AGRI Biz

Today’s edition of “Fish Bytes”, the Miami Herald’s daily blog that covers the Florida Marlins, says that the club had a scout in Fort Myers yesterday watching Mike Lowell throw the leather at first base. As was reported here last night, Lowell made his spring training debut at first base in the game, going 1-for 2 and playing three innings in the contest. Lowell played seven seasons with the Marlins from ...

Prior to today’s game at City of Palms Park, Red Sox DH David Ortiz expressed surprise with respect to the media’s obsession with his slow start this spring (he was just 1-for-19 at the plate prior to today’s ballgame). He said: “I’ve never seen my spring training numbers on the back of a baseball card. I’ve got nothing to prove. The season is the season. On April 2, who (cares) what ...

Depending upon which prospect list you happen to read, RHP Casey Kelly is either the Red Sox No. 1 or No. 2 prospect. But today, he’s just another young man in the Red Sox minor league camp. Yesterday, Kelly’s first stint in big league camp ended as he and 11 other minor leaguers were demoted from major league camp. He made three appearances, of sorts, during his month with the major league ...

The Red Sox top prospect, outfielder Ryan Westmoreland of Portsmouth, RI, has been diagnosed with a rare congenital condition (a cavernous malformation) that carries a risk of neurological damage and is potentially life-threatening. He has taken a medical leave of absence from the club to obtain treatment and undergo surgery. GM Theo Epstein made the announcement yesterday: “The entire Red Sox organization stands in support of Ryan as he courageously deals with this ...

JD Drew is entering the penultimate year of the five-year, $70 million deal he signed with the Red Sox prior to the 2007 season. While many members of Red Sox Nation believe that he hasn’t been worth the money, others (myself included) have been converted—at least to the point where we do not consider it to have been an outright mistake. It is undeniable that he hasn’t put up the ...

The Red Sox were faced with a difficult choice this winter: Sign LF Jason Bay for four years and BIG bucks or bring in someone new to fill one of the outfield slots until Josh Reddick and/or Ryan Kalish might be ready for a full-time gig in 2011 or 2012. The front office had clearly made a decision to move towards a team built on pitching and defense, and while Bay ...

(TEXT OF GARCIAPARRA'S REMARKS BELOW) Nomar Garciaparra was a sports icon in Boston, a city known for its sports icons. For a generation of Red Sox fans, he was the face of the team, until the fateful day in 2004 when he was traded for 1B Doug Mientkiewicz and shortstop Orlando Cabrera in the midst of the franchise's first world championship season in several generations. Who knows how history would have played out ...

Back to the future. Meet Jacoby Ellsbury, the Red Sox's one-time center fielder of the future who is currently their left fielder and—once again—their center fielder-of the future. The Red Sox organization has consistently said they regard Ellsbury as an excellent defensive center fielder, but the defensive metrics indicate that he is actually a pretty bad defensive center fielder, or at least he was in 2009 (when his UZR/150 rating was -18.3 ...

The Red Sox organization made a calculated decision during this past offseason to trade offense in exchange for pitching and defense. The club had the third-highest total of runs scored in 2009, but failed to measure up in the field. The decision was made that the offense is robust enough to sacrifice some run production in exchange for run prevention. So, Jason Bay was dispatched and Mike Lowell will soon follow...in ...

During the off-season, Sox GM Theo Epstein shaped the 2010 club by trading hitting for pitching and defense. Offensive producers OF Jason Bay and 3B Mike Lowell were subtracted from the lineup and replaced with defensive standouts OF Mike Cameron and 3B Adrian Beltre. The money saved by not re-signing Bay was re-directed to acquiring free agent pitcher John Lackey. The theory behind the moves was that the ballclub can win ...