Callups Are Coming

September 1st marks the last big date before the post-season. Rosters expand to 40 players and a lot of youngsters make the trip to the parent team to show what they can do. And we'll see a lot of familiar faces in Boston over the next couple of days.

Dan Hoard, the voice of the PawSox, has talked about the first few callups from AAA:

The initial September call-ups to Boston are Brian Anderson, Joey Gathright, and Chris Woodward (plus George Kottaras who was still on Pawtucket's roster, but hasn't been with the team for several days). There are likely to be a few more promotions in the days to come.

No surprises there. Kottaras gives them a third catcher while Woodward gives them some depth for the infield and Gathright will be the Dave Roberts of this group.

Boston.com adds a few more names to the list. They mention Jed Lowrie, Junichi Tazawa, Michael Bowden, Marcus McBeth and possibly Josh Reddick. I'd be shocked if Reddick didn't join the team, so consider him in as well. It will be interesting to see how Lowrie does when he gets playing time and if his left wrist has finally healed up. Tazawa is already penciled in for a start in the upcoming Chicago series and I would wager we'll see Bowden a couple of times as well.

So that makes 34 players in total. Will anyone else join the team?

I think Daisuke, even with his poor Triple A start, will be joining the team at some point. If only to have another starting pitcher in there. I'd hope to see Aaron Bates and/or Chris Carter there for some added rest for Youk and Martinez if the current standings allowed it at some point. And if the Sox want a fourth catcher (or if Kottaras re-injures himself) I'd love to see Mark Wagner finally get a shot in Boston.

There's one other player I'd like to see get a look at some point. There is a Double-A player on the 40-man roster named Felix Doubront, also known as "The Best Pitcher In-System Most People Never Heard Of". He's spent all season in Portland, going 8-6 with a 3.37 ERA in 25 starts. He has a 2.0 K/BB ratio and batters are hitting .252 against him. I'd like to see him get one start in the bigs just to see where he is against major-league hitters.

Most of these guys won't see much time. None of them are likely to make the post-season roster (baring injury or an epic performance). But it is always nice to see where the next tier of talent is at in the farm system.