Ramirez, Hansen get the call

Two more members of the 2005 Portland Sea Dogs have made the leap to the big leagues. On Monday the Red Sox recalled shortstop Hanley Ramirez and reliever Craig Hansen for the remainder of the season.

Hansen has reached the big leagues only four months after leaving St. John's University, where he saved 14 games while striking out 85 in 64 innings pitched. After signing with the Red Sox, Hansen pitched 15.2 innings between Portland and the Gulf Coast League Red Sox, including the playoffs. In that time he allowed 12 hits, walked three and struck out 15. Hansen has yet to allow a run as a professional. While the numbers are dominant, Hansen missed some time at the end of the season and beginning of the playoffs with a tired arm. He came back with his velocity intact, however he did not record a strikout and walked two batters during his three playoff innings. Hansen has nasty stuff, with a 97-mph fastball and a tough slider in the upper 80's. He will be a force out of the Red Sox bullpen, but I'm not convinced that will happen this year. He's thrown a lot of innings in 2005 and he's allowed more contact than normal recently. That said, it's certainly worth it for the Red Sox to give him a look given the way the bullpen has struggled.

Ramirez is on a much different career path than Hansen. He was signed when he was 17 and this is his fifth season in the organization. Ramirez has been listed as Boston's #1 prospect for the last three seasons or so. Ramirez' prospect star dimmed a little this year, however, as the fruits of Boston's recent drafts all hit Boston at the same time, and several moved on to Pawtucket and Boston. This was exacerbated by a dip in Ramirez' hitting. Ramirez has hit over .300 nearly every step of his minor league career and had a terrific sping training with the major league club, but managed only a .271 batting average with reduced power this summer. As I have stated before, much of the problem to my eyes was that Hanley was trying to pull too many pitches. He has terrific opposite-field power, but hit a lot of ground balls to the left side of the infield during the season. Ramirez also frustrated fans a bit with a seeming laissez-faire approach in the field, taking his time in making throws to first. Note, however, that he always managed to throw out the baserunners. Positive signs for Ramirez are that he improved his walk rate while cutting down on his strikeouts (which were not really an issue to begin with). And despite the sometimes lackadaisical throws, Ramirez also provided many highlight-reel plays at shortstop. The Red Sox recalled Ramirez after Kevin Youkilis was injured on a ground ball during Sunday's game. He's an insurance policy, however there is the chance that the big club will take advantage of his versatility and play him at several different posititions over the next two weeks.

Congrats to Ramirez and Hansen, who represent the fourth and fifth players to go from Portland to Boston this season, following Cla Meredith, Jonathan Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen. When you factor in recent Portland alumni Youkilis, Kelley Shoppach and Abe Alvarez, the count is up to 8 for the total players to pass through Portland on their way to the Red Sox. That, of course, does not include Kevin Millar and Edgar Renteria, who played in Portland when the team was affiliated with the Florida Marlins.