PAWTUCKET, R.I. — At the beginning of the season, if you had asked Torey Lovullo for a prediction on which PawSox would be named International League All-Stars, he probably wouldn’t have chosen Bubba Bell and Robert Manuel.
"I'll let you thread [this] the way you want to, but don't bury me because these guys are going to read it," Lovullo joked prior to Wednesday’s game against Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. "But that's really what I'm thinking. If you were to tell me that Robert Manuel and Bubba Bell — who are very, very good players in their own right — are going to be our two representatives, I would've said, 'Well, you better add three or four more, because we have some really good players.’”
But there’s no doubt in the manager’s mind that the two players who were ultimately chosen were deserving of the honor.
Bell — who’s still recovering after being hit by a pitch at Syracuse last week — is hitting .308 with four homers, 31 RBIs and a .429 slugging percentage. He’s still riding a wave of momentum that began in mid-May, and the league has taken notice.
The right-handed reliever Manuel has comprised a 4-1 record with a 1.54 ERA in 30 games thus far in 2010, allowing just seven runs in 41.0 innings.
"I can't say enough about both guys," Lovullo said. "One has been on a tear since the start of the season, in Manuel's case, and Bubba, toward the [middle] of May, he's been one of the most productive hitters in the league. It's a well-deserved honor, we're very proud of them and wish them well."
The PawSox have plenty of prominent talent on the roster, from Felix Doubront to Lars Anderson to Josh Reddick, but sometimes it’s the guys who fly under the radar who end up making a bigger impact.
"That's the beauty of the season," Lovullo said. "It's the start of something new, guys go out and prove themselves and these two guys have done a great job."
