LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky born, raised #BBN, obsessed with #DirtyWater. Formerly a sportswriter at Huntington Herald-Dispatch in a different lifetime (covered Patrick Patterson and OJ Mayo in HS). Here for mostly baseball news and opinions.
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Makes sense. Keeps the rotation at 6, technically, and gets May used to preparing coming out of the bullpen for a potential postseason role even if they hope he goes 3-5 innings tomorrow unlike in playoffs. Might keep teams from stacking lefties against him, too.
The Crochet performance wasn’t good, but not discouraging unless it becomes multiple starts. Anthony being hurt at all is a huge blow. But the bullpen was awesome.Bregman is out of his slump, Ceddanne is back to swaggy, the bench was productive. And Yoshida may have figured things out. Huge.
Appears they cleared the stands too? Thank you, I’ll be here all week.
A lot of frustrations boiling over for a couple of teams battling to combine for 210 losses.
Don’t let Yoshida get going. #RedSox
It feels like not enough 96 mph at the top of the zone was used tonight. Too much left in the tank by Crochet to try and use cutters and sweepers instead of letting the big dog eat.
It's Tuesday. You know what that means. This week's Boston Red Sox prospect watch features Brooks Brannon cooking, Shane Drohan's dominance, Justin Gonzales in High-A, and more. bosoxinjection.com/red-sox-pros...
This is not shoot first and ask questions later. You’re basically saying that the US Govt gets to play judge, jury, and executioner based on appearances.
His only chance at helping in the postseason is to find a role in the pen. Just wonder who will make his next start, or if they will let Tolle go on 4 or 5 days next turn? Would they run an opener and a bullpen game on 9/9 or 9/10? Or call up someone in addition to Harrison (Uberstine, Drohan)?
Top Red Sox prospect Franklin Arias is joining Double-A Portland. The 19-year-old shortstop is heading to his third Boston affiliate of the season after opening 2025 with Single-A Salem.
We remembered our password and are back on here!
My former prospect crushes that didn’t necessarily reach super stardom. Not pictured: Kevin Maitan and Ryan Westmoreland, who didn’t reach the majors.
3 days prior to the murder, the sheriff answered evasively in deposition of knowledge of deputy accused of rape (removing a defendant’s ankle monitor in exchange for sex). Motive: fear of being jailed (“they’re trying to take my wife & kid away.”) Now rumors leak implicating judge in sextortion. 🤔
That’s kind of what I was getting at, though. If they can’t get a conviction when there is overwhelming video evidence, then how much does the community hate this judge if the prosecution fears they will ignore the evidence? Especially if the defense wants it to stay there.
How much does a community back the blue and how much do they hate the judiciary for the PROSECUTION to be the party concerned about the jury pool in a case where there is video of the sheriff walking into the chambers and repeatedly shooting an unarmed judge in cold blood?
Appreciate it. Maybe the 18th to keep Tolle on 6 days one more turn, but with that much time off you’re probably only doing that with a guy who hasn’t pitched competitively in a month if your playoff position is secure.
I wonder if Criswell can get healthy enough so they can option Harrison for a reliever and then call up Criswell for a spot start, too. Basically maximize the roster spot with a RP 8 out of every 10 days by rotating between Kelly, Harrison, Murphy, Moran, Criswell, etc.
Acquiring Sanchez leads me to think they will roster a 3rd catcher the rest of the way and that when Abreu gets activated from IL that Eaton probably gets optioned.
Ali Sanchez moves ahead of Chadwick Tromp and Seby Zavala for the 9/1 call up. They’re also calling up Zack Kelly. Surprised it wasn’t Chris Murphy, but I’ll be shocked if Kelly isn’t optioned Wednesday for Kyle Harrison to make a start. They could then option Harrison for another RP on Friday.
• P add seems straightforward w/ news Sox want to keep Tolle on 6-day rotation: Kyle Harrison or Cooper Criswell. Neither requires 40-man move. They’d be more willing to waste Criswell in mop-up duty between starts & option him to call up Harrison. • Murphy is 1st RP in line. Maybe Hendriks returns?
