Prospect tidbits: Bard’s slider, Fuentes, Kelly, Tazawa

Daniel Bard credits his recent lights-out-ness to a change of grip and approach on his slider.

Reymond Fuentes is being aggressive and having fun in the Gulf Coast League. He’s been able to show some hitting ability and athleticism down there, but has been caught on 4 of 10 steal attempts. Hot dog.

The same article cites Casey Kelly and Junichi Tazawa as among the best fielding pitchers in the Red Sox farm system. That’s a nice plus. Kelly has been switched out from pitching into a positional role for the rest of the year at Single -A Greenville.

Links: An outside view of Sox prospects, Ellsbury

Jim Callis, a noted scout for Baseball America, talks about the Red Sox pitching depth in the minors. For those of you clamoring for us to deal for Roy Halladay, sometimes it helps to get an outside perspective on what we already have in our farm system. And if that’s not enough pitching prospect Kool-Aid for you, Amalie Benjamin runs down Junichi Tazawa, Nick Hagadone and Casey Kelly here.

June 2009 wrap

The Red Sox had their best month of 2009 in June, going 18-8 and grabbing first place in the AL East. Inter-league play was good to us, as usual, and we finished 11-7 against the senior circuit. You would think that a 49-32 record would be pretty safe, but the Yankees are right there, and the Rays and Jays are still lurking around as well. Let’s take a quick look back and see what was good and bad this month:

Sox sweep Yankees for 10th straight win

Ellsbury steals home

Man, and I thought game 1 was unbelievable. The Red Sox came back from a huge deficit in Game 2, and then broke a 1-1 deadlock in Game 3 to take their 10th straight victory last night, highlighted by Jacoby Ellsbury’s steal of home plate in the 6th (video at MLB.com).

Sox renew five coaches, Alicea walks

Boston will bring back five of its coaches next season, but first base coach Luis Alicea will not be returning. It should be interesting to see who the Sox tap to fill this position. Brad Mills is excellent as a bench coach, and the Red Sox have become much better baserunners since DeMarlo Hale took over as third base coach.

Also, after being waived by the Red Sox, reliever Chris Smith chose to become a free agent today. Hope he catches on somewhere.

2008 ALCS: The morning after game 7

First of all, congratulations to the Tampa Bay Rays on your World Series berth. You definitely outplayed us last night, and deserve the chance to crown this magical season with the championship trophy. You have outperformed everyone’s expectations, including mine, and I am very happy for your organization and fans to taste this kind of success after so many years of just existing.

I’m still proud of our guys, BTW. The Red Sox were pretty beaten up this year, but they played hard and showed some real mettle by pushing this series to seven games. I still gotta think that if Josh Beckett, David Ortiz and Mike Lowell and had been healthy, we’re going to Philadelphia. No excuses, though; we were outpitched and outhit in this ALCS. I won’t say that their defense or baserunning or “clutchness” was better, because they weren’t.

2008 ALCS: Wow. Game 7 tomorrow.

I don’t know how many times I have to see it before I’ll believe it, but our Sox have come back yet again from a 3-1 deficit against a good team. No matter what the situation, Boston has stayed loose and played their way into game 7 of a series where they looked totally lost just two games ago. Heck, before THE bottom of the 7th at Fenway, who thought they could pull it off?

2008 ALDS: Game 4 and Wrap

It was a great game, it was a great series. I had a great view of home plate, and I totally lost my voice, cheering our Sox on to victory. I want to give the Angels credit for their pitching, which was excellent for the most part. A few bad plays in the field, on the basepaths, and at the plate basically cost them this series. I almost feel kind of bad for them, and wonder if they’ll be able to be this good again any time soon. I say “almost” because they’re such sore losers. But on to the game:

2008 ALDS Game 1: Lester shines, 4-1

It was a well-pitched game by John Lackey, but a 2-run home run by Jason Bay would put the Sox ahead to stay. Welcome to the playoffs, Jason. Jon Lester settled down to throw seven strong innings, and the Sox pushed across two more runs against Scot Shields in the 9th to seal the deal. 1 game to none, Red Sox.

Breaking down the Red Sox lineup: J.D. Drew

Number 5 hitter: J.D. Drew
[B-R] [FanGraphs] [Josh Kalk] [ESPN] [HitTracker]

Coming off of a disappointing first year with the Red Sox, Drew was kind of a forgotten man on a World Series Champion team. The lone bright spot was his grand slam in the ALCS (pictured above), which helped to seal the victory over the Indians. 2008 has been a very different story. He was hitting a respectable .282/.383/.409 on May 31st, but when Big Papi went down with a bad wrist at the end of May, Drew stepped into the three hole and has been a monster at the plate (.324/.444/.760/1.204 with 13 HR and 33 RBI in 36 games since June 1), earning an All-Star spot, where he won MVP honors in last night’s 4-3 AL victory. He’s hit well in the 6th and 7th slots as well this season.