will fill Bard’s spot in the rotation. Dice-K was stellar in his last 2 rehab starts with Pawtucket, and seems like he’s in good shape to pitch for the Red Sox going forward. It is still unclear what the Red Sox are going to do with Bard in Pawtucket, but it seems likely they’ll shift him to the pen.