From the Media Guide

It's been a while since I've done one of these. So, though it was a great chance to try this again.

In my collection, I currently have every Red Sox Media Guide dating back to 1998. I love flipping through them to see what tidbits they contain. I figured that if I liked it, you might enjoy taking a look along with me. So, I had a not-so- random number generator select a page from the 2004 edition to talk about today.

Page 55.

This is the second (and final) page for the entry of Edwin Almonte. This page contains his early career, personal information, and his stats. I usually find these end pages to be some of the most interesting for any player. For Almonte, this page tells us that...

In 2000 Almonte was promoted to AA after going 3-1 with a 3.16 ERA. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but good enough for a promotion.

In 1999 he went 9-12. I know. Records mean very little when you're in A ball. Whether the collection of potential nobodies you're teamed with can pull out a win isn't much of a reflection on your pitching abilities. Even more than in the majors. But, I can imagine that as a young kid, looking at that 9-12 must have been incredibly discouraging. Wonder if he ever thought he'd make it at that point.

Looking down at his career stats, we see a couple interesting things. He twice led his minor league in saves. This is interesting, for the same reason I just touched on. That's a lot of saves for a minor league team.

Looking over his personal information, we see that he pitched in Yankee Stadium as a high schooler. I wonder if that helps, at all, when you eventually make your first major league appearance there. 

The transactions are often a lot of fun. For Almonte, we see that he was involved in a pretty cool trade. He was part of the package that the White Sox sent to the Mets in exchange for Roberto Alomar. Now, this wasn't exactly Alomar in his prime. But, it's cool that he was involved in a trade for a future Hall of Famer. Even if the Mets dumped Almonte at the end of the year. It's always nice to know how a player arrived in Boston.

All that information can be found on this Media Guide page, along with lots of other great information.

Just like every page.