The Boston Red Sox will take their time with 20-year old lefty swinging outfielder Ryan Kalish. Kalish was the #6 ranked prospect in the Red Sox’ minor league system coming into this season according to Baseball America. Kalish has played in 69 games in A-Ball this year and he is 76 for 269 (.283 avg, .738 OPS) with 35 runs scored, 3 homers, 25 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. The Red Sox have a lot of depth in the outfield in the organization so they won’t have to rush Kalish to the big leagues.

The Red Sox have placed starting shortstop Julio Lugo on the 15-day disabled list with a left quad strain. Lugo has played in 82 games this season for the Red Sox and he is 70 for 261 (.268 avg, .685 OPS) with 27 runs scored, 1 homer, 22 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. Lugo’s hitting hasn’t made up for his poor defense as he has already made 16 errors this season. The Red Sox have recalled 24-year old switch hitting rookie Jed Lowrie to take over as the starting shortstop while Lugo is out. It’s quite possible that if Lowrie plays well that he could steal Lugo’s starting job away from him as the Red Sox’ front office is not happy with him. Lowrie was the #5 prospect in the Red Sox organization coming into this season according to Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook. Lowrie has played in 17 games for the Red Sox this season and he is 13 for 42 (.310 avg, .816 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 1 homer and 7 RBIs. Lowrie has also played in 53 games this season in AAA ball and he is 53 for 198 (.268 avg, .793 OPS) with 35 runs scored, 5 homers and 32 RBIs. It will be interesting to see if Lowrie runs with his latest opportunity at the bigs.

UPDATE: Julio Lugo will miss the next 4-6 weeks as it has been revealed that he has a torn left quadriceps muscle. The Red Sox will go with Jed Lowrie and Alex Cora for the time being. If they aren’t satisfied with the production of Cora/Lowrie while Lugo is out the Red Sox might need to make a trade.

28-year old righty starting pitcher Charlie Zink was not highly thought of coming into this season by the Red Sox’ front office but he’s been opening up some eyes with his performance in AAA ball this year. Zink has started 19 games in AAA ball this season and he is 10-2 with a 2.28 ERA and a 1.01 WHIP. Zink has been missing a lot of bats as he has only allowed 85 hits in 118.2 innings this season. The Red Sox might bring Zink up in September if he keeps pitching like he is right now.

The Boston Red Sox are going to recall Clay Buchholz from AAA ball to start for them on Friday. Buchholz has started 9 games since being demoted to AAA ball and he is 4-2 with a 2.47 ERA and a 1.21 WHIP. The Red Sox hope it carries over into the majors as he didn’t pitch that well in his first go around this season. He started 8 games for the Red Sox this year and he was 2-3 with a 5.53 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP. The Red Sox expect much more than that out of him. The Red Sox have sent down righty starter Justin Masterson who did a good job for them. The Red Sox are going to convert him to a reliever and if all goes well they will bring him back up shortly after the All-Star Break. The Sox hope that Masterson takes well to the job because they need help in the bullpen. Masterson has started 9 games for the Red Sox this season and he is 4-3 with a 3.67 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP. He just needs to throw more strikes as he has allowed only 40 hits this season while walking 28 batters in 54 innings.

Jason Varitek is starting to look like age is catching up to him with a bat in his hands often looking helpless. Varitek has played in 72 games for the Red Sox this season and he is 53 for 242 (.219 avg, .661 OPS) with 18 runs scored, 7 homers and 27 RBIs. Varitek has also whiffed an amazing 70 times this season as his bat sometimes appears to be very slow. Look for the Red Sox to start thinking about making a move to add a catcher to help out the offense if Varitek continues to slump much longer.