Speculating on 9/1 call ups … • Wilyer will be back soon, so whichever hitter is called up is temp. Makes Campbell unlikely. • Sogard & Password just got sent down, must wait 10 days from 8/29 & 8/30. So, hitter is probably someone not on 40-man with either Fitts or Mayer to 60IL. 3rd catcher?
We built a calculator that doesn't work, but don't worry, it's also a plagiarism machine that will tell you to kill yourself. It runs on the world's oceans and costs 10 trillion dollars.
Thought this bc it seemed like Bernardino & Weissert were the only possible options to AAA & bringing them back on 9/1 wouldn’t be an option until they spent 15 days down. I really wanted Buehler to win in Boston. I live in his hometown and it’s cool to see someone from here play for my team.
Love how they do this in Worcester. Never hokey or cliche. But still provide an emotional surprise by getting to the point quickly.
Maybe next yr. He’s not cracking top 7 SP right now or much use in their BP. Can’t see him accepting a MiLB assignment to fine tune for 2 weeks in hope of showing gains to make playoff roster. Yamamoto Ohtani Snell Glasnow Kershaw Sheehan I’d opener Casparius next, plus they aren’t using Sasaki.
It’s a great day. Tolle debuts and Stats is back from his hiatus. We missed you.
Hard to decipher who is being optioned to make room. There may be several with options, but Bernardino seems like the only one they would consider sending to AAA. And they just brought him back. Which makes me think Walker Buehler might be getting a DFA.
My biggest hope is that they beat Louisville. My biggest fear is they lose to Louisville. I have no other expectations and think a season-opening loss is possible.
Bill is the father of my wife’s best friend. He was an Army veteran and was on his way back from attending a funeral at Camp Nelson, where he was riding with the honor guard of Patriot Guard Riders to honor another fallen veteran.
Teammates, coaches and spectators have all but run out of things to say about Roman Anthony’s incredible rookie season. Jackson Holliday isn’t surprised. “Since we were 15 years old, I knew there was something different about the way he swung the bat.” www.nytimes.com/athletic/657...
Of course, and the weather factors are drastically different. It’s more a humorous correlation whenever it’s a HR just in those 2 parks. Although, you mentioning Houston makes me think there might be few that don’t get out of Houston RF that both leave Steinbrenner and NYS.
The Chisholm HR off Buehler last night was comically only a HR in NYS and Steinbrenner Field. That might be a unicorn category of its own given they designed Steinbrenner to be a model of Yankee Stadium, too. Same for Grisham on Wednesday at Tampa.
He gets all of his, for sure. I checked savant but probably don’t know where to look. Only found the “Doubters.” I’d guess it’s the likes of Grisham, Volpe & formerly LeMehieu who benefit the most from the short porch unicorns. It’s weak oppo popups by RHH, or the Stanton eye-high lasers most often.
I’d like to see a stat on unicorn HRs per park. That’s not to say NYS doesn’t play more median all around, but my hypothesis is it allows more RF unicorns than anywhere, which certainly inflates that category. There’s really only 1 alley that depresses HR there — where Anthony FO last night.
Also, if both teams make the playoffs, whose stats were more impressively attained? Cal Raleigh in the home park formerly known as Safeco (but only safe for pitchers), or Judge in the new Yankee Stadium known for RF unicorns?
Agreed. And that group was so fantastically crazy I wouldn’t put the latter past them, either. Unless you think they’ve told all their crazy stories.
I mean, I wouldn’t have put it past them. m.youtube.com/shorts/4KR_8...
Just an amazing post from @survivinggrady.bsky.social on IG
How does this even happen?
Bury them!
So damn smooth 🎥credit: @Cut4 Twitter
Announce your presence with authority, young man.
bsky.app/profile/soxp...
Instead of watching the FOX broadcast on my regular provider, I watched it on MLB.TV just so I could listen to Fleming and Merloni, and this call was very enjoyable. And the last inning was so awesome, I rewound it and switched to listen to the inferior FOX call for shits and giggles.
Straight into my veins, please.
Swaggy Roman. Pimp flip. Stare down the moment.
Aaron Judge is washed. Roman is Him.
Post the video @redsox.com
Knows the moment.
