Lowell Spinners Season Review: Outfielders

With the minor-league regular season over, it's time to look back at what the farm has accomplished in 2012. The plan is go to team-by-team, as we did for our daily prospect updates, but this time around, we'll review by position, so you get a sense of where the Red Sox are strong and where they are lacking depth.

We've covered both corner infielders and middle infielders for short-season through Triple-A already, so now, it's on to the outfielders.

Kendrick Perkins, OF

Perkins was a sixth-round pick in the 2010 draft, so expectations were a little lower for him than for many to begin with. He was out of high school, however, so there's always the hope that tools translate into results given time in the pros. That hasn't happened for Perkins much to this point -- what was a somewhat promising, albeit not overly productive, 2011 has been followed up by a disappointing debut in short-season Lowell.

Perkins struck out 36 percent of the time, with the only real positive contribution coming from his walk rates. That, though, as with many young players who haven't developed true pitch recognition and discipline yet, isn't necessarily a positive, even if it results in one. Walks can be an outgrowth of not being able to take advantage of an at-bat, of stretching things out too long. It's tough to tell with such a small sample if that's the case with Perkins, but it''s something to pay attention to going forward.

Dreily Guerrero, OF

The 21-year-old Guerrero had a decent campaign, hitting .274/.331/.325 at short-season Lowell, where your average hitter was also 21, but achieved .244/.318/.345. This adequacy (and open roster spots that needed to be filled) earned him a trip to full-season ball and Low-A Greenville, where he presumably will spend the 2013 season. He punched out nearly one-third of the time in his 18 games there, so if you wanted verification that he's slated for Greenville at the highest to begin 2013, that's as good as any.

Guerrero could be a utility player in the future at some point, as the outfielder already spends his time anywhere from left field to shortstop. He has some potential for power, and he shows some decent speed, so there are elements of his game that could keep him employed, should they develop further.

*****

Matthew Marquis, OF

Marquis finished up in the Sally, despite, like Guerrero, not having much in the way of impressive play going at short-season Lowell. He logged more playing time with the Spinners than Greenville, by all of a plate appearance, so here he is. His play was similar at each level, too, as you can see there was little difference between his walks and strikeouts in similar playing time, though, he did feature a little less power in the Sally. Not that he had much to show off to begin with.

Marquis is 22, and the re-draft (Marquis was selected in 2008 by Boston, then again in 2011 has yet to do very much in the minors in spite of his age. He needs more time in the pros, but you can only be so optimistic about a 41st-round college pick after two years of professional playing time, too.