On the Farm: Buchholz’s stock booming

Welcome down to the farm, pardner! We’ll be checking in on the Red Sox minor league system every week, finding the stars of tomorrow and tracking them today. It’s a little like trading hog futures except, well, these stocks have got some guns.

Clay Buchholz is on his way to the PawSox.

In fact, no stock within the Red Sox system is as hot as pitcher Clay Buchholz. The right-handed flamethrower - an Angelina (Texas) Community College product and No. 42 overall draft pick - has made the quickest ascent through the team’s minor league ranks since Jonathan Papelbon. Buchholz is scheduled to make his first AAA start tonight after he was promoted on the eve of the All-Star game. Buchholz, who flexed a 7-2 record and 1.77 ERA (86 2/3 innings) for AA Portland, has become such a prominent prospect, he was considered a deal-breaker in an earlier potential deal for Chicago ace Mark Buehrle.

“Ben Cherrington (Red Sox vice-president of personnel) called down from Boston to talk to my manager at Portland,” Buchholz told the Providence Journal last week. “I had heard my name in those rumors about Buehrle. But Cherrington told my manager that I wasn’t going anywhere.

“My manager called me and said, ‘I might not see you again.’ So I’m taking that to mean either he’s getting fired or I’m going to AAA.”

Obviously, Buchholz was headed to AAA. If you’re looking for the model for his next move, you don’t have to search far. Just as Papelbon made spot starts en route to a bullpen job down the stretch of the 2005 season, most analysts expect the Sox to call Buchholz up by the time rosters expand - at the latest - to assume a power relief role. If he continues to succeed at a Papelbon pace, Sox fans may have a lot to look forward to in the not too distant future.

Nick Hagadone was scheduled to make his first start for A Lowell last night, but the game was rained out.

In fact, the Sox have more to look forward tonight, too. The team’s top pick in the last amateur draft, recently graduated University of Washington lefty Nick Hagadone, will make his professional debut for the A Lowell Spinners, after his first go-round was rained out last night. Hagadone, who was known in college for impressive dexterity and flexibility (redundant? Well, at least you get the point), has been spending 30-40 minutes before games stretching. That’s right, Hagadone is spending yoga time doing old skool warm ups. Can’t hurt, right?

Pinch Runners

According to the Globe’s Amalie Benjamin, Jacoby Ellsbury isn’t the only center fielder turning heads with his speed and vivacity. Ryan Kalish, a 19 year-old currently playing in Lowell, has scouts drooling and his manager - former Angels star Gary DiSarcinia - raving. Kalish has burst out of the gates to hit a team-best .329. …

Chad Spann, who may be on his way to a David Murphy-like stay in the mid- and high-minors, was sent back down to AA Thursday after hitting .222 for Pawtucket. He’ll have to compete with stud shortstop prospect Jed Lowrie there for top infield billing. …

Remember David Pauley? The pitcher who got a couple of 2006 starts, including one at Yankee Stadium, earned Pawtucket a win in its second half opener, tossing 5 2/3 innings and allowing just one run in a 9-5 victory.