PORTLAND – Odds and ends as the Sea Dogs go on the road one more time before returning home for the last eight games of the season.
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RYNE REYNOSO, one of the newest Sea Dogs relievers, is pitching for his second team in Maine.
Reynoso, 25, played for the Sanford Mainers of the New England Collegiate Baseball League in 2006, the same summer he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves.
Reynoso was an outfielder and part-time pitcher for Boston College, and the Braves wanted to see Reynoso pitch more, so that is what he mostly did with the Mainers.
When it was time to sign with the Braves, Reynoso did the honors at Goodall Park on Aug. 9, 2006.
He reached Triple-A with the Braves this year, going 2-7 with a 5.40 ERA with Gwinnett County. The Braves released him last month, and Boston signed him on July 23.
When Reynoso heard he was headed to Portland, he called his good friend James Dawson, a former Portland High and Boston College pitcher now living in the Tampa area.
“I’m headed to your town,” Reynoso said.
“You can have my room,” Dawson said.
So Reynoso is staying with Jack Dawson, the former Portland city councilor and current Cheverus High director of admissions, and his wife, Eileen.
SOME OF THE best tools in the Eastern League, especially on defense, belong to the Sea Dogs, according to a poll conducted by Baseball America.
The publication’s recent survey conveyed honors on five Sea Dogs players and Manager Arnie Beyeler.
Nate Spears, who leads the league with 70 walks, was voted the batter with the best strike-zone judgment.
Defensively, Portland had the best at first base (Anthony Rizzo), shortstop (Jose Iglesias), third base (Ray Chang) and the outfield (Che-Hsuan Lin).
Beyeler was voted the best managerial prospect.
IGLESIAS MISSED over two months of the season with a slight knuckle fracture, and the Red Sox likely will look for a place for Iglesias to play this off-season.
“We’re still trying to work out a situation for him in the fall so he may get some more at-bats,” said Mike Hazen, Red Sox director of player development. “Hopefully he’ll end up with 400 at-bats before it’s all said and done.”
Iglesias is batting .294 (50 for 170) for the Sea Dogs, and also got in 40 at-bats during a rehab stint with Lowell.
“It’s definitely not a lost season,” Hazen said. “He’s excelled at this level from a performance standpoint in every other category.”
NO MORE HELP will be coming from advanced Class A Salem, according to Hazen.
He said no more promotions are scheduled, especially with Salem fighting for a playoff spot in the Carolina League.
Among the players that will probably be in Portland next year are second baseman Oscar Tejeda (.312, 10 home runs, 64 RBI), third baseman Will Middlebrooks (.286, 12, 68) and pitcher Stolmy Pimentel (4.15 ERA, 88 strikeouts).
The one possible new player who could play here at the end of this season is Cuban outfielder Juan Carlos Linares, 25, who was signed last month and is on a rehab assignment in the Gulf Coast League.
JASON PLACE’S ATTEMPT to come back this season came to an end when he was hit by a pitch earlier this month.
“He was hit in the hand,” Hazen said. “Almost the exact situation as Iglesias. Nothing we can do but look to next year.”
Place, 22, a first-round draft pick in 2006, was batting .127 in 25 games with the Sea Dogs when he left the team and was placed on the inactive list. He returned July 1 and was sent to the Gulf Coast League and then to Salem, where he suffered the hand injury.
THE SEA DOGS left Sunday for Harrisburg, Pa. They will play the Senators for three games before heading to Manchester, N.H., for a four-game series with the Fisher Cats.
The final home stand begins with four games against Binghamton, Aug. 30-Sept. 2, and concludes with four against the Fisher Cats, Sept. 3-6.
Staff Writer Kevin Thomas can be contacted at 791-6411 or at:
kthomas@pressherald.com
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