The Greenville (S.C.) Drive are Boston's affiliate in the Low-A South Atlantic League. The majority of the league's top prospects are players who are a year or two out of high school and in the 18-20-year-old range. There are plenty of older players in the league, and plenty who played in college, but most of those players are no longer top prospects if they are still in the Sally League.

The team is managed by Gabe Kapler.

This is Greenville's third year as a Boston affiliate. While last year some very good pitching prospects came through Greenville -- including Clay Buchholz and Michael Bowden-- this season, the more exciting talent seems to be on the offensive side of the ball.

Outfielder Jason Place, Boston's first pick in the June 2006 draft, and Lars Anderson, a top talent who fell to the 18th round of last year's draft because of signability questions, are in the middle of the Drive's lineup. Anderson, who is 19, is considered a bit more polished as a hitter than the 18-year-old Place, but both are high-ceiling talents with a chance to be impact players if things go right.

Place has been starting in CF, though there are questions about whether he can stay there long term. He hit his 3rd HR of the season tonight, in his 17th game, but overall has struggled out of the gate, hitting .194 so far with 26 Ks in 62 ABs. Anderson belted his 2nd HR of the season tonight and has made quite a splash in his pro debut, sporting a .957 OPS in the early season.

A couple of other interesting guys to watch in the lineup: OFers Reid Engel (5th-round pick in 2005 out of high school) and Carlos Fernandez-Oliva (a 20-year-old signed out of Venezuela in 2004), as well as SS Kris Negron (taken in the 7th-round last year) and 20-year-old catcher Jon Egan.

On the pitching side, the pickings seem to be a little slimmer. Dustin Richardson, a 6-foot-5 lefty, has gotten off to an impressive start in the rotation (a 1.89 ERA and 30 Ks in 19 IP), but he's a 23-year-old with a college pedigree. Jordan Craft, a 13th-round pick last year, has a fastball that can get into the mid-90s. He turns 22 in June.

At the back of the bullpen is a familiar name: Papelbon. Joshua, one of Jonathan's younger brothers, had a very nice start to his pro career with Lowell last summer after the Sox drafted him in the 48th round. But there's reasonable skepticism about whether the extreme sidearmer (picture Chad Bradford) with the low-80s fastball can succeed as he moves up the ladder. He has a 3.24 ERA and 4 saves in the early going.

Here is the full Greenville roster.

Here are the Sally League standings. With their loss tonight, the Drive are 9-10, good for 5th place in the 8-team Southern division.

I was impressed with Josh at the Futures at Fenway game last August. His save to wrap up the second game of the doubleheader was undoubtedly the highlight of the day. As far as his pitching mechanics go, it looked to me like he actually gets down even lower than Bradford. He really, really crouches down, with his arm seemingly inches above and parallel to the pitching rubber when he goes through his motion. If he is anything like his older brother in his mentality, I have little doubt he can eventually be at least a serviceable ROOGY in the majors.

A quick look at the Greenville rotation now that Jon Lester has moved on from his 3-start rehab stint with the Drive:

[codebox]NAME AGE ACQUIRED 2007 STATS

Dustin Richardson 23 5th-round pick in 2006 1.89 ERA, 30 Ks in 19 IP

Brian Steinocher 22 21st-round pick in 2006 8.20 ERA, 14 Ks in 18.2 IP

Chris Jones 22 29th-round pick in 2005 3.00 ERA, 13 Ks in 18 IP

Jordan Craft 21 13th-round pick in 2006 8.64 ERA, 5 Ks in 8.1 IP

Travis Beazley 23 38th-round pick in 2006 1.83 ERA, 22 Ks in 19.2 IP[/codebox]
Beazley has only made 1 start so far but has been excellent out of the bullpen.

The Drive were no-hit for 6 innings tonight by Asheville's Aneury Rodriguez, a 19-year-old from the Dominican. Lars Anderson broke up the no-no in the 7th and ended up going 2-4, but Greenville lost 8-0. Carlos Fernandez-Oliva had the only other hit for the Drive.

Greenville has been pretty bad offensively in the early going. Their team OPS of .655 is 13th out of 16 in the Sally League.

Jordan Craft had 5 Ks in 2.2 IP, but overall did not pitch well, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 BBs.

A quick look at Greenville's usual starting 9:

[codebox]PLAYER AGE 2007 OPS
C Jon Egan 20 .430
1B Lars Anderson 19 .959
2B Kris Negron 21 .420
SS Argenis Diaz 20 .578
3B Manny Arambarris 22 .607
LF Carlos Fernandez-Oliva 20 .553
CF Jason Place 18 .660
RF Reid Engel 19 .473
DH Jon Still 22 .916[/codebox]
Some really awful numbers in the early going. But Greenville has a lot of offensive talent and overall is the second-youngest team in the South Atlantic League.

Jon Still, a 4th-round 2006 draft pick who was off to a very good start as Greenville's DH (.916 OPS), has been placed on the DL. To replace him, the Sox have promoted another 2006 draft pick, Ty Weeden. Weeden was in extended spring training and was expected to start his pro career this summer with the GCL Sox. He may still end up back there.

Weeden, a catcher, is a pretty exciting talent. He dropped to the 16th-round because of his commitment to the University of Arkansas. But the Sox got him signed late in the summer.

His SoxProspects.com scouting report:


And from Rob Bradford during spring training:

Nice comeback win for Gabe Kapler's boys tonight. Jordan Craft was awful -- couldn't get out of the 1st inning -- and Greenville fell behind 7-0 after 3. But they chipped away and ended up scoring three in the top of the 9th to take an 8-7 lead. Josh Papelbon, who pitched a scoreless 8th, got the win after closing it out with a perfect 9th.

Miguel Socolovich kept the Drive close with 3 hitless frames (5 Ks) in the middle innings.

Negron, Arambarris, Vazquez with 3 hits each tonight. Jason Place was 2-4 with 2 doubles. Jon Still returned to the lineup from the DL (I'm assuming Weeden was sent back to extended spring training. He didn't get into a game while he was up).

The Drive are 12-14 overall and in 5th place in their division.