What a pimp job by Roman on his first HR at The Stadium.
Christianity update
Applications also being taken for a pitcher to grab the spot for when they are up 5 in the 9th.
Fondest memory as a summer sports intern at the Herald-Leader was Mat Graf assigning me the breaking story that the Macon Whoopee, a minor league hockey team, was moving to Lexington. He was patient & helpful under a pressure deadline. Big shoes to fill, but knowing Brett for 25 yrs he is up to task
Wrote about some big Herald-Leader news. For only the second time in the past 36 years, the LHL has a new sports editor www.kentucky.com/sports/spt-c...
Brett Dawson, a journalist with deep roots in Kentucky sports, returns to his home state after Mat Graf’s retirement.
Been waiting on this announcement. Thrilled for my friend and to have him in town again. Also great for the sports staff at the Herald-Leader, which has had younger writers take the reins. And the college journalists will also benefit. Brett has always taken an interest in mentoring, myself included
Bingo: bsky.app/profile/trhu...
Made too much sense. Toro was more than you could have expected for about a month, but Lowe at his worst has to be better than Toro of late. Hope they can unlock and fix whatever has ailed Lowe of late.
Looking more and more like there will be no election in 2028, or even if there is there will be military presence from Red states to prevent any transfer of power.
Everything under the hood is so bad this year, but in the past it’s been so different. Makes me think there’s an injury. Might be worth a flier and after 10-20 days off of rest maybe you get the 2022-24 version and an upgrade over Toro.
Axios with a SCOOP that four attendees of his fundraiser speech think Andy Beshear is running for president whoa stop the presses everybody.
Thank everything that is holy that Tony Mazz doesn’t have to do his own scouting reports. Roman Anthony has the 4th highest OBP in the majors since his promotion and is 4 outs above average defensively. Only one person on earth scouting him said he should be a DH.
MLB is just too unbalanced and dominated by these super teams.
The sweep was great last week, but they can’t give it all back this week. Schedule gets much easier after Wednesday, but winning 2-of-3 would be huge. Tonight’s fight shows they aren’t going to fade down the stretch like previous teams, though.
Ryan Fitzgerald homers in his 4th MLB AB He had over 2500 ABs in the minors before making his MLB debut
His hand came up off bag the most slightest bit. The tag may have helped it, but X wasn’t pushing him. Blame the oven mitt and/or replay, but not much I could see arguing. The only argument would be the replay booth picks and chooses what they think is and isn’t conclusive these days.
Giolito ain’t foolin no one tonight. LOUD OUTS.
I know the Yankees are in a bad way, but I am enjoying the the Yankees being every bit as mediocre as I thought they were if Aaron Judge doesn’t act superhuman. They were always a house of cards dangerously resting on the impact of one guy. Pitchers should have made him dance a long time ago.
“In the transcript of Wise's testimony… he acknowledged that he repeatedly yelled ‘kill 'em ‘ as officers were being attacked and tried to explain his actions. Wise was not convicted of any crimes related to Jan. 6, due to President Trump's order to end all Capitol riot prosecutions.”
In 2023 the Aox had 2 August series vs Houston. They entered the first series 66-58, 3 gb of WC. 8/21-8/23/23: 1-2 8/28-8/30: swept part of 3-8 stretch to fall 6.5 gb of WC3 at 69-66. The Red Sox are currently 59-51 and 1 game up on a WC spot. If they win 2 of 3 here I feel really good.
The #RedSox play the Houston Astros this weekend. Same team that has effectively ended Boston’s season the last two years. 8/9-8/11/2024: Sox were 61-53, 2 gb of WC, 7 gb in ALE1 and got swept by Astros by a margin of 23-10 and subsequently lost 11 of 17 and fell to 67-64, 5 gb of a WC spot.
This was my biggest frustration with the trade deadline. I get Doval has been inconsistent, but then Yankees were giving up no major prospects to get 3 leverage relievers while the Red Sox gave up something similar for Steven Matz who is getting hit .340 by RHH.
Went to bed believing there was no way last night’s Red Sox-Twins game would resume from rain delay before today, only to wake to the Jordan Hicks blown save news. Reaffirms my belief trade chips should be used on RP, not SP. Roll with Kyle Harrison in emergency or pick up an Aaron Civale for nil.
