AGRI Biz

In the aftermath of Kevin Youkilis’ back-handed criticism of teammate Jacoby Ellsbury for being away from his ballclub and his teammates for the last five weeks, it appears that Team Ellsbury, led by his agent, Scott Boras, is going on the attack. They have the Red Sox medical staff in their sights. For the first time since leaving the team to rehab his broken ribs at Athletes Performance Institute in Arizona, Ellsbury ...

Eighty-one games…that is the midpoint of the season. Admit it, Red Sox Nation, if you knew what you know right now back on Opening Day you would have been thrilled to be 17 games over .500 and just a half game behind the NY Yankees on Independence Day (by the way, happy 4th of July to everyone!). On April 4, we knew about Daisuke Matsuzaka’s injury…but what we didn’t know about was ...

Caption: Pinch-hitter Mike Lowell heads to first base after drawing a bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning…the Red Sox scored the game-winning run on the play en route to a 2-1 win in Toronto. The Red Sox bullpen is so tattered that the front office started the day by promoting starting pitcher Fabio Castro from Pawtucket. In the wake of ineffective performances by LHP Hideki Okajima and RHP Ramon Ramirez, the ...

Around baseball there are a number of ballplayers who have gotten off to horrendous starts. In some places, such as Boston, the struggles of players like DH David Ortiz (.156, 7-for-45) and RF J D Drew (.158, 9-for-57) will have no implications beyond shuffling someone like Mike Lowell into the lineup on occasion. The prospects who are deemed closest to being major-league-ready aren’t really doing any better in the minor ...

Red Sox southpaw Jon Lester pitched 5.2 shutout innings this evening, but his bullpen allowed two runs in the seventh inning and another in the eighth as the visiting Baltimore Orioles tied the game, thereby leaving the lefty with only a no-decision to show for his efforts. But the Sox scored in the bottom of the frame courtesy of a bases-loaded walk to Adrian Beltre, and they went ...

Caption: Tonight’s hero, CF Darnell McDonald, drove in the last three Red Sox runs—with a two-run home run in the eighth inning and a wall-ball scraper in the ninth—in the Red Sox' 7-6 win. Here, he is mobbed by Jonathan Papelbon, Dustin Pedroia, and the rest of his Red Sox teammates. Tonight’s contest between the Red Sox and Texas Rangers was one for the books on so many levels that ...

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. There isn’t a single aspect of the team game that the Red Sox are doing well right now. The pitching has been poor. The hitting has been horrendous. The baserunning has been embarrassing. The defense has been indefensible. That’s a bad combination on a team that was built on pitching and defense. The starting staff—the same one that was thought to be the ...

Caption: CF Mike Cameron lets Carlos Pena’s line drive get away from him in the first inning of Saturday's second game against Tampa Bay. The error led to four unearned runs in the Red Sox 6-5 loss to the Rays. In the conclusion of last night’s suspended game, now known as Bogar’s Boner, the Red Sox failed to take their third base coach off the hook for his sixth-inning gaffe. ...

Red Sox third base coach Tim Bogar made a dunder-headed decision last night when he sent 1B Kevin Youkilis home on David Ortiz’ sixth-inning double into the right field corner. I don’t care how he tries to rationalize the decision, the fact of the matter is that there was NO reason to gamble in that situation. I am well aware that it was raining and the ball was wet, but the ...

Caption: From this point forward, bone-headed decisions by third base coaches that send baserunners home to be thrown out by a country mile will be referred to as a  “Bogar.” Wendell Kim is now off the hook. Tonight’s game between the Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays was suspended by rain with the score tied, 1-1, after 8 1/2 innings. The game will be completed tomorrow night at 7:10 PM, prior ...