Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Former Prairie Grove Pitcher Strikes Out 10
BEEKS HAS STRONG OUTING AFTER PROMOTION TO BOSTON RED SOX’S DOUBLE-A CLUB
Jalen Beeks is a rising star in the Boston Red Sox organization.
The former Prairie Grove and Arkansas Razorbacks pitcher struck out a career-high 10 batters in his June 23 debut for the Portland (Maine) Sea Dogs, the Red Sox Double-A minor league club.
Beeks, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound lefthander who’ll turn 23 on July 10, earned the promotion after posting a 4-4 record with a 3.07 ERA for the Advanced Class A Salem (Va.) Red Sox.
Even though he received a no decision in Portland’s 5-2 loss against the Harrisburg (Pa.) Senators in his Double-A debut, Beeks was impressive while scattering three earned runs on eight hits.
According to the Portland Press Herald, Beeks peppered the strike zone with a fastball in the 92-93 mph range, a curve ball, a slider and a change-up that had the Senators’ batters “flailing at times” as all 10 of his strikeouts were swinging.
“He pounded the zone all night,” Sea Dogs catcher Danny Bethea told the newspaper. “He commanded his fastball real well and we worked off that. He had his slider working both sides of the plate.”
Beeks is ranked as the No. 30 prospect in the Red Sox organization and is the fifth highest ranked left-handed pitcher. With the Sea Dogs, he rejoins Razorbacks teammate Andrew Benintendi, the Red Sox No. 3 overall prospect.
After missing time late in his junior season at Arkansas due to a strained elbow, Beeks was selected by the Red Sox in the 12th Round of the Major League Baseball FirstYear Player Draft in 2014. He was 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA as a sophomore and 6-4 with a 1.98 ERA as a junior for the Razorbacks.
Beeks’ minor league career began in rookie ball in 2014 with the Gulf Coast League Red Sox where he pitched five shutout innings while striking out eight in two appearances. Last season, he posted a 9-7 record with a 4.32 ERA to go along with 100 strikeouts in 145.7 innings for the Greenville ( S.C.) Drive, the Red Sox Class A (Full season) affiliate. For his professional career, he’s 13-12 overall with 173 strikeouts in 223 innings.
Beeks was interviewed by MiLB. com writer Michael Peng after pitching six shutout innings for his fourth scoreless outing of the season for Salem on June 11.
“I think my command was a lot better than recent starts,” Beeks said. “I’ve been working on it with my pitching coach, Paul Abbott. Everything is starting to get better. I just think I mixed pitches well tonight, which helped when I did miss with my command, so they weren’t just sitting on that one pitch.”
Although he’s started 40 times in 42 minor league appearances, websites like SoxProspects.com project Beeks as a middle reliever if he continues to progress and makes it onto a major league roster.