I don’t think Duran is getting traded. Getting hot at the right time.
Marcus Phillips (far right) is a mountain.
If you like Tyler read this and if you like this you should follow @marissarmoss.bsky.social and subscribe to her newsletter. (I do and it’s awesome).
This was a great read.
With this news, #RedSox only have $33,465 of pool space left. Garrison Sumner can be signed for $150k not towards the pool, so they can offer him up to $183,465 w/o any penalties. Given it’s taken this long, wonder what the hold up is. Maybe they couldn’t get others under slot to offer home enough?
Very possible.
Seems like news even more pertinent to have reported then the birthday card to Epstein PRIOR to being sued.
I hope this catches on.
'The Password' annihilated baseballs tonight.
True.
It was the right call by rule, but the rule leaves some vagueness regarding intent of the batter — and the pitch was also almost a foot outside. A) Can there be interference if the batter intentionally does it? B) Why is Narváez trying to frame a pitch a foot outside?
No distinction to whether the catcher can interfere or not if the batter doesn’t even swing. Just that a catcher cannot interfere at any point of the pitch. So, not really any argument for the #RedSox to make. www.mlb.com/glossary/rul...
Garrett Whitlock walks off and circles the mound after strikeouts like an old man whose back is aching. It’s his version of Chappy’s stare.
This draft was very bonus slot driven. Was clear once they drafted someone who would demand near slot with their first pick that they couldn’t save enough to go over slot on more than 1 or 2 players unless they sacrificed talent at 2nd through 4th rounds. After 3rd tough to get high end HS talent.
I had Patrick Galle (4YR soph) & Jack Winnay (projected in top 10 rds) as potential over slot just bc they had a little more leverage than the other late rounders, but they were never going to be big bonuses. The under slots in 12-20 I simply had bc the team balanced 11-20 over slots in past drafts.
Seems clear at this point that their intention all along was to sign all 11th-20th round picks to the $150k limit without counting towards the pool except for Barrett Morgan. Maybe the final selection of Garrison Sumner was promised anything leftover and that’s why he’s still unsigned?
From reporting by @alexspeier.bsky.social that #RedSox signed all but 5 draftees + confirmed bonuses on @mlbpipeline.com & @soxprospects.com, here’s where the team stands: approximately $2.4m left to sign their picks from the 2nd, 4th, 7th, 8th & 20th rounds. I had the 5 predicted at ~$2.1m combined
It’s not long enough, but at least it’s not the preposterous and insulting 1-day prison sentence the Trump DOJ prosecutors recommended after previos leadership gained the conviction.
The Red Sox have now signed 16 of 21 draft picks. The signees: 1st round: Kyson Witherspoon RHP - U Oklahoma (Area Scout: Fred Petersen) Comp Round A: Marcus Phillips RHP - University of Tennessee (Area Scout: Kirk Fredriksson) 3rd rd: Anthony Eyanson RHP - LSU (Area Scout: Lee Bryant) 1/6
Morgan getting a pretty big bonus for an 11th rounder. Makes sense,now, why Eyanson’s bonus wasn’t quite $2m.
Jim is all over the #RedSox draft signings today. This saves another ~$400k, so they have an extra $209,100 to spend over slot on the rest of their draft.
I’d add that I think they will save more than that on either Marcus Phillips, Mason White and/or Christian Foutch, because I would anticipate they agreed to over slot bonuses on at least two picks in rounds 11-20. Barrett Morgan will get at least $300k & maybe Jack Winnay gets slightly over $150k.
Also slightly lower than I expected but well above slot. #RedSox saved $114.2k on Witherspoon & went over $842.8k on Eyanson. Difference is $728.6k, which is almost the same as the $620,465 they can go over their pool without penalty. They need to shave another $108,200 (likely on Marcus Phillips).
The first and largest of the expected Red Sox draft bonus signings is official. I expected $5m was the floor, but guessed it would be at slot. This savings almost certainly will go to Anthony Eyanson or some of the 11-20 picks. Here are my guesses, purely for my own amusement. #RedSox
