David Murphy has cooled a bit to .285 .369 .515. But at least he's outhitting some touted prospects like, oh I don't know, Stephen Drew, Chris Young, and Justin Upton.

Someone on SoSH just posted that today's Projo said the Sox inked Engel (en-hel) Beltre for 700K. They are also going to announce signing of another bonus baby in the coming days, presumably a pitcher (hopefully Venezuelan).

McAdam also said the Sox dropped out of the Montero sweepstakes when his price topped 2 million.

That is very disappointing, but not alarming.

Allegedly the Sox have signed Moises Tejeda (SoSH). Don't know where he plays.

4. Moises Tejeda, SS, Dominicana (16)
He could be the most athletic of them all. He's a stunning pitcher, a great runner and a good hitter.

oops. that was from this espn article

good for murphy. maybe he'll end up having a career as a fifth outfielder in the majors after all...

hey levski, has conor jackson started hitting home runs yet?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7486

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7486

wow. 6 home runs! and 14 doubles ... and he aaaaaalmost has a 400 obp. i wish we could get a first baseman that could do that!

Well, Youkilis is old enough to be Conor's father. And, anyhow, why do you care about Conor's home runs? In time, they'll come.

I dunno, I'm less sanguine about CJack's future these days. He and Casey Kotchman need to talk to Palmeiro about getting on a workout program. Remember how they were much better prospects than Ryan Howard? Man, I wish I didn't drink as much BPro Kool-aid when i was getting into this stuff a few years ago :)

Kyle, Kotchman has mono, which can't help. And Conor will be OK. I don't think anyone predicted 30+ homers from him, but he'll be a very good hitter nonetheless. Conor's hitting is the smallest of AZ's problems these days... and by the way, Conor was doing a lot better before the Grimsley bug took ahold of the AZ hitters in June.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7486/splits

Back to Latin America:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2508432

Tejeda is described as a slugger, and Epstein says "We believed they could have an impact in baseball soon."

PJM, I've never seen any prospect described as a scrappy slap hitter. Well, except for Pedroia.

The most notable among players who have yet to sign is Dominican catcher Francisco Peña, son of Yankees coach and former major-leaguer Tony Peña. The younger Peña, 16, visited with several teams, including the Mets, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Cleveland and Washington.

Maybe that's why the Braves called up TPJr. earlier this year.

-- MWE

More, this time from Rotoworld, again via SoSH:

"Beltre is a left-handed hitter and center fielder with power potential. Tejeda is a toolsy shortstop with a big-time arm."

ha ha. that was pretty fun.

"Maybe that's why the Braves called up TPJr. earlier this year."

From Wikipedia:
Tony Francisco Peña (born March 23, 1981 in Santiago, Dominican Republic) is a shortstop and utility infielder for the Atlanta Braves. Peña is the son of current New York Yankees first base coach Tony Peña.

I think TPJr must be Francisco's older brother. Either that or else he didn't like his 1 for 9 start to his MLB career and decided to go back to DR and reinvent himself as a 16-year-old...

Not quite international signing related, but there was a little blurb in Edes' notebook today about Sox first rounder Jason Place.

After the draft, ChadBradfordWannabe did a whole bunch of scouting reports on the main board from the MLB.com video archive, and he absolutely hated Place's swing. (You can see the video through the "Draft Tracker" link of <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060622&c>this redsox.com article</a>.) He said it reminded him of Gabe Kapler's, and I thought CBW was right - it's a horrible, ugly swing.

So it was quite nice to see those issues addressed by Mike Hazen in Edes' piece:

Mike Hazen, the team's first-year director of player development, when asked for an early review on Jason Place, the South Carolina high schooler who was the Red Sox' first-round draft choice and is currently playing for the team's rookie-league entry in Fort Myers, Fla.: "I was down there before we started games with him but he has done pretty well to start the season. Obviously he's learning what pro ball and playing every day is all about. His defense in center field and base running have been outstanding and he shows a real ability to impact the ball to all fields. We are working on some fundamental setup and load things with his swing that he has taken to pretty quickly."